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paleontologist in subantarctic Chile have pick up the remains of a " very unearthly " ankylosaur that had a deadly armored tail like no other knowndinosaur , the researcher sound out .
" The tail would have looked like a sword ; it ’s so flat , " report co - lead investigator Alexander Vargas , a vertebrate paleontologist in the Department of Biology at the University of Chile , secernate Live Science . It would have wait " a bit like anAztecsword , or the Aztec golf club call the macuahuitl . "
The newly described ankylosaurStegouros elengassendisplays its weaponized tail.
In plus to revealing its weaponized tail , the dinosaur ’s corpse tell a antecedently unknown narration about ankylosaurevolution : The breaking apart of the supercontinentPangaeaduring theJurassic period(201.3 million to 145 million age ago ) lead to uttermost departure between ankylosaurus on the northerly supercontinent Laurasia and those on the southern supercontinent Gondwana , like this newfound metal money , namedStegouros elengassen . The newfound mintage was line in a study put out online Wednesday ( Dec. 1 ) in the journalNature .
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Paleontologists foundS. elengasseninCretaceous periodrocks dating to between 71.7 million and 74.9 million years ago in February 2018 . The well - preserved skeleton was about 80 % complete , and " it ’s weird , because it ’s enounce [ the bones are in order ] from the waist down , and everything from the waist up was kind of scatter , " Vargas said . The beast died by a river , perhaps in quicksand , which would explain why its bottom one-half is so well preserved , although this is just guess , he say .
A 3D sculpture of Stegouros elengassen shows the armored dinosaur’s curved beak, slender limbs and fern frond-like tail.(Image credit: Lucas Jaymez)
The team had only five day left in the field time of year to excavate the dinosaur remain , and that short timeline contribute to a scrupulous cause involving a sprained ankle , a broken costa and near - hypothermia among the crew , Vargas suppose . But their laborious study pay off : Now , the largely Chilean team has an exquisite specimen of a approximately 6.5 - foot - long ( 2 meters)ankylosaursporting a tail end that look like a fern frond .
The dinosaur ’s genus name , Stegouros , issue forth from the Greek words for " roof " ( stego ) and " tail " ( uros ) — a nod to its covered tail — and its species name , elengassen , refers to an armored beast in the mythology of the local Aónik’enk people .
S. elengassenis strikingly different from Laurasian ankylosaurus ; it ’s softly armored with a few row of osteoderms , or bony home base , and has a " rather large head with a narrow , curved schnozzle , which is not common for ankylosaur , " Vargas said . " It has slender limb . … It does n’t have pointed pincer ; it has rounded , hoof - alike claws on both hand and foot . "
An illustration of Stegouros elengassen, which died by the water, possibly in quicksand.(Image credit: Luis Pérez López)
What ’s more , the ankylosaurus ’s pelvis is wide and Stegosaur stenops - same . " If you had only the pelvis , you would cogitate you had the firstStegosaurusof the Cretaceous , " he said . ( Stegosauruslived earlier , during the Jurassic stop . )
S. elengassen ’s most distinctive characteristic , its tail , is the shortest tail of any known panoplied dinosaur . It ’s made of seven paired large and planate osteoderms . The first two pairs are near the organic structure , and the next five pairs are fused together as a mat , muscular arm , Vargas say . In dividing line , other ankylosaurs have paired spikes or clubs on their tail end .
Until now , it was n’t clear whether Laurasian ankylosaurs had somehow journeyed south to populate Gondwana , Vargas say . But now , S. elengassen , " the first completely studied ankylosaur from the Southern Hemisphere , " evidence that it and two other known Southern Hemisphere ankylosaurus — Antarctopelta , fromAntarctica , andKunbarrasaurus , from Australia — " are lack many of the specialize trait that the ankylosaurs of the North had and that they already had in the mid - Jurassic , " Vargas pronounce . " So these must have split off before the mid - Jurassic , which speaks of very ancient roots . "
Stegouros elengassen depicted in its paleoenvironment, with plants reconstructed from fossils at nearby levels, typical of this region of Gondwana.(Image credit: Mauricio Álvarez)
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Chilean paleontologists Sergio Soto (pictured here) and Alexander Vargas co-led the 19-person team who took part in the study.(Image credit: Contributed)
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It ’s exciting to find an armored dinosaur with a never - before - escort tail , Vargas said .
" We all know shadower lodge , we all know the tail spine , but this is a new lineage … a Southern Hemisphere lineage that evolved a third kind of tail artillery , " Vargas said .
A 3D sculpture of the newly described armored dinosaur species Stegouros elengassen.(Image credit: Lucas Jaymez)
agree to Matt Lamanna , a vertebrate palaeontologist at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh , who was n’t involved with the study , " It ’s just exceeding stuff and just a really unexpected dinosaur . "
Originally put out on Live Science .
A digital reconstruction of the unique tail weapon of Stegouros elengassen. Different colors signal separate bones; many bones were fused into a single unit (liliac).(Image credit: José Palma and Joao Francisco Botelho)
Paleontologists found about 80% ofStegouros elengassen’s skeleton.
The scientific team prepares the plaster jacket protecting the fossils in the Magallanes region of Chilean Patagonia .(Image credit: Contributed)
Researchers carry the plaster jacket containing the Stegouros elengassen specimen to their campsite in subantarctic Chile.(Image credit: Contributed)
Researchers examine the hips legs and tail of Stegouros elengassen.(Image credit: Contributed)
Researchers do a CT scan of Stegouros elengassen’s fossils.(Image credit: Contributed)
