Stays of recent species of duck-billed dinosaur present in Chile

Stays of a species of herbivorous dinosaur beforehand unknown within the southern hemisphere have been found in Chile, difficult long-held beliefs concerning the vary of duck-billed dinosaurs, scientists mentioned Friday.

Measuring as much as 4 meters (13 ft) in size and weighing a ton, Gonkoken nanoi lived 72 million years in the past within the excessive south of what’s now Chilean Patagonia.

“These had been slender-looking dinosaurs, which might simply undertake a bipedal and quadrupedal posture to achieve the vegetation at top and at floor degree,” mentioned Alexander Vargas, director of the paleontological community of the College of Chile and one of many authors of the examine revealed by the journal Science Advances and offered in Santiago.

The invention demonstrated that Chilean Patagonia served as a refuge for very historical species of hadrosaurs, a sort of duck-billed dinosaur frequent in North America, Asia and Europe in the course of the Cretaceous interval, from 145 to 66 million years in the past.

Their presence within the distant southern lands stunned scientists, who must “perceive how their ancestors obtained there,” Vargas mentioned.

Gonkoken nanoi, the fifth species of dinosaur found in Chile, was really present in 2013, kicking off a decade-long investigation.

The identify Gonkoken comes from the Tehuelche language, the primary inhabitants of the area, and means “just like a wild duck or a swan.”

© 2023 AFP