Shortly before the outbreak of the corona crisis, a Japanese-Arganian team led by Alexis Aranciaga Rolando from the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales in Buenos Aires was still a sensational find: In the Patagonian steppe, the researchers have the remains of a gigantic predatory acid-a megaraptor-which they followed Lockdown could further examine. "We beat the pandemic with Maip," says the paleontologist Fernando Novas, which is involved in the study. The scientists published their study in "Scientific Reports".
Maip macrothorax, the full name of the species, reached a length of up to ten meters and a weight of six tons. This makes it the largest Megaraptor known to date. A special feature of the species are its up to 40 centimeters long claws, with which he captured and slashed smaller dinosaurs. The dinosaur was thus most likely the region's apex predator during the Cretaceous period 70 million years ago and was one of the last representatives of its group before the mass extinction caused by the Chicxulub asteroid impact, which took place four million years later.
The name »Maip« is derived from a mythological figure of the local Aonikenk ethny, which symbolizes evil. The character is considered a "shadow of death", which kills in the Andes with cold wind. The species name "macrothorax" in turn alludes to the huge chest of the animal. Despite its size and weight, the scientists suspect that the megaraptor was relatively light -footed and could succumb to his prey on fast legs. In contrast to the tyrannosaurs with their massive skeleton, the megaraptors had light bones.
During the lifetime of the dinosaurs, tropical conditions and dense forest prevailed in Patagonia. Today, however, it is cold-temperate in the region and the landscape is dominated by vast steppes. After all, this makes it easier to find the fossils.
