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Now A Dinosaur With The Biggest Nose

By Kamal Nayan | Update Date: Sep 23, 2014 10:44 AM EDT

Paleontologists have discovered the dinosaur with the biggest nose. 

The newly discovered dino is a hadrosaur - group including 'duck-billed' dinosaurs. Researchers mentioned that many of these plant-eating creatures had got huge bony crests atop their heads. But this was an exception which had a huge nose instead. 

Researchers are calling it Rihnorex cundrupus which means "king nose". The creature sported a large sniffer with the largest nasal opening relative to its size of any duck-billed dinosaur. 

"The purpose of such a big nose is still a mystery," Terry Gates, a joint postdoctoral researcher with NC State and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, said in a statement. "If this dinosaur is anything like its relatives then it likely did not have a super sense of smell; but maybe the nose was used as a means of attracting mates, recognizing members of its species, or even as a large attachment for a plant-smashing beak."

Experts added that it was highly unlikely that the long nose was only for smelling. According to some experts, the long nose was for attracting the females as well.

"We are already sniffing out answers to these questions," Gates added.

The details about the discovery were published in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 

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