The species specimen has been named Jakapil kaniukura, in reference to the Mapuche-Puelche language, as a tribute to the speech of the ancient and present-day cultures of northern Patagonia. The species represents a previously unknown family of thyropod dinosaurs in South America. Originating around millions of years ago, Thyreophorans quickly evolved into several species distributed around the world. Although these early shield bearers, the lineage represented by ‘Jakapil’ was the only one that lasted until at least 100 million years ago. According to the scientists, the species was a small plant-eating and bipedal dinosaur with short arms, one and a half meters long and weighing between four and seven kilograms. It belongs to the group of thyreophora or armored dinosaurs, whose most characteristic feature was the presence of several rows of dermal bones (related to the skin of the skin) in the form of shields that protected the neck, back and tail of the animal. , something similar to that seen in modern crocodiles. Fossilized fragments of dermal bones that, like “shields”, provided protection to the dinosaur “Jakapil kaniukura”. Credits: Facundo Riguetti Facundo Riguetti, one of Conicet’s experts from the University of the Basque Country, said: “Our finding is important for many reasons. On the one hand, Jakapil expands the known fossil record in the area and allows us to better understand the prehistoric ecosystem of our land, specifically, the ancient Kokorkom desert, today north of Patagonia.” The new species of a group of dinosaurs had some striking features. The dinosaur had a unique neck armor that protected the sensitive area from predator attacks. The surviving bones of the arms show that they were tiny, which is not the case in the rest of the thyreophora, the vast majority of which are quadrupeds. He also had very rare teeth. In general, herbivorous dinosaurs have leaf-shaped teeth, which are very similar between the upper and lower jaws, but in Jakapil they are different. Sebastián Apesteguía, Conicet researcher at the Félix de Azara Natural History Foundation and author of the work, said: “The upper teeth are straight, but the lower ones are somewhat curved backwards. “Also, the teeth have a lot of wear, which tells us they were able to process food more efficiently than other thyreophora of their kind.” “But the most striking feature of this animal is the crest on the lower part of the jaw, unknown to all other shield-bearers, and which is what gives the species its name (‘kaniukura’ in Mapudungún, the Mapuche language, means crest of stone). While its function is now unknown, it does not appear to be associated with increased jaw muscle mass, which could suggest more screen-related functions.” Illustration of “Jackson the Cannibal”. Credits: Daniel Boh Scientists first discovered the first fossils in 2014. Then, until 2020, they continued to acquire more fossilized bones to reconstruct its structure. Apesteguía points out that the La Buitrera paleontological site, where the new dinosaur was found, is an area where the Kokorkom Desert emerged. Apesteguía explained, “As is typical of deserts, there were not many animals that had the necessary conditions to inhabit, so many fossils of a few species are usually found in this place.” “We were looking for fossils in the area and, as always, several wonderful skeletons caught our eye, so we had to split the group up to prepare to dig them up. One of the skeletons showed strange teeth, small limbs and a jaw with strange features that had appeared on a block.’ “Jakapil is a small and extremely rare dinosaur and loved to travel in desert environments. That is why it was able to be preserved and become known 100 hundreds of millions of years later. For the Argentines, Jakapil fills in, in a huge sequence of discoveries, the missing letter for our dinosaur alphabet, and we can, for the first time, show an alphabet of dinosaurs that lived in Argentina.” Journal Reference:
