Scientists recently discovered the first non-avian theropod dinosaur with a streamlined body similar to that of penguins, auks and other modern diving birds.
A dinosaur with an undulating noodle neck and a streamlined body like those of modern diving birds may have plunged through the depths of a Cretaceous sea about 71 million to 72 million years ago, in what is now Mongolia. This predator belonged to a different lineage of theropods — bipedal and mostly meat-eating dinosaurs — than the one that produced modern birds, but its body shape and limbs hint that it swam and dove as a penguin does, scientists recently discovered.
However, there isn't enough fossil evidence from Halszkaraptor and its closest relatives to suggest what their body shapes may have looked like. "The long nares [nostrils] and posterior rib orientation are only known in Natovenator because these parts are not well preserved in Halszkaraptor," said study co-author Yuong-Nam Lee , a professor of vertebrate paleontology in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Seoul National University in South Korea.
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