Among the discoveries are teeth and post-cranial bone parts of a dinosaur belonging to the theropod family.
Scientists have found traces of four types of dinosaursincluding a “megaraptor”, in an inhospitable region of Chilean Patagonia which, about a decade ago, became a major fossil site, researchers reported this week.
After collecting fossils on Cerro Guido, in the Las Chinas valley, near the border with Argentina (about 2,800 km south of Santiago), in 2021, scientists analyzed the remains in the laboratory and were able to verify that they belonged to dinosaurs that had not been identified at the site before.
“It is always super exciting, in scientific terms, to find something that has never been discovered or described before in the Las Chinas valley, where we are starting to get used to the new fossil discoveries,” Marcelo Leppe, director of the Antártico Institute explained to AFP Chilean (Inach), part of the team that made the discovery.
According to the research, the discoveries represent the southernmost fossil record of this type of dinosaur outside of Antarctica.
In December 2021, Chilean paleontologists presented the remains of a Stegouros elengassen, an enigmatic dinosaur whose club-shaped tail intrigued scientists, found in this same area of Chilean Patagonia.
The new discovery was made by Inach, in collaboration with researchers from the University of Chile and the University of Texas (United States), who managed to identify the remains of four types of dinosaurs, including teeth and post- skulls of a megaraptor belonging to the theropod family.
These carnivorous dinosaurs had raptor-like claws, small teeth for tearing, and large upper extremities, which, according to research, would place them at the top of the food chain in this region they inhabited between 66 and 75 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous Period. . .
“One of the characteristics that has allowed us to identify with great confidence that they belong to the megaraptor branch is, first of all, that the teeth are very curved towards the back,” stressed Jared Amudeo, researcher at the Paleontological Network of the University of Chile, in a statement issued by the institution.
Two specimens of the subfamily Unenlagiinae, close relatives of velociraptors, have also been identified that have a “hazy evolutionary character, which would indicate that they are a new species of unenlagia, or perhaps a representative of another clade (branch) different,” Amudeo said.
Archaeologists also found fossils of two bird lines: an Enantiornithe, the most diverse and abundant bird group of the Mesozoic era; and Ornithurinae, a group directly related to today’s birds.
The scientists’ work was collected in a study published in December in the journal Journal of South American Earth Sciences. /AFP
+The best content in your email for free. Choose your favorite Terra newsletter. Click here!
Source: Terra
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
