Scientists have discovered a new dinosaur from Argentina with powerful claws, feasting on an ancient crocodile bone.
The new find was possibly 7m long and hailed from a mysterious group of dinosaurs called megaraptorans. They prowled across what is now South America, Australia and parts of Asia, splitting off into different species over millions of years.
Megaraptorans were known for their stretched-out skulls and “huge and very powerful claws,” said Patagonian Institute of Geology and Paleontology paleontologist Lucio Ibiricu, who was part of the discovery team.
Photo: Andrew McAfee, Carnegie Museum of Natural History via AP
It is not yet clear how the creatures hunted and where they fall on the evolutionary timeline — mainly because the fossils recovered so far were incomplete.
In a new study, researchers said they uncovered part of a skull as well as arm, leg and tail bones from the Lago Colhue Huapi rock formation in Patagonia.
They discovered unique features in the bones that made them realize it could be a new species.
Photo: AP
The latest member of the megaraptoran clan named Joaquinraptor casali “fills a major gap by providing one of the most complete skeletons yet,” Federico Agnolin of the Argentine Museum of Natural Science Bernardino Rivadavia said in an e-mail.
Agnolin was not involved with the research, which was published on Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.
The creature likely lived 66 to 70 million years ago — close to the time dinosaurs went extinct — and was at least 19 years old when it died, although scientists do not know what killed it.
The leg bone pressed against its jaws — belonging to an ancient relative of crocodiles — could yield clues to its diet and whether it was the top predator on the humid prehistoric flood plains.
Ibiricu named the new dinosaur in memory of his son Joaquin.
Although Joaquin was young and had not yet developed a fascination with dinosaurs, Ibiricu said he thinks he would have appreciated being named after one.
“All children love dinosaurs so he would probably be a fan, too,” he said.
DISASTER: The Bangladesh Meteorological Department recorded a magnitude 5.7 and tremors reached as far as Kolkata, India, more than 300km away from the epicenter A powerful earthquake struck Bangladesh yesterday outside the crowded capital, Dhaka, killing at least five people and injuring about a hundred, the government said. The magnitude 5.5 quake struck at 10:38am near Narsingdi, Bangladesh, about 33km from Dhaka, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said. The earthquake sparked fear and chaos with many in the Muslim-majority nation of 170 million people at home on their day off. AFP reporters in Dhaka said they saw people weeping in the streets while others appeared shocked. Bangladesh Interim Leader Muhammad Yunus expressed his “deep shock and sorrow over the news of casualties in various districts.” At least five people,
LEFT AND RIGHT: Battling anti-incumbent, anticommunist sentiment, Jeanette Jara had a precarious lead over far-right Jose Antonio Kast as they look to the Dec. 14 run Leftist candidate Jeannette Jara and far-right leader Jose Antonio Kast are to go head-to-head in Chile’s presidential runoff after topping Sunday’s first round of voting in an election dominated by fears of violent crime. With 99 percent of the results counted, Jara, a 51-year-old communist running on behalf of an eight-party coalition, won 26.85 percent, compared with 23.93 percent for Kast, the Servel electoral service said. The election was dominated by deep concern over a surge in murders, kidnappings and extortion widely blamed on foreign crime gangs. Kast, 59, has vowed to build walls, fences and trenches along Chile’s border with Bolivia to
DEATH SENTENCE: The ousted leader said she was willing to attend a fresh trial outside Bangladesh where the ruling would not be a ‘foregone conclusion’ Bangladesh’s fugitive former prime minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday called the guilty verdict and death sentence in her crimes against humanity trial “biased and politically motivated.” Hasina, 78, defied court orders that she return from India to attend her trial about whether she ordered a deadly crackdown against the student-led uprising that ousted her. She was found guilty and sentenced to death earlier yesterday. “The verdicts announced against me have been made by a rigged tribunal established and presided over by an unelected government with no democratic mandate,” Hasina said in a statement issued from hiding in India. “They are biased and politically motivated,” she
It is one of the world’s most famous unsolved codes whose answer could sell for a fortune — but two US friends say they have already found the secret hidden by Kryptos. The S-shaped copper sculpture has baffled cryptography enthusiasts since its 1990 installation on the grounds of the CIA headquarters in Virginia, with three of its four messages deciphered so far. Yet K4, the final passage, has kept codebreakers scratching their heads. Sculptor Jim Sanborn, 80, has been so overwhelmed by guesses that he started charging US$50 for each response. Sanborn in August announced he would auction the 97-character solution to K4
RSS