Fossils of a ferocious dinosaur with a huge head covered with bumps and scales reminiscent of the legendary gargoyle, found in Argentina, provide insight into the evolution of some of Earth’s largest predatory dinosaurs.
Scientists said Thursday that they discovered in northern Patagonia the large skeletal remains of a previously unknown species of dinosaur, called Meraxis gigas, including one of the most complete skulls of a large, carnivorous dinosaur ever discovered.
Miraxes, which lived regarding 90 million years ago during the Cretaceous period, was 11 to 12 meters long and weighed regarding 9,000 pounds (4 metric tons).
All meat-eating dinosaurs belong to a group of bipeds called theropods, and Juan Ignacio Canal, a paleontologist at the Argentine Research Agency (CONIST) at the Ernesto Bachmann Fossil Museum, the main author of the study published in the journal Current Biology, said that the length of the dinosaur’s skull is the length of the dinosaur’s skull. Miraxis family exceeded 127 centimeters.
“Many of the facial bones and the roof of the skull were covered with bumps, hollows and fissures, giving them a fierce appearance like medieval gargoyles,” said Pete Makovichki, a University of Minnesota paleontologist who co-authored the study.
Miraxes had a powerful jaw with pointed teeth 15 centimeters long and had foot claws larger than any of the large theropods.
He added that despite the large body of dinosaurs of this family, the length of their arms was just over 60 centimeters, which means that they are “ironically short”, and the dinosaurs of the Miraxes family provided the first evidence of the short length of the front limbs in this group.
The scientists wondered why three of the most important groups of theropods had short arms, which were of little use for predation.
The researchers explained that the three groups were characterized by a large head size and a small size of the forelimbs, which indicates a heavy dependence on the skull to finish off prey. But despite its diminutive size, Miraxes’ arms were strong and muscular.
