Researchers have discovered the 90-million-year-old fossil remains of a previously unknown dinosaur species in Patagonia. Buitreraptor gonzalezorum, the oldest member ever found in South America of the group of dinosaurs that includes the carnivorous Velociraptor, was about the size of a very large rooster, but with a long head and very long tail.

The find provides new evidence that dromaeosaurs, the group of carnivorous, bipedal dinosaurs that includes Velociraptor and is closely related to birds, may have originated much earlier than previously thought and may have evolved into a unique lineage in the southern hemisphere.

The new dinosaur's birdlike features, its huge, hollow "wishbone," long, winglike forelimbs, and bird-like pelvis, provide additional evidence linking dinosaurs to birds.

"This research is part of a larger, ongoing project to assemble the evolutionary family tree of dinosaurs and their relatives," says Richard Lane, program director in the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s division of earth sciences, which funded the research.

The skeleton was discovered in northwestern Patagonia about 700 miles southwest of Buenos Aires. Although Buitreraptor is small, the team needed 10 days to chisel out the 800-pound slab of rock containing the fossil.

The field team was led by Argentine paleontologist Sebastián Apesteguía. He and Federico Agnolin, both affiliated with the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales and the Fundación Félix de Azara, are co-authors of the Nature paper.

Image credit: Jorge Gonzalez, The Field Museum


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