Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cKank lived in a landscape of meandering rivers and streams with seasonal ponds, inhabited by aquatic plants such as water lilies and animals including fish, insects, and various molluscs,\u201d says Dr Motta.<\/p>\n
Based on the analysis of ancient soil samples and fossilised plant remains, he explains, we know that \u201c70 million years ago the climate was temperate and humid, with seasonal rainfall, very different from the current cold and relatively dry conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Analysis of the fossilised remains of the new dinosaur, meanwhile, has shined light on how it might have lived.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe cervical vertebrae of Kank show special structures for muscle attachment and the protection of neck blood vessels \u2014 features particularly important in modern birds with complex neck movements, such as herons,\u201d says Dr Motta.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis suggests Kank may have been an active fisher, contrasting with common portrayal of raptors as agile terrestrial predators, like Velociraptor from the Northern Hemisphere.\u201d<\/p>\n
The discovery also helps fill in some more of the patchy evolutionary history of the unenlagiids in South America. While seven different species have been recorded in northern Patagonia, until now the fossil record had only yielded a few isolated remains from the south of the region that palaeontologists were unable to attribute to particular species.<\/p>\n
\u201cKank helps bridge a distributional gap for the Late Cretaceous of southern Patagonia, connecting known records from northern Patagonia and Antarctica, and showing that this family was dispersed across different latitudes of South America.\u201d<\/p>\n
K. australis was unearthed at La Anita farm, near the city of El Calafate, in Santa Cruz, Argentina.<\/p>\n
\u201cField excavations have been conducted there since 2018, uncovering a wide variety of fossil animals and plants,\u201d says Dr Motta.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first remains of Kank were discovered in 2018, but were too fragmentary to be identified as a new species,\u201d he adds. \u201cSubsequent expeditions recovered additional material, with the discovery of a cervical [neck] vertebra in 2024 proving key to recognising it as a new unenlagiine dinosaur.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like other unenlagiids, Dr Motta explains, K. australis sports an enlarged, \u2018raptorial\u2019 claw on the second toe of its foot.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever,\u201d he adds, \u201cit differs in having teeth with sharp and pronounced longitudinal ridges and notably pneumatic cervical vertebrae (with internal air chambers).\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is also smaller and more gracile compared to other unenlagiids from the end of the Cretaceous, such as Austroraptor cabazai, a giant (around five metres long) unenlagiine from northern Patagonia.\u201d<\/p>\n
The discovery of the new dinosaur adds to mounting evidence that unenlagiids were piscivores \u2014 that is, fish-eaters.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir elongated snouts, numerous teeth and long, flexible necks suggest adaptations for fishing, similar to modern herons,\u201d Dr Motta explains.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the case of Kank, its remains were found alongside fish fossils, reinforcing this idea.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, the palaeontologist notes, it is possible that Kank also preyed on other animals that lived in the same ecosystem, which included frogs, lizards, turtles, and even mammals like Patagorhynchus pascuali, a semi-aquatic monotreme related to modern echidnas and platypuses.<\/p>\n
\u201cKank coexisted with larger carnivores such as Maip macrothorax, a formidable megaraptorid dinosaur more than 10 metres long, which may have been capable of preying upon it,\u201d Dr Motta adds.<\/p>\n
The genus of the newly discovered species pays homage to a myth of the Aonikenk, the southernmost group of the indigenous Tehuelche people of Patagonia.<\/p>\n
\u201cKank refers to an old giant rhea [a large, flightless South American bird] whose powerful running steps left the imprint of its toes in the sky, forming the constellation known as Choiols,\u201d explains Dr Motta.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Latin, this constellation is called Crux, the Southern Cross \u2014 which points toward the southernmost region of the planet, where Kank was discovered.\u201d<\/p>\n
Similarly, the species name \u2014 \u201caustralis\u201d, literally \u201cfrom south\u201d \u2014 is also a nod to the latitude of the discovery.<\/p>\n
With their initial study complete, the researchers are planning further digs into the Chorrillo Formation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe site where Kank was discovered has provided extensive information about the Late Cretaceous environment of southern Patagonia, so continuing excavations there is crucial,\u201d explains Dr Motta.<\/p>\n
\u201cFinding more Kank fossils will help us better understand its biology and ecological role.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the meantime, the team are also studying new fossils from four sites in northern Patagonia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese findings indicate that unenlagiids were widely distributed during the Late Cretaceous,\u201d Dr Motta says.<\/p>\n
He adds: \u201cWe are particularly interested in investigating the environments they colonised and speciated in \u2014 especially in ecosystems dominated by large apex predators such as abelisaurids and megaraptorans.\u201d<\/p>\n
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