Ed. Print AGO 145 MILLION YEARS
The species is unique in the world and lived with titanosaurs, crocodiles and other theropods 145 million years ago. – Agencies Agency
The “Chilesaurus diegosuarezi” 145 million years and the first Jurassic period known in Chile, is a new type of dinosaur “most bizarre discovered so far” and constitutes a true “evolutionary puzzle,” Fernando Novas one of its discoverers said.
The existence of this dinosaur is published in an article in the journal Nature, signed, among others, Novas, researcher at the National Council of Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET), Buenos Aires, who studied the bones of this specimen.
Discovered in 2004
The “Chilesaurus diegosuarezi” was discovered in 2004 in the vicinity of Lake General Carrera, in Chile’s Aysen region (southern Patagonia Chile), the seven year old Diego Suarez honor -in which bears the name-son of Chilean geologists.
This is a new theropod dinosaur inside, but does not belong to either group known so far, but “is the first representative of a lineage hitherto unknown to science,” said Novas.
Among the theropods there canívoros famous as the “Velociraptor” and “Tyrannosaurus” but , unlike these, “Chilesaurus” was herbivorous, as revealed by his horny beak and teeth shaped spatula.
Thus, the discovery of this issue reinforces theories that diversification diet to vegetarianism was more common than previously thought between basal theropods, the article published in Nature.
Features
The size a small horse, his arms were robust, but his hands had only two very short fingers ending in slightly curved claws, which shows that not used to hunt animals.
The Chilesaurus could be described as Novas, “like a puma with guanaco head and hands withered like an ostrich.”
Its anatomy cause further confusion among paleontologists since his hip reminiscent of the dinosaurs, strictly herbivores ornitisquios and -anchos four fingers and feet are similar to those of more primitive dinosaurs.
That strange combination of anatomical features, Novas said is a “true evolutionary puzzle” and said no There is the possibility that these bones are a mixture of different types of dinosaurs that were in the same place.
Diego Suarez found, while hitting rocks with a hammer in search of fossils, a vertebra of a few centimeters and a rib, but later excavations unearthed more than a dozen specimens “very complete and articulated,” which leave no doubt that it was a dinosaur that combined all that variety of features.
Following the finding Suarez and once contacted the Argentine paleontologists Leonardo Salgado and Fernando Novas, it was decided to conduct a series of joint excavations, the first in 2010 between Chilean and Argentine experts in the area, which resulted in the collection of numerous skeletons.
Three lineages
The fossils were transferred to the Argentine Museum of Science Natural, in Buenos Aires, and “in the course of the following months were watching poking each of the bones that were part of a skeleton beautifully preserved,” recalled Fernando Novas, researcher at the National Council of Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) . of Buenos Aires
Even at that stage of technical preparation they realized that they were “facing a very strange dinosaur combining relevant anatomical features the three main lineages that dinosaurs are divided: theropods ( mainly carnivores), ornithischians (strictly herbivores) and Sauropodomorphs (also herbivores).
Important
Novas highlighted the importance of this dinosaur for the country in which it was found, it is the first of Newspaper Jurassic known so far in Chile, where there are very few documented- dinosaurs, one of the “best documented” theropod from South America and the first herbivorous theropod the southern hemisphere.
Although the “Chilesaurus” was a “very strange” animal, the large number of remains found suggests that this was one of the most common inhabitants in southern Patagonia makes 145 million years and reveals the story of the dinosaurs was “much more complex than we imagined,” said the expert.
In search of his ancestors
Researchers have not, so far, records that “Chilesaurus” had a close relative or a descendent, therefore, the aim of Novas and his team is now revealing what were their ancestors.
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