A team of scientists from CONICET (Argentina’s National Council for Scientific and Technical Research) and the Azara-Maimonides University Foundation have discovered the remains of a new species of herbivorous dinosaur that lived 140 million years ago.
It is an unknown species of dinosaur and its fossil remains have been found in the Patagonian region of Argentina, as described in their study published in the journal Scientific Reports.
The “new” dinosaur, baptized as ” Bajadasaurus pronuspinax “, in reference to the Bajada Colorada geological formation in the province of Neuquén, where the remains of the animal were found, belongs to the group of sauropods, including the famous diplodocus , brachiosaurs and aragosaurs, which are considered the largest land animals that have inhabited the Earth.
Striking thorns
It should be noted the large bony spines that cover the neck and back of the dinosaur, according to the paleontologists responsible for the work. The specimen is a member of the dicraeosaurid family, located within the largest group of sauropods.
“Sauropods are large dinosaurs with long necks and long tails, but specifically this is a small family within the sauropods that had a length of about nine or ten meters in length, ” says Pablo Gallina, co-author of the study.
The researcher, who also works with CONICET, said that Bajadasaurus has the species name “pronuspinax” because a “very characteristic feature of this new dinosaur is the presence of very long spines all over its neck.”
During the research, paleontologists considered several hypotheses regarding the function of the spines of this dinosaur , since, according to Gallina, from the fossils it is “very difficult” to be able to tell if the spines are associated with a fleshy hump to store fat stores or some type of “candle” to help regulate body temperature.
However, they eventually decided that the “most likely” hypothesis was that the spines served as a defensive structure for these herbivorous dinosaurs.
“It would not be an active defense, but a passive defense, that is, a kind of warning defense. These are structures that warn carnivores that they cannot approach. A carnivore appears, sees a gigantic spiny structure and thinks twice about it. to attack, “Gallina said.
The first fossils of this dinosaur were found in late 2013 and since then researchers have been working on the laborious task of cleaning them and visiting different museums to compare them with the remains of other species from around the world.
The meaning of the name of the new dinosaur:
Bajadasaurus pronuspinax: Bajada , by the locality of discovery, Bajada Colorada; saurus, which means ‘lizard’; pronus , which means ‘bent forward’; and spinax for ‘thorn’ in Greek. We could translate it into Spanish as ‘Bajada Colorada lizard with spines leaning forward’.
Reference: A new long-spined dinosaur from Patagonia sheds light on sauropod defense system. Pablo A. Gallina, Sebastián Apesteguía, Juan I. Canale & Alejandro Haluza. Scientific Reports volume 9, Article number: 1392 (2019) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-37943-3
Image credit: Jorge A. González.
