The “Gonkoken nanoi” is the fifth species of dinosaur discovered in the country. Scientists are now trying to understand how these hadrosaurs arrived in the southern lands.
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His name is “Gonkoken nanoi”. Remains of a species of herbivorous dinosaur, previously unknown to exist in the southern hemisphere, have been discovered in Chilean Patagonia, researchers announced Friday (June 16) in the journal Science Advances. Measuring up to 4 m 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 vegetation high up and at ground level.”
Alexander Vargas, paleontologist and author of the studyquoted by AFP
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. Their presence in these remote southern lands has surprised scientists who will have to “understand how their ancestors got there”, according to Alexander 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.