They find in El Calafate, in the South of Argentina, the oldest platypus in the world

Remains of the first relative of the current

the oldest on record, were discovered in

Cretaceous rocks about 30 kilometers southeast of the town of El Calafate, in the province of Santa Cruz, south from Argentina, by Argentine and Japanese paleontologists. 

The world presentation of the new species named

took place in the presence of scientists from the Argentine

and the

, Japan.

The Conicet reported that the finding was also published today in the journal

Argentine and Japanese experts were in charge of making the astonishing discovery, which was communicated in a press conference.

The name Patagorhynchus means

in Latin, alluding to the duck-billed snout of living and fossil platypuses, while "pascuali" honors the 

, who was the first to find platypus remains in Patagonia, although in younger sites.

It is the first close relative of the Australian platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) known from the Mesozoic Era, known as the

The expedition was co-directed by

, Conicet researcher and head of the Vertebrate Comparative Anatomy and Evolution Laboratory (Lacev) of the Bernardino Rivadavia Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences (Macnbr, Conicet), and his colleague Makoto Manabe, from the National

of Nature and Science in Tokyo, they said.

The person responsible for the discovery was

, a Conicet researcher at Macnbr, who found a

in diameter on the surface of the explored ground.

In dialogue with the Télam news agency, the scientist said that "this would be a second skeleton. We saw that it

, that is, some were attached to the others."

The tooth found in El Calafate, in Argentine Patagonia, embedded in a platypus skull.

He said that the remains are quite heavy "so

Army helicopter to transfer it to the ranch and be able to transport it for study."

"We estimate that this skeleton may be complete, because there are several articulated vertebrae, which gives us an indication that there may be more below the ground, so we are going to continue opening it to see if more than one skeleton of a bug appears

long," they said in the presentation.

The complex shape of the crown and the roots made it easy to determine that the tooth belongs to a relative of today's platypuses."The teeth of today's platypuses, as well as those of a fossil found in Australia, are distinguished by having two structures

. So when I found the Patagorhynchus tooth and saw that it had that same shape, which is unique to these animals, I immediately realized it was a platypus," Chimento said.

Platypuses are monotremes

, a group of mammals characterized by very primitive traits, such as the fact that their young hatch from eggs that are incubated in a similar way to how birds do.

This reproductive behavior differentiates them from the vast majority of living mammals, which give birth to their young from the womb.

The current Australian platypus.

For this reason, the lineage of these primitive animals has always attracted the interest of researchers, "since they represent something like

from a very ancient stage," said the Conicet.

Patagorhynchus is the first monotreme from the

(last period of the Mesozoic Era) known from South America.

Chimento is part of the campaign called

directed by paleontologist Fernando Novas.

Novas highlighted the importance of "the discovery of the tooth of the ancestor of the current platypus, which tells us a

history of this very strange lineage of mammals that reproduce by egg and have a very strange snout to be able to detect where are their prey."

"It is

, since it is not only the finding of one more tooth, of a mammal, but it is speaking for the first time, for what is the age of dinosaurs, of close intercontinental relations, the extreme south of Patagonia with Australia, mediating the Antarctic continent," said the Conicet researcher.

According to the researchers who participated in the discovery, the discovery of remains of an ancestor of the Australian platypus in southern Argentina highlights the importance that the southern territory of America had in the evolution of mammals

According to paleontologists, the finding of Patagorhynchus supports the hypothesis that at the end of the Cretaceous the same fauna made up of mammals and dinosaurs extended from southern Patagonia to Australia, also including Antarctica, which at that time was embedded between both continents.

70 million years ago,

were territories with climates ranging from temperate to cold and sheltered lush forests in humid environments.

A characteristic feature of the platypus is the presence of a

, which represents an evolutionary derivative of the fleshy, moist nose possessed by other mammals.

This

, expanded outwards and backwards, constitutes a very sensitive electroreceptor and mechanoreceptor organ with which platypuses detect insect larvae and aquatic snails that serve as food, the scientists explained at a press conference.

The present discovery shows that relatives of the platypus already inhabited South America

The president of the Conicet,

said -through a virtual communication- that "these findings contribute to the advancement of science, but also to show that in a country so far from the centers of the world, science is done with enthusiasm".

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