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A examine of fossils present in Chile has supplied researchers with a window into the dinosaur and chook inhabitants within the Patagonia area of South America throughout a interval simply earlier than when non-avian dinosaurs went extinct. The analysis paperwork many species together with large mega raptors with giant sickle-like claws.
The fossils studied characterize the primary file of therapods within the Chilean portion of Patagonia. Therapods are a dinosaur group that features each fashionable birds and their closest associated non-avian dinosaurs.
“The fauna of Patagonia main as much as the mass extinction was actually numerous. You’ve acquired your giant theropod carnivores and smaller carnivores in addition to these chook teams coexisting alongside different reptiles and small mammals,” Sarah Davis, lead writer of the examine printed in The Journal of South American Earth Science, in a press assertion.
The researchers have been working to gather fossils and construct a file of historical life from the area since 2017. The examine centered notably on therapods with fossils relationship between 66 to 75 million years outdated. The non-avian therapods have been largely carnivorous and included the highest predators within the meals chain on the time. The fossils present that these predators included dinosaurs from two teams— Megaraptors and Unenlagiines.
Measuring over seven metres lengthy, megaraptors have been among the many bigger therapod dinosaurs within the area in the course of the late Cretaceous interval. Unenlagiines, the members of the opposite group, ranged in dimension from that close to a rooster to over three metres lengthy. Additionally, the Unenlagiinae fossils described within the analysis are the southernmost situations recorded of this dinosaur group.
The avian fossils have been additionally from two distinct teams — Enantiornithines and Ornithurines. Enantiornithine resembled sparrows however with beaks lined with enamel they usually have been essentially the most numerous and ample birds hundreds of thousands of years in the past. The Ornithurae group consists of all fashionable birds that we all know as we speak. In line with the College of Texas, which led the examine, those residing in Patagonia on the time might have resembled geese or geese.
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