A new dinosaur species was discovered in Argentina. According to the HuffPost, the Llukalkan Aliocranianus was discovered in the Bajo de la Carpa Formation, located in Argentina’s Río Negro and Neuquén provinces.
The dinosaur is similar to the Tyrannosaurus rex and existed 80 million years ago.
“A peculiarity of this dinosaur is that it has cavities in the ear area that other abelisaurids did not have, which could have given this species different auditory capacities, possibly a greater hearing range,” Federico Gianechini, a paleontologist at the National University of San Luis, told CNN. “This, together with its keen sense of smell, would have given greater capabilities as a predator to this species.”
The Llukalkan Aliocranianus was found 700 meters away from another dinosaur that was found in 2016.
“These dinosaurs were still trying out new evolutionary pathways and rapidly diversifying right before they died out completely,” Dr. Ariel Méndez of the Patagonian Institute of Geology and Paleontology said in a press release.
