Chile fossil hunters discover odd Jurassic dinosaur pieces

This new discovery is being named Chilesaurus diegosuarezi.

A remarkable discovery occurred in Chile, as fossil hunters found fossils belonging to an odd dinosaur, said to be related to the Tyrannosaurus rex. The dinosaur is named Chilesaurus diegosuarezi, having a combination of unique features from different kinds of prehistoric animals.

MUNTINLUPA, PHILIPPINES (Catholic Online) - The Chilesaurus was a vegetarian dinosaur, and unlike its meat-eating relatives, it didn't have a thick neck, a large head, or sharp teeth. Instead, it had a slender neck, a small head, and flatter teeth, which it uses for munching plants.

According to the fossil hunters, the bizarre dinosaur grew to a size of a horse. About 145 million years ago, in what is now the Aysen region of Pantagonia, the "beast" is considered the most abundant animal the fossil hunters have found. They want this dinosaur to be eventually included in the dinosaur family tree.

It is still unknown what ecological pressures took place or how the evolution of dinosaurs produced this unique form, according to an interview with Fernando Novas of the Bernardino Rivadavia Natural Sciences Museum in Buenos Aires.

In 2004, Chilean couple Manuel Suarez and Rita de la Cruz, who are both geologists and were studying rocks in the Andes, discovered the first fossiled bones of the Chilesaurus.

The dinosaur was named after the couple's seven-year-old son, Diego, who found the dinosaur's fossilized bone, which was eventually discovered to belong to a new species of dinosaur.

Because of this new discovery, the couple decided to return to the site with Novas and a team of other scientists. This breath-taking rocky expanse is nearby General Carrera Lake in southern Chile, called Black Hill.

When the couple and the team of researchers went back to the site, they found at least four almost well-preserved and almost complete skeletons, and other bones from a dozen different weird animals.

What is even more odd is that the all these weird different parts of animals, such as a combination of head, neck, shoulder, rib, pelvis, leg, and tail bones were actually all from the same creature.

The researchers discovered more odd features from the dinosaur, such as stumpy fingers and stocky forelimbs. The Chilesaurus form, according to the researchers, shows that the different parts of an animal adapt to its environment in the same path as that of the other creatures.

Their team plans to return to the site to discover more bones by next year, with hopes of finding those that belong to predators that must have been in the land before the Andes was formed.

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