Is Argentina becoming Latin America’s own ‘Jurassic Park’?
With a slew of fossil discoveries in the past few years, the Southern Cone nation does have a solid argument.
Most recently, scientists working in the fertile plains of the Argentina’s Neuquén province that borders Chile discovered the fossil remains of the Comahuesaurus windhauseni, a large herbivore known for its long neck that is believed to have been 50 feet tall.
Despite the fact that scientists only found a few scattered bones, they were able to get an accurate description of what the prehistoric beast looked like.
“We found cervical bones, vertebrae in his back and his tail, which was quite extensive as well as parts of their legs,” said José Luis Carballido, one of the scientists working on the dig last summer, told the Argentinean newspaper El Dia. “We were able to reach a good idea of the general anatomy of the animal and compare it to all the records of sauropods like there is in the world."
Sauropod is another term used for a large, plant-eating dinosaur. At least 100 different types of sauropods have been discovered across the world, many in Argentina, including the gigantic "Argentinosaurus" which grew to be about 98 feet long.
In the last decade, Argentina has seen a number of high profile dino discoveries, including the flesh-eating Bicentenaria argentina (Argentine Bicentenary).
Adult members of this species, presumably hunters based on the shape of their teeth and because they had claws, likely measured up to about 10 feet in length and were agile and slim. Researchers believe this dinosaur's body was likely covered in feathers.
"We can presume that they would have hunted smaller dinosaurs, herbivores or baby dinosaurs," Fernando Novas, an independent researcher for Argentina’s National Council on Scientific and Technical Research, told Efe.
The rocks containing this dinosaur's fossil remains date back 90 million years to the Late Cretaceous period – between 65 to 98 million years ago.
Earlier this year, what could be the earliest known relative of Tyrannosaurs Rex and all meat-eating dinosaurs, was discovered in Argentina.
The dog-sized mini-predator would've made its future relatives proud as it fed on small dinosaurs and the young of other reptiles, and is now shaking up what scientists had previously learned about the evolution of those extinct giants.