THE Megaraptora They are dinosaurs belonging to a clade (a group consisting of a common single ancestor and all the descendants of that antensee) now extinct for theopodes, lived in the Cretaceous and which we still know little, since we have never found one whole.
Carnivores, relatively close to tyrannosaurs from a taxonomic point of view, surfacely resembled giant versions of the Velociraptor made known by the saga of Jurassic Parkthey were tremendously efficient predators. This is demonstrated by a fossil recently found in Argentina, belonging to a new species of megaraptor: it is a skull that still tightened a co Bus thigh. The discovery was described in a study published on Nature Communications.
The giants of South America. “Megaraptorids”, reads the study, “were the apical predators in ecosystems in Patagonia at the end of the Cretaceous”, and it is not difficult to imagine why. The new species (as well as new genre), baptized Joaquinraptorhe exceeded 7 meters in length and weighed more than a ton: he was among the largest predators in the area, considering that in those parts his possible competitors, the tyrannosaurs were not present.
The role of apical predator of the local trophic network of Joaquinraptor It seems to be confirmed by the fossil that made us discover it: in the jaws he still squeezed the humerus of a member of the clade Crocodyliforms – In other words, an ancestor (unidentified) of modern crocodiles. The Homer also carried signs of teeth, demonstrating that he was not by chance in the mouth of the dinosaur: we do not have the absolute certainty that Joaquinraptor If he was eating it, but we go close to it.
What big legs you have! The fossil of Joaquinraptor It also tells us other things about this new dinosaur. First of all that, unlike the tyrannosauri, he had large and powerful upper limbs, with which he probably manipulated his prey. The specimen found, then, was sexually mature (judging by certain microstructures of the bones of the tibia, which was found together with the skull and some vertebrae of the tail), but not yet completely grown: it could have been around the age of 19, according to the authors of the study.
As for the geological age, however, Joaquinraptor He dates back to about 68 million years ago, just a couple of million years before the extinction of the Dinosaurs not Aviani: it is one of the MEGARAPTORA species younger people we have ever found.