Mystery of new dinosaur’s skull

A CURIOUS piece of bone spotted by chance by a professor has led to the discovery of a new dinosaur.

The new find a Suuwassea emilieae is a sauropod, a type of plant-eating dinosaur with long necks and tails and elephant-like legs.

The besides the long neck and whip-like tail, the new find had a mysterious extra hole in its skull.

At 50 feet long, it is a smaller cousin of the better-known Diplodocus and Apatosaurus.

The Jurassic-age find was first spotted by William Donawick, emeritus professor of surgery at the University of Pennsylvania while on a horseback ride in southern Montana.

"It's most striking is this second hole in its skull, a feature we have never seen before in a North American dinosaur," said Peter Dodson, senior author of the research study and anatomy professor at Pennsylvania.