(Santiago de Chile) Remains of “Gonkoken nanoi”, a species of herbivorous dinosaur which was not known to exist in the Southern Hemisphere, have been discovered in Chilean Patagonia, the epicenter of important paleontological discoveries in recent years. researchers announced Friday.
Measuring up to four meters long, weighing a ton and endowed with a duck’s beak, this species lived 72 million years ago in the extreme south of Chile.
“These were slender-looking dinosaurs, which could easily adopt a bipedal and quadrupedal posture to reach the vegetation in height and at ground level”, describes Alexander Vargas, director of the paleontological network of the University of Chile and one of the authors of the study published Friday by the journal Science Advances and presented in Santiago.
The discovery from 2013 of these remains reveals that Chilean Patagonia served as a refuge for very ancient species of hadrosaurs, these duck-billed dinosaurs common in North America, Asia and Europe during the Cretaceous.
PHOTO UNIVERSIDAD DE CHILE, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Their presence in these remote southern lands has surprised scientists who will have to “understand how their ancestors got there”, according to Mr. Vargas.
The “Gonkoken nanoi” is the fifth species of dinosaur discovered in Chile after “Chilesaurus diegosuarezi”, “Atacamatitan chilensis”, “Arackar licanantay” and “Stegouros elengassen”, found in the same region.
The name Gonkoken comes from the Tehuelche language, the first inhabitants of the region until the end of the 19th century, and means “like a wild duck or a swan”.