Researchers at the Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences (MACN) presented on Tuesday a new type of carnivorous dinosaur discovered in the southern province of Black River.
The species was named Bicentennial Argentina and provide key data for understanding the evolution of the ancestors of birds.
“It is very likely to be the first representative found a new lineage within the family of coelurosaurs, those dinosaurs that eventually give rise to birds,” the National Research Council (CONICET) of Argentina, in a statement.
The head of the museum and independent researcher, Fernando Novas, said that “while there within coelurosaurs members as the tyrannosaurus rex or velociraptor, not much is known about the earliest forms, the first coelurosaurs.”
The adults of Bicentenary ejemplaros have measured between 2.5 and 3 meters long. They were agile and lean. The shape of their teeth and claws indicate the presence of which would have been hunters. Researchers also believe it would have been covered with feathers.
“The fossils of primitive coelurosaurs are rare, and therefore this new species is very important,” said Steve Brusatte, Division of Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History, USA.
The discovery of this dinosaur indicates that South America, Africa and Australia had smaller species like birds than previously thought.
The rocks where the dinosaur was found are about 90 million years and correspond to the upper Cretaceous period, ie between 65 and 98 million years ago.
Last May, Argentine researchers concluded that a carnivorous dinosaur of the family of Abelisaurus was one of the largest predators of the Jurassic period in Patagonia.
The nearly complete skeleton of an adult was found in the town of Loco Juice in Chubut, between January 2009 and February 2010.
