Remains of four species of dinosaurs found in Chilean valley

Key findings-

• The fossils were found in Cerro Guido, in southern Chile’s Las Chinas valley near the border with Argentina, and taken to a laboratory in 2021. 
• The researchers said they belong to dinosaurs that have not previously been identified in the area.
• Inach collaborated with the University of Chile and the University of Texas on the expedition.
• They identified the remains including teeth and postcranial bone pieces -of four species of dinosaur including the megaraptor, which belongs to the theropod family.
• These carnivorous dinosaurs had raptor claws, small teeth for tearing, and large upper limbs which, according to the research, put them at the top of the food chain in the region, which they inhabited between 66 and 75 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous period.
• They also identified two specimens of Unenlagiinae, closely related to velociraptors and which have a “novel evolutionary character, which would indicate that this is a new species of unenlagine or perhaps a representative of a different clade (group).
• They also found remains of two bird species: an Enantiornithe, the most diverse and abundant group of birds of the Mesozoic; and Ornithurinae, a group directly related to present-day birds.

Note: Theropods are the classic bipedal carnivorous dinosaurs, from Coelophysis to Tyrannosaurus, and also include birds. Sauropodomorphs include the enormous quadrupedal, herbivorous long-necked, long-tailed sauropods (Brachiosaurus, Diplodocus) and their cousins the “prosauropods”.