New dinosaur whose name means ‘the scary one’ discovered in Argentina

Paleontologists have discovered a new species of dinosaur in Argentina, nicknamed “Llukalkan aliocranianus”. Llukalkan means “the one who frightens” in the Mapuche language, and “aliocranianus” is Latin for “unusual skull”.

The remains of the dinosaur were found in the Bajo de la Carpa Formation, a body of rock that spans Argentina’s provinces of Río Negro and Neuquén, and the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology published details of its update on Wednesday.

The creature, which existed around 80 million years ago, belonged to the abelisaurid family, a group of the most important summit carnivorous predators during the Cretaceous period and similar to the famous Tyrannosaurus rex, with small arms and large hind legs.

The skulls of these dinosaurs were unusual, however, and had ridges, horns, and other protrusions. The bumps on the head of Llukalkan aliocranianus were probably similar to those of an iguana or a Gila monster.

Analysis of the dinosaur’s fossilized skull also revealed that it may have greater hearing than most abelisaurids.

“A peculiarity of this dinosaur is that it has cavities in the ear area that other abelisaurids did not have, which could have given this species different hearing abilities, possibly greater hearing range. Federico Gianechini, paleontologist at the National University of San Luis, Argentina, and one of the lead authors of the study, told CNN. “This, combined with its keen sense of smell, would have given this species great abilities as a predator.”

The creature’s remains were only 700 meters from those of another abelisaurid known as Viavenator exxoni which were discovered in 2016. A study of abelisaurid fossils shows that they were still flourishing just before the extinction of the dinosaurs.

“These dinosaurs were always trying new evolutionary paths and rapidly diversifying just before they completely disappeared,” said study co-author Dr. Ariel Méndez, of the Patagonian Institute of Geology and Paleontology in a report. Press release.