Chilean paleontologists shared their interesting findings about Stegouros elengassen, a dinosaur species discovered three years ago in Ceroo Guido, a region with a large number of fossils in Patagonia, that fascinated researchers with its rather unusual tail.
It is estimated that the dinosaur, of which paleontologists discovered 80 percent of its skeleton, lived in the region where it was found between 71 and 74.9 million years ago. It is also among the information given that the dinosaur, which was about two meters long and weighed 150 kilograms, was an herbivore.
Dinosaur may represent a previously unknown lineage of armored dinosaurs
During his presentation of the discovery at the University of Chile, one of the research team, paleontologist Alexander Vargas, said that until they examined the tail, the team thought they were working on an already known dinosaur. Stating that this was a great surprise for the team, Vargas stated that the structure of the tail was incredible.
According to the team, the newly discovered dinosaur has never been seen in the southern hemisphere; however, it is highly likely that it represents a hitherto unknown lineage of armored dinosaurs already described in the northern part of the continent. Another member of the team, Sergio Soto, said they did not know why the tail evolved this way; however, he noted that it is known that different osteoderm-based defense mechanisms tend to develop independently in armored dinosaur groups.
In addition, Soto added, “There is strong evidence of a biogeographic connection with other parts of the planet, in this case Antarctica and Australia, because we have two armored dinosaurs there that are closely related to Stegouros.”
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