Paleontologists in Argentina have discovered the remains of a new giant dinosaur, famous for its huge head and small arms. They announced it on Thursday.
The skeleton of the carnivorous predator, named Meraxes gigas after a dragon from the Game of Thrones series, has been discovered in northern Argentina Patagonia.
“We won the lottery, we found the skull on the first morning” of the excavation, Peter Makovicki of the University of Minnesota in the US told AFP.
The skull measured over four feet, the animal over ten feet, and weighed about four tons. The researcher said the upper limbs were no longer than 60 centimeters (or half the skull), and the animal could not use them to “reach its mouth”.
The team of scientists who published their results in the scientific journal current biologyIt is believed that the small size of the arms gave the animal a certain advantage in survival.
According to Makovicki, as it grew, the head became the dominant tool of predators, taking on the function that the upper limbs had in smaller species.
Juan Canal, co-author of the study and project leader at the Ernesto Bachmann Museum in Neuquén, southern Argentina, goes further. I am convinced that these relatively smaller arms have a function. “The skeleton shows large, implanted muscles and fully developed chest straps, so the arms are well-muscled,” he said in a statement.
Merax lived on Earth 90 to 100 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period, when the area was wetter, forested, and much closer to the sea, Makovsky said.
They can live to 40 years old, which is an amazing age for dinosaurs. It is likely that the animals were hunting sauropods living at the same time, the remains of which were found at the excavation site.
Makovsky added that with a skull full of bumps and grooves, humps and little horns, “it certainly looked very imposing, it looked like a gargoyle.”
