Researchers from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of the Republic of Uruguay (Udelar) presented to the Mesetasaurus protectora new species of giant dinosaur who inhabited the north of Uruguayan territory ago 80 million yearsduring the Late Cretaceous period.
He findmade known to the scientific community through an article in the magazine Ameghiniana of the Argentine Paleontological Association, was developed by paleontologists Matías Soto, Felipe Montenegro and Daniel Perea.
The discovery of the remains of the protective Mesetasaurus
Two tail vertebraeextraordinarily preserved, were found by chance by Daniel Montano and Guillermo Sena, two fishermen from Barros Blancos who noticed the fossil remains after the passage of an excavator machine in the Guichón Formationin the vicinity of the Artigas Plateauin the department of Paysandú.
Recently these vertebrae came into the hands of researchers, one of them through the Barros Blancos high school, an institution to which one of the fishermen had donated it, and the other through the other. fisherman, who had kept it in his house.
«To know that you are facing a new species one of two conditions has to be met, either that a unique characteristic is present in the bones, which has not been seen in any other animal, as in the case of the protective Mesetasaurus, or a combination of characteristics that appear in other animals, but that are presented all together only in the one you found,» Soto explained.
The scientific name chosen by the experts pays a double heritage tribute. Mesetasaurus refers to the origin as reptile and the geography of the place, while the term protector pays homage to Uruguayan hero José Artigassince there is the second monument erected in his name in Uruguay.
According to researcher Matías Soto, the animal belonged to the large group of titanosaurioslong-necked quadrupedal herbivores, and, specifically, to the evolutionary branch of the aeolosaurinoswhich were distinguished by having specialized tails inclined forward.
«The decisive test that the vertebrae found belong to a titanosaur, it is their shape, they are concave at the front and convex at the back which allows them to articulate with each other,» Soto explained.
Thanks to comparative anatomy, scientists estimate that the specimen It was between 9 and 10 meters long. Its classification as unique species is supported by the presence of an unusual ««blind pit» located at the back of the vertebra.
The new dinosaur acts as a «geological clock»
From a scientific point of view, the discovery represents a triple hito for the region. This is the second record of this group of dinosaurs in Uruguay and the fossil acts as a «geological clock«which allows us to rejuvenate the age of the Guichón Formation, since it confirms that it belongs to the late Cretaceous.
Furthermore, the statistical analysis of these remains made it possible to relate the prehistoric ecosystems of the Uruguayan territory with geological formations of Argentine Patagonia, such as the Allen and Los Alamitos Formation, which opens new lines of research on how fauna migrated and interacted in the southern Southern Cone.
The dean of the Faculty of Sciences at Udelar, Juan Cristina, celebrated the discovery and highlighted that beyond the fascination with dinosaurs, these studies are fundamental to understanding the history of the geological strata of the country and its enormous heritage wealth.
«This is valuable information, not only for Uruguay, but for science in general, it provides new data on what is known about the age of the sedimentary soils of the western coast, where the remains were found, and the biological connections that linked Uruguay with the rest of the prehistoric continent,» said Dean Cristina.
«Another important aspect is the meticulous and sacrificial work of the researchers, which is not done overnight,» he stressed. A rigorous phylogenetic, geological and anatomical analysis was carried out to confirm the finding.
This is the second Uruguayan species of dinosaur that researchers have discovered, the previous one was the Udelartitan celeste, the first original giant dinosaur from Uruguay -which is estimated to reach 15 meters in length.- whose remains were found in the same department and from the same rock formation.
With information from the EFE agency.
