Researchers find first-of-its-kind armored dinosaur remains in Argentina

Get the Full StoryResearchers have found the remains of a previously unknown species of armored dinosaur in Argentina the first of its kind to be discovered in South America, according to Science Alert.The dinosaur, named Jakapil kaniukura, is said to have been bipedal with a short beak and rows of bony disk-shaped armor along its neck, back, and down to its tail. A well-protected species, Jakapil is a part of the thyreophoran species alongside other armored dinos like the stegosaurus and the ankylosaurus. The discovery was made by paleontologists at the F lix de Azara Natural History Foundation in Argentina. The team uncovered the partial remains of Jakapil in the R o Negro province in northern Patagonia, Science Alert reports. Lead paleontologist Sebasti n Apestegu a wrote that Jakapil represents the "first definitive thyreophoran species from the Argentinian Patagonia."

A holotype of Jakapil kaniukura

Credit: nature.com

Researchers wrote in the journal Scientific Reports that Jakapil was an ancient species of thyreophoran, however, the remains found date back between 97 million and 94 million years ago during the Cretaceous period. The Cretaceous period is also known as the last era of the dinosaurs.

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This is a surprising outcome as Apestegu a and his team note in their paper that "these older types of thyreophorans seem to have gone extinct by the Middle Jurassic." They also added that they were surprised an ancient lineage of thyreophorans survived all the way into the Late Cretaceous in South America.

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Thanks to this computer reconstruction above from Gabriel D az Yant n, a Chilean paleoartist and paleontology student at R o Negro National University, you can see what this ancient species may have looked like when it was alive. Apestegu a and his team measured Jakapil out to be 5 feet long with a weight between 9 and 15 pounds the size of an average house cat. With teeth similar to the stegosaurus, researchers also believe Jakapil to also have been a plant-eating species.

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