New species of dinosaur
Researchers estimate that this new species measured nearly two meters.
A group of researchers discovered this Tuesday, a new species of carnivorous dinosaur who lived 83 million years ago in the city of Neuquén, Argentina. This new species has been given the name Diuqin lechiguanae and belongs to the group of theropods. This discovery has been very important, since the frequency with which this type of already extinct species is discovered is very low.
Name Diuqin comes from a term Mapuzungunthe language of the Mapuche people native to the region, which means “bird of prey” in Spanish. On the other hand, the second part of the name, lechiguanaecomes from “Lechiguana“, which was the name of the witch in the 1975 Argentine film Nazareno Cruz and the wolf. Therefore, the full name of this new species means “the Lechiguana bird of prey».
The fossil remains were found by John Porfiripaleontologist at the National University of Comahue, and Gastón Garat in an area near the Lake Barrealesspecifically in an area that separates it from Lake Mari Menuco, in the center-east of the province of Neuquén. The fossils were found during an exploration in the mentioned area, first finding bone splinters of a sauropod dinosaur and very close by the remains of the Diuqin lechiguanae appeared, all in a relatively small area.
Dinosaur Features
Some of the main characteristics of this dinosaur They are very difficult to infersince the bones found they are very scarce and they are not useful to make a complete reconstruction of the animal or to find out its living habits and feeding habits.
Despite this, scientists have already classified it as a unenlaginoussince one of the hypotheses that researchers use is that they looked the same as others unenlaginosthat is, it is very likely that it was a predatory carnivore and an agile runner.
On the other hand, based on the size of the bones, it can be said that it had a similar size to another unenlagino from Patagonia, called Unenlagia, with a body length estimated at «more than 2 meters».
Loki, a dinosaur with large antlers
On the other hand, another new species of dinosaur has recently been discovered, although this time it is herbivorous, not carnivorous. It was found in an area of North America separated from the rest of the continent, when the Lokiceratops I was alive, a few years ago 78 million yearsThis extinct animal has been named Loki by researchers because of its large antlers.
This dinosaur belongs to a species that would have been approximately the size of a big rhinoand skull ornaments would have been used to attract a mate, intimidate a rival, or more generally for identification or recognition among their own species.
However, only the skull has been exhibited so far. Museum of EvolutionIt also houses a skeleton of an Allosaurus, a large carnivorous dinosaur similar to the T. rex, and attracts about 300,000 visitors a year. A reproduction of the skull, along with a complete sculpture of the head, filled with skin and based on what researchers believe the dinosaur might have looked like, will go on display at the Utah Museum of Natural History in Salt Lake City.
