Uac wants a provincial park in the cradle of Ingenia Prima

In the Governor General's Residence, Governor Sergio Uac received Drs. Ricardo Martnez and Cecilia Apaldetti, who led the research team who discovered at Balde de Leyes, Caucete Department, the remains of 39, a giant dinosaur named by Ingentia prima, which means "first giant" in Latin. The project was funded by the Government of San Juan through the Secretariat of Science, Technology and Innovation (SECITI).

At the end of the meeting, the professionals stated that the general manager was very interested in the discovery. Cecilia Apaldetti, a researcher at the Institute and Museum of Natural Sciences and Conicet, said, "We have been working since 2015 and this discovery was made in one of the paleontological campaigns. We discovered this four – legged herbivorous dinosaur that lived 200 million years ago. This discovery broke with all that has been known so far, that is to say that many species of Trisico have taken a huge growth that took them many years something that this discovered species may not have, "he said.

Meanwhile, the palaeontologist and head of the museum's vertebrate paleontology division, Ricardo Martnez, said that the extraction of the fossil took between five to seven days and added that after a year of preparation and a year of studies and investigation of the discovery, the publication in the well-known English nature magazine gave to sanjuaninos research

SECITI support was fundamental to the successful completion of the project, as noted by Tulio engineer Abel del Bono, responsible for this secretara: "This places San Juan in one place of global importance, which also implies the protec site and intrusion prevention. "

The official added that" it is the governor's intention that the site becomes a provincial park and become part of the tourist circuit of the area, which is why the support we provide from the secretariat to this type of project is important. This definitely benefits San Juan in the field of tourism, as a discovery of these features is appealing to tourists around the world, "cerr Del Bono.

The Secretary of State for Science, Technology and Innovation of the Government of San Juan (SECITI) has funded, since 2015, paleontological research in the Law Bucket area ( near Marayes) through agreements with the UNSJ. amount of $ 430,000.

As a result, researchers led by Drs. Ricardo Martnez and Cecilia Apaldetti have discovered several new specimens of dinosaurs in this region that have reformed the paradigms of paleontology as it was known until now.

The latest find is Ingentia prima. His name ("first giant" in Latin) refers to his colossal size and is the first giant known to date on the planet. He has come to have a body mbad of about 10 tons, about the weight of 2 or 3 elephants, being the oldest giant dinosaur known to date. Ingentia prima represents the origin of gigantism, the first steps for that, more than 100 million years later, sauropods of 70 tons, like Argentinosaurus, are born. In addition to Ingentia, Bucket of Laws recently announced carnivore Lucianovenator bonoi. Lucianovenator and Ingentia are from the same period.

Although Lucianavenator was not very tall, he was a gil hunter and could have been feeding from Ingentia, perhaps by conducting a group attack or taking advantage of the fact that an individual d & # 39; Ingentia was injured or elderly.

With the discovery of Ingentia prima, it is clear that the gigantism and the various evolutionary models related to the large size, appeared during the first phase of the emergence of dinosaurs, it is to say in the Trisico period. , in the Jursico. In this way, Ingentia prima alters the appearance of gigantism in at least 30 million years. This discovery was published in the prestigious journal Nature Ecology & Evolution (one of the most important in the scientific world) and had a global impact.