On May 22nd, the 24th International Day for Biological Diversity was celebrated. Researchers from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, in collaboration with explorers from National Geographic, uncovered a new carnivorous dinosaur species during a field survey in Patagonia, South America. The newly discovered species, named "Koleken inakayali," belongs to the Abelisauridae family and is a unique member of the Gondwanan dinosaur group. The findings have been published in the evolutionary biology journal "Branches."
Research Team Members - University of Hong Kong Provides Images
Led by Assistant Professor Wen Jiaqi from the School of Life Sciences at the University of Hong Kong and explorer Diego Pol from National Geographic, the research team has made significant discoveries through continuous exploration of the 69-million-year-old La Colonia Formation, offering new perspectives on dinosaur research in the Late Cretaceous period.
Gondwana was an ancient supercontinent in the Southern Hemisphere that later split into present-day South America, Africa, India, Madagascar, Australia, and Antarctica. Before the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous period, Gondwana was home to various unique dinosaur groups and species not commonly found elsewhere, such as the carnivorous cow-sized Carnotaurus with distinctive double horns on its head, which gained familiarity through its appearances in the movie "Jurassic World" and the documentary "Prehistoric Planet."
Within the La Colonia Formation where the Carnotaurus fossils were discovered, the research team found a new species of Abelisaurid dinosaur. Differing from the Carnotaurus in many aspects, including being smaller in size and lacking cranial horns, this study suggests that at least two species of Abelisaurids lived in the Late Cretaceous period in La Colonia.
The research team discovered a computer-generated illustration of a theropod dinosaur. Image source: Gabriel Diaz Yantén.
Wong Ka-kei stated that the research team, using partial skeletal fossils of this dinosaur including several skull pieces, a series of nearly complete vertebrae, a complete pelvis, several tail bones, and almost complete legs, confirmed the existence of this species and updated the evolutionary tree of abelisaurid animals and their relatives. "These findings provide valuable insights into how abelisaurids and the broader ceratopsian group diversified in body size over time."
Team member and postdoctoral researcher at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Bayano, explained that the discovery of the Koleken dinosaur further supports the view that multiple abelisaurid species lived in the same habitat during the late Cretaceous period, showing that abelisaurids were actually quite diverse at that time, contrary to views about other dinosaur groups. This study offers new insights into how dinosaurs and the global dinosaur ecosystem evolved over time.
For more information on the research paper, visit: https://doi.org/10.1111/cla.12583
