02/12/2021 14:05
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 02/12/2021 2:05 PM
Argentine paleontologists have identified a new species of
rhinosaur
, a herbivorous reptile that lived in Argentina 230 million years ago, according to research released this Friday.
The fossil remains were found in the
Talampaya National Park
, in the province of La Rioja, 1,100 km northwest of the Argentine capital, according to the Scientific Dissemination Agency of the National University of La Matanza.
"
Fragments of the skull of this new species were found
, including premaxillary, maxillary and dental, part of the sacrum, the first vertebrae of the tail and part of the hip," said Martín Ezcurra, from the Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences.
A team of Argentine paleontologists unveiled Elorhynchus carrolli, a rhincosaurus, a herbivorous reptile that lived 230 million years ago.
/ Telam
The fossil remains were found in the Talampaya National Park, in the province of La Rioja, 1,100 km northwest of the Argentine capital, according to the Scientific Dissemination Agency of the National University of La Matanza (CtYs-UNLM).
"The skull has a very specialized dentition composed of numerous rows of teeth and a bony beak in the snout that could have been used for the processing of food prior to being swallowed, unlike what happens in the vast majority of reptiles" , he specified.
These reptiles had their legs to the sides of the body and the belly close to the ground.
The discovery of this new species "allows us to observe how the transition took place from the rhinosaurs that lived before the emergence of the first dinosaurs to the rhincosaurs that came to live with these reptiles from 233 million years ago until they became extinct about 227 million years ago. years, "Ezcurra explained.
"This species is very closely related to species from southern Brazil, Tanzania and India," said the scientist.
This is what rhinosaurs (Rhynchosauria) looked like.
The species, called
Elorhynchus carrolli
, allows us to deepen our knowledge of the early evolution of rhinosaurs in northwestern Argentina.
The Talampaya National Park, of about 213,000 hectares, has large paleontological sites and was declared by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
With information from AFP.
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