Bizarre tail weaponry in a transitional ankylosaur from subantarctic Chile
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2021Metadata
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Soto Acuña, Sergio Gonzalo
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Bizarre tail weaponry in a transitional ankylosaur from subantarctic Chile
Author
- Soto Acuña, Sergio Gonzalo;
- Vargas Milne, Alexander Omar;
- Kaluza, Jonatan;
- Leppe, Marcelo A.;
- Botelho, Joao Francisco;
- Palma Liberona, José Antonio;
- Gutstein, Carolina;
- Fernández, Roy;
- Ortiz, Héctor;
- Milla, Verónica;
- Aravena, Bárbara;
- Manríquez, Leslie;
- Alarcón Muñoz, Jhonatan;
- Pino, Juan Pablo;
- Trevisan, Cristine;
- Mansilla, Héctor;
- Hinojosa Opazo, Luis Felipe Camilo;
- Muñoz Walther, Vicente;
- Rubilar Rogers, David Eliseo;
Abstract
Armoured dinosaurs are well known for their evolution of specialized tail weapons-paired tail spikes in stegosaurs and heavy tail clubs in advanced ankylosaurs(1). Armoured dinosaurs from southern Gondwana are rare and enigmatic, but probably include the earliest branches of Ankylosauria(2-4). Here we describe a mostly complete, semi-articulated skeleton of a small (approximately 2 m) armoured dinosaur from the late Cretaceous period of Magallanes in southernmost Chile, a region that is biogeographically related to West Antarctica(5). Stegouros elengassen gen. et sp. nov. evolved a large tail weapon unlike any dinosaur: a flat, frond-like structure formed by seven pairs of laterally projecting osteoderms encasing the distal half ofthe tail. Stegouros shows ankylosaurian cranial characters, but a largely ancestral postcranial skeleton, with some stegosaur-like characters. Phylogenetic analyses placed Stegouros in Ankylosauria; specifically, it is related to Kunbarrasaurus from Australia(6) and Antarctopelta from Antarctica(7), forming a Glade of Gondwanan ankylosaurs that split earliest from all other ankylosaurs. The large osteoderms and specialized tail vertebrae in Antarctopelta suggest that it had a tail weapon similar to Stegouros. We propose a new clade, the Parankylosauria, to include the first ancestor of Stegouros-but not Ankylosaurus-and all descendants ofthat ancestor.
Patrocinador
Agencia Nacional de Investigacion y Desarrollo ANID (National Agency for Research and Development) of the Chilean Ministry of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation through grant PIA Anillo ACT172099
Comision Nacional de Investigacion Cientifica y Tecnologica (CONICYT)
CONICYT FONDECYT 1190891
1151389
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Artículo de publícación WoS
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Nature Volume 600 Issue 7888 Page 259-+ Dec 9 2021
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