Duck-billed dinosaur fossils found in S. America for 1st time

[Judi Lynn]

Duck-billed dinosaur fossils found in S. America for 1st time
Nov 23,2013

SANTIAGO, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- Chilean scientists said they discovered duck-billed dinosaur fossils the far south region of Patagonia, saying it was the first time that hadrosaurs fossils showed up in South America.

The fossils, found in the oldest corridor between the country's far south Patagonia region and the Antarctic Peninsula, date back to prehistoric times, a group of scientists told a press conference on Friday.

They identified the dinosaurs belong to hadrosaurid and iguanodontia based on the discovered bones and skulls.

The hadrosaurs, or dinosaurs with duck beaks, are large herbivores with more than 2,000 teeth for grinding food. They were usually found in the northern hemisphere.

"This type of findings, with high concentration of bones, is new in the country," said Alexander Vargas, a scientist from University of Chile.

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/article_xinhua.aspx?id=182362

[Gato Moteado]

1. interesting quote from the story.....

"The fossils, found in the oldest corridor between the country's far south Patagonia region and the Antarctic Peninsula, date back to prehistoric times, a group of scientists told a press conference on Friday. "

did the scientists think it would be possible that dinosaur fossils wouldn't date back to prehistoric times?

but....interesting nonetheless!

[RGinNJ]

2. Maybe they thought they were in Sir Conan Doyle's "Lost World".

[dimbear]

4. That's a laugher, all right. Probably a translation error.

Setback for the creationists in the audience otherwise.

[Gato Moteado]

5. i figured it was just an uncomfortable translation error

nt

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Not the first hadrosaur to be found in South America

Secernosaurus was the first hadrosaurid to be found in South America.

Named by Brett-Surman (1979)

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/life/dinosaurs-other-extinct-creatures/dino-directory/secernosaurus.html

[Gato Moteado]

6. well...you know that the chileans don't like or trust the argentinians......

...so, it's not hard to believe they would make that claim.

[NickB79]

7. It was assumed hadrosaurs outcompeted sauropods

At the end of the Jurassic Period, the vast herds of giant, long-necked sauropods largely died out in Asia, Europe and North America, and at the same time herds of smaller iguanodontids and their descendents, the hadrosaurs, took their place. It was long assumed that this was because the hadrosaurs, with their thousands of teeth, were more efficient at chewing and digesting the flowering plants that were starting to spread around the globe.

South America, Africa, India, Antarctica, and Australia, being separated by ocean from the Northern Hemisphere, was seen as the refuge of the sauropods. The titanosaurs, the final lineage of these dinosaurs, prospered in these lands right up to the end of the age of dinosaurs. It was assumed they only survived and flourished because they didn't have any competition like they did up north, just as marsupials survive mainly in Australia today because placental mammals outcompeted them over the ages everywhere else.

To find hadrosaurs in the Gondwanaland region throws that theory into question.