• Paleontologists have discovered a newly identified species of dinosaur called Ubijara jubatus, which is believed to have lived around 110 million years ago in what is now the northeastern part of Brazil.
• The chicken-sized dinosaur has "unusual" features, including a long mane of hair down its back and stiff ribbon-like structures projecting from its shoulders.
• The team at the State Museum of Natural History in Karlsruhe, Germany, who found the fossil, suspect that the ribbon-like structures were used either to attract potential mates or to intimidate foes.
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Paleontologists have been astonished at discovering a new dinosaur species with a long mane of hair down its back and stiff ribbon-like structures projecting from its shoulders.

The dinosaur, named Ubijara jubatus, is believed to have lived around 110 million years ago in northeastern Brazil.

Its fossils were discovered by a team at the State Museum of Natural History in Karlsruhe, Germany, examining slabs of limestone collected from Brazil. Their findings were published this week in the scientific journal Cretaceous Research.

The researchers found that the dinosaur had two feet and measured at about 50 cm (19 inches) in length, which is roughly the size of a chicken. While it is impossible to know from the fossil, the Ubirajara may have also been colorful, researchers say.

But it is its other features that made it stand out.

According to the study, the dinosaur also possessed two ribbon-like structures that protruded from each shoulder. The 15-centimeter long projections were most likely made from keratin, the same substance that makes up hair and fingernails.

"The ribbons that seem to come from the shoulders are like nothing I have seen in nature before," said David Martill, a paleobiology professor at the University of Portsmouth in England who helped publish the study, according to Reuters.

The researchers suspect the ribbon-like structures were possibly used to attract potential mates or to intimidate foes.

The remains also showed a well-preserved thick mane of fur running down the dinosaur's back, measuring 11 centimeters (4 inches) in length.

Although it might have looked like hair, the researchers believe it could have been a rudimentary form of feathers, called protofeathers.

"Likely from a distance, it looked hairy rather than feathery," Martill said, according to Reuters. "Likely, it had hair-like protofeathers over much of its body but they are only preserved along its neck, back and arms. The ones on its back are very long and give it a sort of mane that is unique for dinosaurs."

Birds evolved from small feathered dinosaurs called theropods who lived in the Jurassic period (about 165-150 million years ago)

"There are plenty of other strange dinosaurs, but this one is unlike any of them," Martill added. 

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