Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Jose Bonaparte, a prolific Argentine paleontologist who is still dis-
covering and studying new dinosaurs in the country, continued
Reig's work. Bonaparte and his crews, which often included Luis,
explored the extensive dinosaur-bearing rock layers of Patagonia.
These crews discovered the first Triassic dinosaur eggs and hatch-
lings in Santa Cruz; the first well-known South American Jurassic
dinosaur fauna in Chubut; and a myriad of Cretaceous dinosaurs in
Rio Negro and Neuquen.
The systematic exploration of Patagonia's rich dinosaur deposits,
initiated by Bonaparte, rests today in the hands of his current and
former students, such as Luis, who through Argentine and interna-
tional expeditions are unraveling the secrets of dinosaurian history in
Patagonia. In fact, vertebrate paleontology has become one of the
most internationally recognized scientific disciplines conducted in
Argentina. Especially important for our expedition was the recogni-
tion of a new group of large, meat-eating dinosaurs called abelisaurs
by Bonaparte and his former student Fernando Novas. The most
complete and spectacular skeleton belonged to
Carnotaurus,
a thirty-
foot-long biped that featured a tall skull with prominent horns over
its eyes. However, its arms were quite short in relation to the rest of its
body, raising questions about what if anything the animal had used
them for.
All of this work set the stage for our expedition because the dis-
coveries of large dinosaurs made by previous workers would play an
important role in our own investigations. But we were actually in
pursuit of much smaller quarry.
