Steggy’s little cousin? Fossilized remains of a never-before-seen cat-sized armored dinosaur with a row of spikes running down its back have been unearthed in Argentina
- The remains of a never-before-seen armored dinosaur unearthed in Argentina
- Experts say the Jakapil kaniukura species looks like a primitive relative of Stegosaurus
- Weighed as much as a house cat and probably grew to about 1.5 meters in length
- May represent a lineage of armored dinosaurs previously unknown to science
The fossilized remains of a never-before-seen armored dinosaur the size of a house cat have been unearthed in Argentina.
Paleontologists say that Jakapil Kaniukura looks like a primitive relative of Ankylosaurus or Stegosaurus and may represent a whole range of species previously unknown to science.
It dates from the Cretaceous period and lived 97 to 94 million years ago.
J. kaniukura had a series of protective spines running from its neck to its tail, experts said, and likely grew to about 1.5 meters in length.
It was a herbivore – with leaf-shaped teeth similar to those of Stegosaurus – that probably walked erect and had a short beak that could deliver a powerful bite.
New Discovery: The fossilized remains of a never-before-seen armored dinosaur the size of a house cat have been unearthed in Argentina. A computer simulation brought the new species Jakapil kaniukura to life (picture)
Paleontologists say that Jakapil Kaniukura looks like a primitive relative of Ankylosaurus or Stegosaurus and may represent a whole range of species previously unknown to science
The species would likely have been able to eat tough, woody vegetation, according to paleontologists at the Félix de Azara Natural History Foundation in Argentina.
The dinosaur’s partial skeleton was discovered in the Río Negro province of northern Patagonia.
He joins Stegosaurus, Ankylosaurus, and other armored dinosaurs in a group called Thyreophora.
Most thyrophores are known from the northern hemisphere.
The fossils of the earliest members of this group are also more commonly from the Jurassic period, around 201 million years ago to 163 million years ago.
The discovery of J. kaniukura “shows that early thyrophorans had a much broader geographic distribution than previously thought,” paleontologists Facundo J. Riguetti, Sebastián Apesteguía and Xabier Pereda-Suberbiola write in the new publication.
The dinosaur’s partial skeleton was discovered in the Río Negro province of northern Patagonia
It dates from the Cretaceous period and lived 97 to 94 million years ago
The fossils of the earliest members of this group are also more commonly from the Jurassic period, around 201 million years ago to 163 million years ago.
The dinosaur was a herbivore – with leaf-shaped teeth similar to those of Stegosaurus – it likely walked erect and had a short beak that could deliver a powerful bite
He joins Stegosaurus, Ankylosaurus, and other armored dinosaurs in a group called Thyreophora
It’s also surprising that this ancient lineage of thyrophorans survived into the Late Cretaceous in South America, they added.
In the Northern Hemisphere, these older species of thyrophorans appear to have largely become extinct by the Middle Jurassic.
But on the southern supercontinent Gondwana, they apparently survived well into the Cretaceous period.
Some later thyrophorans survived longer – including Ankylosaurus, which died out with the other non-avian dinosaurs 66 million years ago.
A computer simulation by Gabriel Díaz Yantén, a Chilean paleoartist and paleontology student at Río Negro National University, has brought the new species to life.
It shows what it might have looked like when it walked the earth.
The discovery was published in a journal called Scientific Reports.
KILLING THE DINOSAURS: HOW A CITY-SIZED ASTEROID KILLED 75 PERCENT OF ALL ANIMAL AND PLANT SPECIES
Around 66 million years ago, non-avian dinosaurs became extinct, wiping out more than half of the world’s species.
This mass extinction paved the way for the rise of mammals and the appearance of humans.
The asteroid Chicxulub is often cited as a possible cause of the Cretaceous and Paleogene extinction events.
The asteroid crashed into a shallow sea in what is now the Gulf of Mexico.
The collision released a huge cloud of dust and soot that triggered global climate change and wiped out 75 percent of all animal and plant species.
Researchers claim that the soot needed for such a global catastrophe could only have been produced by direct impact on rocks in shallow waters around Mexico, which are particularly rich in hydrocarbons.
Experts believe a massive tsunami punctured the Gulf Coast within 10 hours of impact.
Around 66 million years ago, non-avian dinosaurs became extinct, wiping out more than half of the world’s species. The Chicxulub asteroid is often cited as a possible cause of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction events (stock image)
This caused earthquakes and landslides in areas as far north as Argentina.
Investigating the event, researchers found small pieces of rock and other debris shot into the air as the asteroid crashed.
These small particles, called globules, covered the planet in a thick layer of soot.
Experts explain that the loss of sunlight led to a complete collapse of the aquatic system.
Because the phytoplankton base of almost all aquatic food chains would have been eliminated.
The more than 180 million years of evolution that brought the world to the Cretaceous is believed to have been destroyed in less than the lifetime of a Tyrannosaurus rex, which is around 20 to 30 years.