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This site is special because new species have been discovered which are still being investigated. Some of the bones were of animals that lived over 231 million years ago in the Triassic period
A huge deposit of ancient fossils has been discovered in San Juan, Argentina, research paleontologists announced Wednesday.
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The deposit was found at a site called Marayes in the town of San Juan about 680 miles west of Buenos Aires. Ricardo Martinez, a paleontologist at the Institute and Museum of Natural Science at the University of San Juan has been working in the area for decades and came across this site through tips from local people.
This site is special because new species have been discovered which are still being investigated. Some of the bones were of animals that lived over 231 million years ago in the Triassic period.
The Triassic period is the stretch of time in the Earth’s history between 248 to 206 million years ago when dinosaurs had not yet become the prevalent species on the planet, and when the Earth was still going through tumultuous changes.
Among the remains, which was believed to be a watering hole that later dried up, also included animals from later eras. Some could be the ancient ancestors of mammals, known as dicynodonts, and the reptilian ancestors of crocodiles.
The find is important because it provides more information on not only dinosaurs, but on the ancestors of dinosaurs of which not much has been found. This part Argentina is rich in species that can’t be found in other areas. These remains could help explain how dinosaurs came to dominate the Earth throughout the golden age of dinosaurs in the Jurassic period, to their eventual fall in the Cretaceous period.
In recently years, Argentina has become a powerhouse of paleontology with new discoveries bridging gaps in the Earth’s ancient history.
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