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Most of the classic creatures that come to mind when you think of dinosaurs are from the Cretaceous period, when evolution seems to have reached its peak and splashed with things like the huge sauropods to long neck. But dinosaurs were not always giants – during the first period of the Triassic, they were mostly creatures the size of a chicken, and they did not become massive before the Jurassic. Now, the discovery of a new species in Argentina is pushing back the gigantism of the dinosaurs up to 30 million years ago.
The creature was nicknamed "Ingentia prima" (Latin "first giant"), and it was classified as sauropodomorph, the group that would evolve later to the gigantic sauropods. Although he has a much shorter neck and feet more similar to those of the theropod, the family resemblance is clear. Ingentia weighed about 10 tons, which is huge for his time, but actually a relatively light weight next to some of his descendants like Patagotitan, the largest land animal ever to walk on Earth.
Gigantism was considered to have arisen during the Jurassic period, about 180 million years ago, but Ingentia prima lived at the end of the Triassic between 210 and 205 million years ago, "explains Cecilia Apaldetti, author of a study describing the new discovery. . "It's a real giant, especially for this moment of evolution where most of the animals that coexisted did not exceed two meters in height and the largest ones reached a maximum of three tons." 19659002 "" That's why we see at Ingentia prima the origin of gigantism, the first steps for that, more than 100 million years later, sauropods of 70 tons could emerge, like Argentinosaurus or Patagotitan, from southern Argentina. "
The team also found biological evidence of how Ingentia appeared to have had a respiratory system similar to that of modern birds: in addition to the lungs, she had a pair of air sacs that allowed her to have a supply of oxygenated air and "Ingentia had pneumatic cavities in his bones, which indicates the presence of highly developed air sacs, a very effective respiratory system like that of the current birds, and which consequently lightened his weight" In addition to this, Ingentia also seems to have grown into seasonal flushes much like a tree, instead of growing steadily like most other animals, based on this unusual pattern of growth. researchers have classified Ingentia into a new family called Lessemsauridae, which includes some other previously disparate members.
Search was published in the jou rnal Nature Ecology & Evolution .
Source: National University of San Juan
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