Tag: Argentina
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PNAS: Can paleontologists pinpoint the dawn of the dinosaurs?
PNAS has an interesting news feature about the origin of the dinosaurs. When and where did they first appear? Evidence points to an amimal known as Lewisuchus admixtus that lived in what is now Argentina about 236 million years ago. There’s a small, but fierce, jawbone in Argentina’s national natural science museum in Buenos Aires.…
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New Pterosaur Species Unearthed in Argentina is Earliest of Its Kind
SciNews has a story about an early pterosaur from Argentina. Melkamter pateko lived between 184 and 174 million years ago in what is now Patagonia in Argentina. It is the earliest known member of Monofenestrata, a large clade of pterosaurs consisting of the Darwinoptera, Anurognathidae and Pterodactyloidea. The discovery of Melkamter pateko is reported in a paper in the…
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Fossil Reveals Oldest Known Tadpole That Grew to the Size of a Hot Dog
The New York Times Trilobite column has a story about what may be the largest tadpole species ever discovered. Notobatrachus, an ancient relative of modern frogs, lived around 161 million years ago in present-day Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. In 2020, a team of paleontologists from Argentina and China uncovered hundreds of adult fossils of Notobatrachus,…
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Paleontologists Discover New Bird-Like Dinosaur in Argentina
Life reconstruction of Diuqin lechiguanae. Image credit: Porfiri et al., doi: 10.1186/s12862-024-02247-w. SciNews has a story about the discovery of a bird-like dinosaur in Argentina. Its name is Diuqin lechiguanae and it lived about between 86 and 84 million years ago. It belongs to the subfamily Unenlagiine, which is a family of theropods in Dromaeosauridae. The animal…
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Enormous dinosaur dubbed Shiva ‘The Destroyer’ is one of the biggest ever discovered
LiveScience has a story about a new dinosaur discovery. A huge titanosaur, Bustingorrytitan shiva, one of the largest land animals ever, has been found in Argentina. B. shiva had an estimated weight of 74 tons. It lived about 90 million years ago during the middle Cretaceous Period. The animal was described in a paper in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. The B. shiva discovery in…
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Ancient Foxes Lived and Died Alongside Humans
The New York Times Trilobites column has a story about domesticated foxes. A paper in the Royal Society Open Science describes evidence that foxes lived among people of early South American communities. “It appears to have been intentionally buried within this human cemetery,” said Ophélie Lebrasseur, a zooarchaeologist at the University of Oxford and an…
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Meet Bustingorrytitan shiva, New Gigantic Titanosaur from Argentina
SciNews has a story about the discovery of yet another titanosaur from Argentina. This one is called Bustingorrytitan shiva and it lived about 95 million years ago in what is now Patagonia during the Late Cretaceous Period. This particular discovery consists of a fairly complete specimen and three other partial skeletons. Read more about it…
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Ancient platypus-like fossil could rewrite the history of egg-laying mammals
LiveScience has a story about an platypus-like animal from… South America. Patagorhynchus pascuali lived about 70 million years ago in what is now Argentina. It’s was a monotreme, which is an egg laying mammal like Australia’s platypus. This fossil represents the oldest evidence of egg laying mammals ever found in South America. This fossil was…
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Big head, small arms: A newly discovered gigantic dinosaur evolved in a similar manner to Tyrannosaurus rex
The Conversation has a story about the evolution of meat-eating dinosaurs. Meraxes gigas is a recently named theropod dinosaur from Argentina. It was found near Villa El Chocon in the Huincul Formation and lived about 95 million years ago. Meraxes is a large theropod, the group of bipedal, often meat-eating, dinosaurs which also includes birds, and…
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New armless abelisaur dinosaur species discovered in Argentina
Phys.org has a story about an armless therapod dinosaur. Many of the large predatory dinosaurs had reduced arms and hands with Tyrannosaurs and South American Giganotosaurus and Carnotaurus as prime examples. Now, a new species of abelisaur, Guemesia ochoai, has taken it a step farther. G. ochoai lived about 70 million years ago in what…
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Carnotaurus Had Scaly Skin with No Feathers, Paleontologists Say
SciNews has an article about a reexamined dinosaur discovery in Argentina. Carnotaurus sastrei, a name that means “meat eating bull”, is a dinosaur that lived in what is now Argentina during the late Cretaceous period about 70 to 72 million years ago. A specimen, which was discovered in 1984 by famed Argentine paleontologist Jose Bonaparte,…
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Smithsonian: Why This ‘Unicorn Baby Dinosaur’ Is the ‘Cutest,’ ‘Weirdest’ Ever
Smithsonian Magazine has a piece about the “cutest”, “weirdest” baby dinosaur ever. The embryo dinosaur is thought to be a Tapuiasaurus, a sauropod that grew to about 43 feet long. The egg was smuggled illegally out of Argentina about 20 years ago. Research published in the journal Current Biology has revealed some insights into the…
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New Bird-Like Dinosaur Discovered: Overoraptor chimentoi
SciNews has a story about a new bird-like dinosaur. Discovered in Argentina, Overoraptor chimentoi lived about 90 million years ago, during the Cretaceous Period, in what is now Patagonia. All the details on this dinosaur can be read in a paper published in the journal Nature. The fossilized remains of Overoraptor chimentoi were recovered from the beds…
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The Rise of Meat-Eating Dinosaurs Is More Complicated Than We Thought
Smithsonian Magazine has an interesting piece about carnivorous dinosaurs. The evolution of large meat eating dinosaurs is a long and complicated story. Dinosaurs evolved around 235 million years ago. At that time, they were lanky and small. One of the largest early meat eaters was Herrerasaursus. It was about 16 feet long and lived in…
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Cretaceous Legged Snake Fossils Shed New Light on Evolution of Modern Snake Body Plan
Sci-News has a story about the evolution of snakes. A 3-D preserved snake fossil from about 100 million years ago shows compelling clues as to the evolution of snake. This animal, called Najash rionegrina, still had legs and jugal (cheek) bones. The specimens were found in northern Patagonia, Argentina. Details can be found in a…
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New sauropod dinosaur species unearthed in Argentina – Lavocatisaurus agrioensis
The Guardian has a story about a new sauropod dinosaur discovered in Argentina. It lived about 110 million years ago and was found by a team of Spanish and Argentinian paleontologists. Lavocatisaurus agrioensis was described in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. A team of Spanish and Argentinian paleontologists have discovered the remains of dinosaurs that…
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Discovery of ‘First Giant’ Dinosaur Is a Huge Evolutionary Finding
Livescience has a story about the discovery of the “First Giant” dinosaur in Argentina. This, the earliest sauropodomorph, lived about 215 million years ago in the Triassic period. Ingentia prima, which means “first giant in Latin – weighted about 11 tons and was 32 feed long. All the details were published in a paper in…
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Meet Maximo the Titanosaur!
The Field Museum has revealed the name of the new titanosaur that is being installed in Stanley Field Hall in the next few weeks. His scientific name is Patagotitan mayorum. He lived about 100 million years ago in what is now Patagonia, Argentina. The spanish word maximo translates to “maximum” or “most” in English. This…
