Fossilized remains of a never-before-seen armored dinosaur the size of a CAT with a row of protective spines running from its neck to its tail have been unearthed in Argentina
- The remains of a never-before-seen armored dinosaur unearthed in Argentina
- Experts say the species Jakapil kaniukura looks like a primitive relative of Stegosaurus
- Weighed as much as a house cat and probably grew to about 1.5 meters long
- 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 domestic 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 lineage of species previously unknown to science.
It dates back to the Cretaceous Period and lived between 97 million and 94 million years ago.
J. kaniukura had a row of protective spines that ran from its neck to its tail, experts said, and it probably grew to about 1.5 meters in length.
It was a herbivore – with leaf-shaped teeth similar to those of Stegosaurus – probably walked upright and had a short bill that could deliver a strong bite.
New discovery: The fossilized remains of a never-before-seen armored dinosaur the size of a domestic cat have been unearthed in Argentina. A computer simulation has brought the new species Jakapil kaniukura to life (photo)
Paleontologists say that Jakapil kaniukura looks like a primitive relative of Ankylosaurus or Stegosaurus and may represent a whole lineage of species previously unknown to science
Paleontologists at the Félix de Azara Natural History Foundation in Argentina said the species would likely have been able to eat tough, woody vegetation.
The dinosaur’s partial skeleton was discovered in the Río Negro province of northern Patagonia.
It joins Stegosaurus, Ankylosaurus, and other armor-backed dinosaurs in a group called Thyreophora.
Most thyreophorans are known from the Northern Hemisphere.
The fossils of the earliest members of this group also more commonly date to the Jurassic period, about 201 million years ago to 163 million years ago.
The discovery of J. kaniukura “shows that early thyreophorans had a much wider geographic distribution than previously thought,” paleontologists Facundo J. Riguetti, Sebastián Apesteguía and Xabier Pereda-Suberbiola wrote in the new paper.
The partial skeleton of the dinosaur was discovered in the province of Río Negro in northern Patagonia
It dates back to the Cretaceous Period and lived between 97 million and 94 million years ago
The fossils of the earliest members of this group also more commonly date to the Jurassic period, about 201 million years ago to 163 million years ago.
The dinosaur was a herbivore — with leaf-shaped teeth similar to those of Stegosaurus — likely walked upright and had a short bill that could deliver a strong bite
It joins Stegosaurus, Ankylosaurus and other armor-backed dinosaurs in a group called Thyreophora
It was also surprising that this ancient lineage of thyreophorans survived all the way into the Late Cretaceous in South America, she added.
In the Northern Hemisphere, these older species of thyreophorans appear to be mostly extinct by the Middle Jurassic.
But on the southern supercontinent Gondwana, they apparently survived well into the Cretaceous Period.
Some later thyreophorans survived longer — including Ankylosaurus, which went extinct 66 million years ago with the rest of the non-avian dinosaurs.
A computer simulation by Gabriel Díaz Yantén, a Chilean paleo artist and paleontology student at Río Negro National University, has brought the new species to life.
It shows what it looked like when it walked the Earth.
The discovery was revealed in a journal called Scientific Reports.
REDUCE DINOSAURS: HOW A CITY SIZE ASTEROID DESTROYS 75 PERCENT OF ALL ANIMAL AND PLANT SPECIES
About 66 million years ago, non-avian dinosaurs were wiped out and more than half of the world’s species were wiped out.
This mass extinction paved the way for the rise of mammals and the appearance of humans.
The Chicxulub asteroid is often cited as a possible cause of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction.
The asteroid slammed into a shallow sea in what is now the Gulf of Mexico.
The collision released a huge cloud of dust and soot that caused global climate change and wiped out 75 percent of all animal and plant species.
Researchers argue that the soot needed for such a global catastrophe could only come from a direct impact on rocks in shallow water around Mexico, which are particularly rich in hydrocarbons.
Within 10 hours of the impact, a massive tsunami ripped through the Gulf Coast, experts believe.
About 66 million years ago, non-avian dinosaurs were wiped out and more than half of the world’s species were wiped out. The Chicxulub asteroid is often cited as a possible cause of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction (stock image)
This caused earthquakes and landslides in areas as far as Argentina.
While investigating the event, researchers found small particles of rock and other debris that were shot into the sky when the asteroid crashed.
These tiny particles, called spherules, covered the planet with a thick layer of soot.
Experts explain that the loss of light from the sun caused a complete collapse of the water system.
This is because the phytoplankton base of almost all aquatic food chains would have been eliminated.
It is believed that the more than 180 million years of evolution that brought the world to the Cretaceous Period were destroyed in less than the lifespan of a Tyrannosaurus rex, which is about 20 to 30 years.
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