The recent discovery of
about a hundred bones of baby dinosaurs,
near the town of Rincón de los Sauces, surprised researchers and they are analyzing the possibility that the site may have been
a "nursery"
for small specimens of
titanosaurs
, aged between ten months and one year old.
The discovery occurred in the area of La Invernada, 40 kilometers from the oil town, where more than one hundred pieces "in excellent preservation" were found.
These are long-necked animals, which
as adults could measure between 9 and 12 meters
and weigh up to 13 tons.
Leonardo Filippi, the paleontologist who participated in the discovery (Photo: Télam)
"This has never been seen, it is historical
," said Leonardo Filippi, paleontologist at the Urquiza Argentine Museum in Rincón de los Sauces to Diario Río Negro.
He was part of the campaign that found the pieces after an alert from an oil company in the area.
According to Filippi, the animals would have had a complex social system.
"It's still very early, the discovery was on Saturday but without a doubt these specimens were living together in some way and for some reason
they all died together,"
he said.
"They were on the edge of what was a river so they
were presumed swept away
," the researcher speculated.
Neuquén as a powerhouse for the paleontological development of Patagonia.
Photo: Telam
The other point that was innovative was linked to quantity.
The fact is that due to its size, the discovery of any piece of titanosaur requires exhausting logistics.
But, since they were baby bones, paleontologists had the chance to
take more pieces to study.
"We have bones that do not exceed 40 centimeters,
we are really moved by working with these small pieces
, because one measures the real size and realizes that they were small specimens," he explained to Diario Rio Negro.
"La Invernada is a very important area; since 2012, discoveries of different fossil vertebrates such as dinosaurs, crocodiles, turtles and fish have been made," said the Secretary of Government, Tourism and Cultural Heritage of the municipality of Rincón de los Sauces, Carlos Fuentes.
Likewise, he made reference to "the importance of the discovery is not only locally, but also globally, because they are new species and added that "there is no evidence of other places where such small bones have been found."
"Rincón de los Sauces is consolidated in a very important area at a paleontological level, highlighting this heritage that we have in the town, which we see reflected with the museum itself and in its exhibitions," Fuentes highlighted.
As specified by the provincial government, the procedure to follow with the remains found after the discovery "is the transfer to the Argentino Urquiza museum of the Municipality of Rincón de los Sauces, for safekeeping and then preparation, and those that remained in the field will be recovered in other paleontological campaigns".
Of the pieces from the site, both the leg bones and the femurs "measure about 40 centimeters and are mostly in very good condition," they detailed.
Finally, they indicated that the excavation will allow us to investigate what type of material is under the rock, analyze it and see what types of specimens they correspond to.