A figure from the study showing teeth from a megaraptor dinosaur from various view points. The black tooth preserves most of the tooth crow. The tan tooth is missing the crown apex and base. Credit: Davis et al.
Phys.org has a story about fossils from Chile. Much like western North American, Patagonia, in South America, has a rich dinosaur history. Now, a new study led by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin is providing a deeper look. The research, published in the Journal of South American Earth Sciences, looked at the earliest record of theropods from the Chilean portion of Patagonia.
Since 2017, members of the Clarke lab, including graduate and undergraduate students, have joined scientific collaborators from Chile in Patagonia to collect fossils and build a record of ancient life from the region. Over the years, researchers have found abundant plant and animal fossils from before the asteroid strike that killed off the dinosaurs.
The study focuses specifically on theropods, with the fossils dating from 66 to 75 million years ago.
Non-avian theropod dinosaurs were mostly carnivorous, and include the top predators in the food chain. This study shows that in prehistoric Patagonia, these predators included dinosaurs from two groups—megaraptors and unenlagiines.
Reaching over 25 feet long, megaraptors were among the larger theropod dinosaurs in South America during the Late Cretaceous. The unenlagiines—a group with members that ranged from chicken-sized to over 10 feet tall—were probably covered with feathers, just like their close relative the velociraptor. The unenlagiinae fossils described in the study are the southernmost known instance of this dinosaur group.
