Scientists have identified the first dinosaur discovered in Antarctica
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- Scientists have identified the first dinosaur discovered in Antarctica
Scientists have identified the first ever fossil dinosaur fragment discovered in Antarctica as belonging to a titanosaur, a representative of the group of the largest land animals on the planet. This was reported by Live Science magazine on July 1.
An 82 million-year-old fragment of the giant's spine was found by British Antarctic Survey geologist Mike Thomson back in 1985 during an expedition to James Ross Island. However, for more than 40 years, researchers mistakenly believed that the remains belonged to an ancient marine reptile. Modern analysis using high-resolution computed tomography allowed us to look inside the fossil and accurately determine its belonging to long-necked sauropods.
Titanosaurus lived in the Late Cretaceous period, when Antarctica was still connected to South America and covered with temperate forests. Due to their extremely southern location, these lizards lived in constant twilight conditions during the winter months. According to the authors of the study, the presence of such giants on the continent proves that they used Antarctica to migrate from South America to modern New Zealand as part of the supercontinent Gondwana.
Paul Barrett, a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum in London and the first author of the study
Many more dinosaurs are likely to be discovered on the continent. As climate change leads to the retreat of ice, we may indeed find new evidence of this past biodiversity.
In addition to Titanosaurus, the remains of small herbivores, armored ankylosaurs, and bipedal predators such as Imperobator have previously been found on the icy mainland. Despite the increased knowledge about the ancient ecosystems of the region, paleontologists have a lot of work to do.
On May 29, the Infobae Internet portal announced the discovery of a new species of dinosaurs that look like birds. The discovery was made in the Argentine province of Santa Cruz. The predator was named Kank australis and belongs to the family of unenlags. Scientists emphasized that the distinctive features of the species are conical teeth and characteristic raised claws on the feet, which sets it apart from the related velociraptors that lived in the Northern Hemisphere.
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