Recently, on July 6, South African researchers made a new prehistoric discovery about dinosaurs, says SciTech Daily. In 2009, they initially unearthed the fossils of the Heterodontosaurus tucki, a dinosaur that lived more than 220 million years ago in the Eastern Cape region of South Africa. But it wasn’t until 2016 they got to finally examine the skeletal remains at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in France — the location of one of the most highly advanced X-ray systems with a high-tech light source. The experts wanted to learn about the reptile’s skeletal structure and shape, and recently, using new technology, they uncovered something else: how it breathed.

Despite decades of studies, previous researchers never could confirm how all dinosaurs breathed. It was maintained that several types breathed the same way birds did. But not the Heterodontosaurus tucki. Its skeleton proved that it used its chest and belly to inhale and exhale.

A researcher from the University of Birmingham says that this revelation will assist them in determining how unmistakably different some dinosaurs were — and how they lived. “We’ve long known that the skeletons of ornithischian dinosaurs were radically different from those of other dinosaurs. This amazing new fossil helps us understand why ornithischians were so distinctive and successful,” said Richard Butler.