Researchers, in Argentina, have discovered the remains of an unknown species of armored dinosaur. Paleontologists estimate this species to be around 100 million years old.
The new dinosaur has been given the name, Jakapil Kaniukura and is bipedal with a short beak and rows of bony disk-shaped armor running along its neck, back, and tail. Jakapil belongs to the thyreophoran species with other armored dinosaurs like stegosaurus and ankylosaurus.
The dinosaur was identified by a team of Felix de Azara Natural History Foundation in Argentina. According to Science Alert, fragments of Jakapil were found in the Rio Negro province. Sebastian Apesteguia, the leader of the team of paleontologists, said, “Jakapil represents remains of the first definitive thyreophoran species from the Argentinian Patagonia.”
Since Jakapil is a part of the ancient thyreophoran family, the discovered remains date back between 97 million to 94 million years ago during the Cretaceous period which is also known as the last era of the dinosaurs.
“These older type of thyreophoran seems to have gone extinct by the Middle Jurassic”, Apesteguia and his team mentioned in their paper. The researchers further added that they were in awe that an ancient lineage of thyreophoran species survived up till the Late Cretaceous period in South America.
Gabriel Diaz Yanten, a Chilean paleo artist and paleontology student at Rio Negro National History University, constructed an image of what Jakapil may be looked like during its time with the help of his computer.
Jakapil is said to be 5 feet long with a weight ranging between 9 and 15 pounds as per the team of paleontologists. Researchers claim Jakapil to be a plant-eating species similar to the stegosaurus.
