A staff of paleontologists from Argentina’s National Scientific and Technical Research Council (Conicet) has uncovered fossils of a carnivorous dinosaur within the La Colina geological formation, situated north of Chubut in central Patagonia, Argentina. This groundbreaking discovery, led by over 70 researchers from the Egidio Feruglio Paleontological Museum, is a part of the mission “The End of the Age of Dinosaurs in Patagonia”, supported by the National Geographic Society. The analysis focuses on the tip of the dinosaur period within the southern hemisphere over the past 15 million years of the Cretaceous interval.
The newly found dinosaur, named Koleken inakayali by the researchers, belongs to the abelisaurid household and is simply the second of its sort discovered within the La Colonia Formation, courting again 69 million years. Unlike the well-known and horned Carnotaurus sastrei, Koleken inakayali is small in measurement and lacks horns on its cranium, setting it other than different abelisaurids.
The fossil consists of a number of cranium bones, a virtually full set of backbones, an entire hip, a number of tail bones, and nearly full legs, offering useful perception into the construction of this historic carnivorous dinosaur. Research led by Argentine paleontologist Diego Pol and his staff reveals speedy charges of cranium evolution within the Early Cretaceous, enhancing our understanding of abelisaurids and related dinosaurs throughout that point.
The significance of this discovery lies in advancing scientific data in regards to the age of dinosaurs, suggesting that carnivorous dinosaurs within the abelisaurid household had been extra various than beforehand believed. The findings additionally point out that numerous kinds of carnivores coexisted in the identical ecosystem earlier than the dinosaurs’ extinction. This groundbreaking analysis sheds new gentle on the evolution of dinosaurs in Patagonia and their range earlier than the mass extinction occasion.