Gigantic dinosaur with ‘claws like hedge trimmers’ found with croc leg still in its jaws in Argentina
There is a new dinosaur King of South America. This first newly discovered predator, named Joaquinraptor Casalimeasured about 23 feet (7 meters) long and was a fast -moving hunter with powerful “claws like hedges cutters”.
And the remains of the massive beast were found with the bone of the leg of an old crocodile parent enclosed in his jaws.
Main author Lucio IbiricuPaleontologist at the Institute of Geology and Paleontology of the Concet of Concet in Chubut, Argentina, and his colleagues have found the well -preserved fossil – including a large part of the skull, coasts, vertebrae and front and posterior limbo – of the central Patagona Centala, the silver.
J. Casali was a type of theropod dinosaur known as the megaraptor, or “grand thief”, who lived in the last stages of the Cretaceous Between 70 million and 66 million years old, before Chicxulub asteroid slammed in the Yucatán peninsula, causing the Cretaceous – Paleogenic extinction event This raised the end of dinosaurs (except for certain birds).
The megaraptors, who lived in South America, Asia and Australia, were carnivores with elongated skulls, powerful arms and large claws.
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“”Joquinaptor provides a clearer understanding of how this enigmatic group of predatory dinosaurs has experienced and evolved, ” Darla ZelenitskyA paleontologist at the University of Calgary in Canada who was not involved in work, told Live Science. “Mixture of the latest surviving megaraptoans, this fossil gives an overview of the final phase of their scalable history in South America before mass extinction.”
The discovery reveals that the megaraptorans (any dinosaur belonging to the Megaraptora clade, which includes the megaraptors) remained relatively large until the end of the Cretaceous, probably filling the niche of predator Apex in the region of southern Patagonia at that time, she said.
The land where Joquinaptor Rimed was very different from the climate of fresh and dry Patagonian of today. The sediments of the same layer as the fossil discovery reveal that it was probably a hot and humid flood plain near the sea.
Ibirici told Live Science that the first fossil clues were discovered in 2019, but it took three seasons of land to find it completely. When they finally searched the fossil, the researchers discovered the bone of a crocodile parent JoquinaptorThe jaws are, referring to his diet and that he was probably the first predator in the region.
The researchers then analyzed the histology, or microstructure, of a tibia and a coastal bone to determine the age of the sample at his death.
“We know on the basis of histology whether it was a sexually mature individual, but he could have grown a little more. We know that when he died, he was at least 19,” said Ibiricu.
Bone measures have also led researchers to estimate that Joquinaptor would have known about 23 feet long and weigh more than 2,200 pounds (1,000 kilograms). The discovery is described in an article published Tuesday, September 23 in the journal Nature communications.
“It is a fantastic discovery and one of the new discoveries of the most intriguing dinosaurs of recent memory” Steve BrusattePaleontologist at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, which was not involved in the study, told Live Science. “These are dinosaurs like these who have passed the southern food chain at the same time as Tyrannosaurus rex reigned supreme in North America. “”
Brusatte said the two predators were radically different, however. “”Joquinaptor was slim and slender and fast, and he had ridiculously oversized arms and claws, like cutting hedges. His arms and hands are T. Rex Look at CHÉTIF by comparison, Arnold Schwarzenegger against Danny Devito, at least in the weapon category, “he said.
These differences would have noted that the two Apex predators would have driven out very distinctly, said Zelenitsky. “At more than four times the weight of Joquinaptor,, T. Rex was a brute – massive predator, with a bone grinding bite. But Joquinaptor was fast, slim and attacked with surgical precision. He allegedly delivered strike bites and had long arms with large claws to grasp, reduce and manipulate prey, “she said.
