Jakapil kaniukura: New dinosaur discovered in Argentina
Scientists have discovered a new species of dinosaur that lived approximately 86 million years ago in Patagonia.
The species – an Inawentu oslatus – was found in the area known as La Invernada, located in the province of Neuquen, Argentina.
Scientists from the Patagonian Institute of Geology and Paleontology (IPGP) participated in the research, as well as other professionals from universities and museums.
Leonardo Filippi, a Conicet researcher and an author for Cretaceous Research magazine, said of the discovery: “[It’s] an incredible find because not only was the skull there, but it was articulated at the neck.”
Filippi said the skeletal remains of the dinosaur species was found almost complete, with only the limbs missing.
Researchers have said these discoveries help to better understand prehistoric ecosystems and the ecological roles of different species.
The fossil were initially discovered in 2014 when they found a bone protruding from the ground, but they were only able to continue the work a year later.
Filippi said that when the material was prepared, they realized “this skull had particular characteristics, mainly in its jaw”.
The same characteristics were recorded in other titanosaurs, but mainly in a much older group of sauropods.
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They were linked through their eating habits, since they were animals that ate vegetation at a ground level, instead of the tops of trees.
Filippi said: “In the case of this animal, the skull is completely elongated and there have been many modifications to the bones that have allowed this elongation.
“And another thing, which is the most distinctive, is its wide, quadrangular jaw and its wide, spatulate snout.”
The expert said that anatomical features convergent with the Rebbachisauridae – extinct during the Turonian era – are observed in this new species.
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Ariel Mendez, a Conicet researcher at the IPGP in Puerto Madryn, said: “The [Rebbachisauridae] had the function of feeding on low vegetation a couple of millions years before, but they had disappeared and we have no evidence of who, in this area, occupied that place.
“Today we know that there was this type of titanosaur, with these characteristics that occupied that ecological role, and that they shared space and time with other types of titanosaur sauropods, which had other characteristics and that, possibly, were in charge of feeding on the tallest vegetation.”
Filippi added: “Geological studies tell us that it was an area of rivers and meanders and that allows us to slowly put this whole puzzle together.
“In short, what we want to know is how those ecosystems of the past were formed, who the actors were and what role each one played.”
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