2024-03-22 04:15:00
Discovering a dinosaur is always exceptional news. It is the past that becomes present. In many cases, the bones are dusted off, little by little, side by side. In others, the form must be reconstructed. This is the case of the new species that is presented today in Villa El Chocón. A new dinosaur made from two different individuals.
But, to reach this new species, We had to travel quite a bit. And a little history doesn’t hurt: Starting in the 1960s, paleontological finds were made in Villa El Chocón. After decades of discoveries of Cretaceous vertebrates, the town has established itself as a national and international reference.
But, to know The origin of the new species that is presented today must go back to 2000. It was spring and Manuel Bustingorry, the youngest of the brothers in the pioneer family, reported a discovery to the municipal museum: he had found a strikingly large and robust bone near a ravine.
The news reached Rubén Carolini, who was in charge of the Villa El Chocón museum. Together with the paleontologist Simón, a technician and the driver went straight to see what was happening..
When we saw the fossil on the ground, under a large alpataco, the emotion was great for everyone. After the visit, there was not much to wait: they began the excavation. The first campaign was carried out in February 2001 and it was quite a challenge. The pieces they found were very large. For example, they found the arm bone, the humerus, which measured 1.70 m and the scapula 1.64 m. But, in addition to the size, some pieces were overlapping. This required important decisions to ensure its preservation. On the other hand, the extraction work became difficult at times: there were eleven people working in a small space. But, the enthusiasm was renewed when discovering the fossil jewels that were emerging from the Cretaceous rock to the sound of iron cutters, points and clubs.
The second excavation was carried out between November and December 2001. The pieces were so voluminous and heavy that moving them to the laboratory was a task of great precision and effort. The campaign bore fruit: they rescued five bones from the dinosaur’s right hand; three finger bones “phalanges”; and a vertebra from the dinosaur’s back that, although with its spine broken, reached 93 cm in height. The pieces were taken to the laboratory and there it began.or the stage of describing, ordering and comparing them to finally be able to put together the great “puzzle”.
With the collaboration of Dr. Leonardo Salgado, specialist in vertebrate paleontology and one of the most prominent researchers on this topic, They managed to give “shape” to the fifty recovered bones. From there, they discovered that the bones belonged to four individuals, all of the same species. AND With two of them they created a new species: “Bustingorrytitan shiva”, which is what they present today.
But, the task was not easy. To create this new species they based themselves on a specimen, the most complete, which in technical terms is known as a “holotype.” Forty pieces of this animal were recovered. And another specimen, which complements the information of the first, known as “paratype”, which is represented by six pieces and is a little smaller than the first. Considering both dinosaurs, they created the new species. This is how it was born Bustingorrytitan shiva.
The new dinosaur is a sauropod, a type of quadrupedal, herbivorous dinosaur, which includes the largest animals that have populated the continents. These Mesozoic giants made their appearance more than 200 million years ago, possibly in the Late Triassic, and became extinct along with most dinosaurs towards the end of the Cretaceous, about 65 million years ago.
Bustingorrytitan shiva It is part of a group of dinosaurs that do not commonly reach large sizes, the Saltasaurids. However, when applying a body mass estimation method, the result was that it would have weighed at least 50 tons, and could probably reach 57 tons. This places Bustingorrytitan shiva as one of the largest sauropods on record. The gigantism of the new dinosaur corroborates the idea that megatitanosaurs, titanosaurs weighing 50 tons or more, they would have evolved more than once within titanosaurs. In Neuquén, Bustingorrytitan is added to the group of giants where Argentinosaurus huinculensis and Futalognkosaurus dukei are found.
Science in check, again
In the 1990s, Budget reductions were one of the factors that plunged the National Universities and Conicet into one of their deepest crises. This led to the closure of centers and institutes and the well-known exodus of “gray matter” from the country. In 2001, Once again, the situation worsened and we witnessed the systematic destruction of the Argentine scientific and technological system. This was denounced by thinkers internal and external to the scientific field. Diego Hurtado in his book “Argentine science, an unfinished project”, showed the framework that underlies the ups and downs of Argentine science in the period 1930 – 2000. In those years Marcelino Cereijido and Laura Reinking published “Due Ignorance” in 2003. . Both were forceful: what establishes the disparity between the rich and the poor, is a modern science that has divided humanity into a First World that investigates, creates, produces, sells, decides, defines, dictates, imposes, censors, invades, and a Third that travels, communicates, dresses, heals and kills with vehicles, clothes, medicines and weapons that those of the First have invented.
In this time of change, once again we witness the desire to “scrap” the national scientific and technological system. There are many voices that have been raised to defend him. Perhaps one of the most notable manifestations is the letter from the 68 Nobel Prize winners who expressed, in a harsh criticism directed at President Javier Milei, their concern about the situation of defunding that Argentine science is experiencing.
Whoever seeks to destroy the Argentine scientific system cannot argue that they do so in the name of freedom. Possibly he is unaware of the importance of science, or he simply responds to other interests, which are not those of the Nation.
The colossus of crises
Does 93 million yearswhen it existed Bustingorrytitan shiva a crisis occurred in the world that generated the disappearance of large groups of animals. That was a crisis due to natural causes. It is notable that Bustingorrytitan shiva be a “witness” of two more crisesbut due to the action of human beings, one in 2001when it was extracted from the earth and another, in 2024when it comes to light.
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