JAKARTA – Fossil dinosaur A meat eater with the skull and small arms of a T-Rex has been found in northern Patagonia, Argentina. He was named as Meraxes gigas.
It was revealed that Meraxes belonged to a group of bipedal flesh-eating theropods known as Carcharodontosauridae, which included other giant dinosaurs such as Giganotosaurus, Mapusaurus and Carcharodontosaurus.
It is thought that these Meraxes lived during the Cretaceous period (about 145 million to 66 million years ago), but went extinct before the extinction event that killed all non-avian dinosaurs and marked the end of the Cretaceous.
Reporting from Live Science, Saturday (9/7/2022), the Meraxes gigas fossil was found in very good condition including the skull, forelegs, thigh, and pelvis. It is estimated that the age of this fossil is between 90 million and 100 million years.
Juan Canale, a researcher at the Ernesto Bachmann Museum of Paleontology in Neuquén, Argentina, said Meraxes gigas was found along with the fossils of four other sauropod dinosaurs buried in the same rock layer.
Canale and his colleagues excavated several tons of sandstone to reach the fossils. And once found, they suspect that when dinosaurs died, their remains were quickly covered by sediment carried by running water, which protected the body from decay.
Meraxes gigas when alive is estimated to have weighed more than 4.4 tons. Although Meraxes and T-Tex both bear some resemblance, the two are not close relatives. They have only managed to evolve as predators.
To note, the small arms are synonymous with predatory dinosaurs such as the T-Rex. In addition, predatory dinosaurs had the characteristics of a large head with strong jaws which became a more effective hunting tool.
(amj)
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