A brand new genus and species of unenlagiine dinosaur has been known through paleontologists in Argentina. Named Diuqin lechiguanae, it fills a considerable hole within the fossil document of those theropod dinosaurs.
Lifestyles reconstruction of Diuqin lechiguanae. Symbol credit score: Porfiri et al., doi: 10.1186/s12862-024-02247-w.
Diuqin lechiguanae roamed our planet throughout the Santonian age of the Cretaceous length, between 86 and 84 million years in the past.
This species belonged to Unenlagiine, a subfamily of long-snouted paravian theropods inside the circle of relatives Dromaeosauridae.
“Unenlagiines are Gondwanan predatory dinosaurs which are nested inside of Paraves, the clade that comes with birds and their closest non-avian theropod family,” stated Dr. Juan Porfiri from the Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Buenos Aires, and his colleagues.
“The unenlagiine fossil document comes predominantly from Argentina, the place the best selection of specimens and probably the most whole skeletons were discovered, even if different fabrics a minimum of tentatively assigned to Unenlagiinae have additionally been recovered from Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Antarctica.”
“The small-bodied, probably volant Madagascan theropod Rahonavis ostromi has additionally been incessantly considered an unenlagiine, relying at the explicit phylogenetic speculation hired.”
“Unenlagiines are maximum incessantly interpreted as early diverging dromaeosaurids, even if different authors have as an alternative seemed those theropods as a definite paravian clade (Unenlagiidae).”
“They’re the most important clade for working out hen origins because of their shut phylogenetic dating with Avialae.”
“Sadly, then again, maximum species are represented handiest through fragmentary fossils.”
Diuqin lechiguanae’s fragmentary however related postcranial skeleton was once recovered from the Bajo de los angeles Carpa Formation of Neuquén Province, Patagonia, Argentina.
“The specimen was once amassed from the isthmus between the southeast coast of Lago Barreales and the northwest coast of Lago Mari Menuco, in Neuquén Province,” the paleontologists stated.
Consistent with the authors, Diuqin lechiguanae is the primary species of unenlagiine dinosaur to be came upon from the Bajo de los angeles Carpa Formation.
“The Bajo de los angeles Carpa Formation has yielded fossils that jointly constitute a various and essential paleobiota,” they stated.
“Vertebrate stays are ample and incessantly well-preserved, and come with the ones of snakes, lizards, turtles, crocodyliforms, indeterminate pterosaurs, ornithopods, titanosaurian sauropods, non-avian theropods, and birds.”
Diuqin lechiguanae fills a temporal hole of a minimum of 15 million years within the fossil document of unenlagiines (conservatively, 90-75 million years, most likely larger).
“The brand new species augments the fossil document of South American unenlagiines through filling an important hole of their temporal distribution,” the researchers stated.
“Preserved parts of Diuqin lechiguanae display morphological variations from corresponding bones in different unenlagiine species, reminiscent of an adjunct lamina at the posteriormost sacral vertebral neural arch, unique paired foramina at the posteriormost sacral and anterior caudal neural arches, and a humerus with a distally positioned distolateral deltopectoral ridge and several other prerequisites that seem intermediate between the humeri of Unenlagia spp. and the exceptionally large-bodied unenlagiine Austroraptor cabazai.”
“Coupled with the multi-million-year stratigraphic gaps between Diuqin lechiguanae and geologically older and more youthful unenlagiines, respectively, those anatomical distinctions improve the validity of the brand new species.”
“Additional, the humerus of the Diuqin lechiguanae kind specimen reveals two conical enamel marks that point out that the carcass was once fed upon through any other tetrapod, most likely a crocodyliform, mammal, or theropod (in all probability the megaraptorid represented through a enamel discovered on the identical web site, and even any other unenlagiine person, probably a member of the similar species).”
The invention of Diuqin lechiguanae is reported in a paper within the magazine BMC Ecology and Evolution.
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J.D. Porfiri et al. 2024. Diuqin lechiguanae gen. et sp. nov., a brand new unenlagiine (Theropoda: Paraves) from the Bajo de los angeles Carpa Formation (Neuquén Staff, Higher Cretaceous) of Neuquén Province, Patagonia, Argentina. BMC Ecol Evo 24, 77; doi: 10.1186/s12862-024-02247-w
