Scientists announced the discovery of a Bizarre, unknown dinosaur species, which appeared to live about 70 million years ago. The carnivorous, to legged raptor averages at about 16.5 to 20 feet long, depending on tail length. The dinosaur’s incomplete skeleton was extracted from rocks in the far-southern Patagonia region of Argentina. This new raptor belongs to a South American dromaeosaur group known as the unenlagiines. This discovery has changed history because the fossil provides the first evidence of dinosaur air sacs, which pump air into the lungs and are used by modern-day birds. Archaeologists have only discovered smaller crow and turkey size raptors in South America. In fact it is the first documentation of giant raptors in Patagonia measuring 5 meters or more. Researchers call Austroraptor “bizarre” because of his short arms in comparison to its large body. Its size says Paul Sereno, probably made Austroraptor a superior predator. There has been a small and closely related dinosaur found in South America which has a similar skull. This suggests the whole radiation of southern dromaeosaurs have these long tapering skulls. Suddenly, the world of southern raptors looks a lot bigger and more complex. "This Austroraptor shows us that here in South America giant raptors evolved and survived until the end of the dinosaur age." This new evidence clearly indicates that South America was the site of a very prolific lineage of carnivorous dromaeosaurs, whose evolutionary history now begins to reveal itself.
Lindsay M.
Period 5
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