Newly discovered T. rex lookalike with an unusual skull terrorized Patagonia 80 million years ago
Patagonia, the fine article is from CNN, kinda South of the Border.
(CNN)Paleontologists in Argentina have identified a previously unknown species of dinosaur that would have used its huge claws, powerful bite and keen sense of hearing to hunt prey in Patagonia 80 million years ago.
The fossilized remains of Llukalkan aliocranianus include a superbly preserved and uncrushed braincase and were unearthed in the Bajo de la Carpa Formation in Argentina. Llukalkan means "the one who causes fear" in the language of the indigenous Mapuche, and aliocranianus is Latin for "unusual skull."
The “One Who Causes Fear” – Extremely Powerful New Meat-Eating Predator Discovered
The “One Who Causes Fear” – Extremely Powerful New Meat-Eating Predator Discovered:
[...] Around 80 million years ago as tyrannosaurs ruled the Northern Hemisphere, this lookalike was one of 10 currently known species of abelisaurids flourishing in the southern continents.
A fearsome killer, Llukalkan was “likely among the top predators” throughout Patagonia, now in Argentina, during the Late Cretaceous due to its formidable size (up to five meters long), extremely powerful bite, very sharp teeth, huge claws in their feet and their keen sense of smell.
Journal Reference:
Federico A. Gianechini, Ariel H. Méndez, Leonardo S. Filippi, et al. A New Furileusaurian Abelisaurid from La Invernada (Upper Cretaceous, Santonian, Bajo De La Carpa Formation), Northern Patagonia, Argentina, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology (DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2020.1877151)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Friday April 02 2021, @10:47AM (10 children)
But couldn't quite survive the big-ass meteorite.
Guess who did: the little mice whose descendents are wielding the shovels to excavate the creature. Ah! Not causing much fear now are we?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 02 2021, @12:33PM (7 children)
How exactly do these fossils survive all these meteor impacts, worldwide flooding, and general turnover of the Earth's surface for 80 million years?
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday April 02 2021, @02:25PM (3 children)
Most of them don't. We only see the residue, and only part of that. If you want to argue that the dinosaurs had a highly technical civilization, there is little evidence to show you are wrong.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 02 2021, @03:10PM (2 children)
It seems umnlikely anything would survive at all.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Saturday April 03 2021, @12:25AM
On the other hand, what does unlikely mean?
It's unlikely you'll die today, but 100,000 people already have (estimated.)
It's like that with fossils. Lots and lots of bodies have lived and died and been completely recycled leaving no trace.
But there were so many bodies that even though only a tiny percentage are preserved (as it's very unlikely for them to be preserved) that still leaves lots and lots of specimens to be found.
And we've been getting better and better at finding specimens. So more and more examples are found.
It still amounts to an exceptionally thin, and not particularly random, sample for most species.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by MIRV888 on Saturday April 03 2021, @01:48AM
You are thinking of the Permian Triassic extinction event.
It basically amounted to hitting reset on most of life on earth.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday April 02 2021, @09:01PM (2 children)
These fossils almost didn't. They almost got washed into the ocean instead. It's only by the efforts of paleontologists and other fossil collectors that they avoided that fate.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 02 2021, @11:39PM (1 child)
80 MILLION years.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday April 03 2021, @02:34AM
(Score: 2) by Anti-aristarchus on Friday April 02 2021, @09:30PM
"Laugh while you can, monkeyboy!!"
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Arik on Saturday April 03 2021, @12:17AM
It's interesting, however, that no subsequent terrestrial animals have developed the sheer size of the larger dinosaurs.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 02 2021, @12:51PM (4 children)
>> Llukalkan means "the one who causes fear" in the language of the indigenous Mapuche,
If they really wanted to scare us, they could have named it Majorsaurus aliocranius. Major means "the dog who has 'nipping' incidents" in the weaselly language of the indigenous Democrats, who went extinct because of overspending.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 02 2021, @03:06PM (3 children)
He only bites Republicans and they're concerned he might get rabies from them.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 02 2021, @07:11PM
You joke, but apparently Major just stole Biden's car and rammed into a checkpoint at the Capitol. Bad dog!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 02 2021, @09:07PM
The meme is (straight from Headquarters):
Stay tuned for further updates! (And remember, the real news is in the AC comments. Fox News has not covered this at all, yet! Soylent Scoop!)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 02 2021, @10:56PM
It’s like that old joke: when a chihuahua humps your leg, what do you do? Kick it. When a pit bull humps your leg, what do you do? Pretend you enjoy it.