New giant dinosaur species discovered in Chile

Chilean paleontologists on Monday announced the discovery of a new species of giant dinosaur called Arackar licanantay.

The dinosaur belongs to the titanosaur dinosaur family but is unique in the world due to features on its vertebrae.

The Arackar licanantay – an indigenous language in Kunza that means “Atacameño bones” – lived in what is now the Atacama region, at the end of the Cretaceous, 80 to 66 million years ago.

The fossil specimen belongs to a large, four-legged, herbivore about 6.3 meters long, but scientists have determined that the remains are those of a juvenile.

Adults are estimated to have grown to 8 feet long (26 ‘).

The bones – a femur, humerus, ischium, and vertebral elements of the neck and back – were first discovered in the 1990s by geologist Carlos Arévalo.

Arévalo excavated the specimen with experts from the Chilean National Geology and Mining Service, during an excavation 75 kilometers (46 miles) south of the town of Copiapó, in the Atacama region.

David Rubilar, the head of the paleontology department at the National Museum of Natural History (MNHN) of Chile, led the team responsible for the discovery, consisting of experts from the National Museum of Natural History of Chile, the University of Chile paleontological network, and the Dinosaur Laboratory of the National University of Argentina, in Cuyo, Argentina.

The discovery of a new dinosaur species was formally announced in an article published in the journal Chalk research.

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