BUENOS AIRES: Paleontologists announced the discovery of a tiny, armor dinosaur in southern Argentina on Thursday. This dinosaur, which presumably walked erect on its rear legs approximately 100 million years ago, was previously unknown.
They claimed that Jakapil kaniukura, a dinosaur from the Cretaceous Period, would have been well-defended by columns of bony disk-shaped body armour it along neck, back, and all the way down to its tail. It was around 5 feet (1.5 metres) length and weighed 9 to 15 pounds (4-7 kg), which is comparable to a domestic cat.
Its fossilised bones were discovered during the previous ten years in Patagonia’s La Buitrera paleontological zone, next to a dam.
According to the researchers, the finding of Jakapil is a first-of-its-kind example of an armor dinosaur from Cretaceous period in South America. It belongs to the thyreophoran dinosaur family, which also contains the armor-clad Ankylosaurus and the Stegosaurus, both of which have tails with sharp points and bone back plates.
Sebastian Apesteguia, the team’s lead palaeontologist, and his colleagues also discovered 15 tooth pieces that resembled iguana teeth and a portion of Jakapil’s incomplete skeleton.
Jakapil is a surprising Cretaceous fossil because it resembles a primitive kind of thyreophoran that existed much earlier. Really no thyreophoran has yet been found in the southern hemisphere, claims Apesteguia.
