The remains of a new species of small dinosaurs that lived on the planet more than 70 million years ago have been found in Argentina, TASS reports with reference to the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET).

"A new study by scientists from CONICET of bones found near the settlement of Salitral-Moreno, located south of the city of General Roca, has identified a new dinosaur that lived in the territory of Argentine Patagonia at the end of the Cretaceous period, about 70 million years ago," the report says.

The new dinosaur was named Patagopelta cristata after the discovery of its shell bones. Scientists found that the species was small in size compared to other ancient lizards, about 2-3 meters in length.

Experts were not able to collect a complete skeleton of the dinosaur, but the information obtained was enough to understand that this is a new species of ankylosaurus. The bones of these herbivorous dinosaurs were often found in the Northern Hemisphere and very rarely in the Southern Hemisphere.

According to one hypothesis, the small size of Patagopelta cristata is due to the fact that there was a lack of food in the habitat and only small individuals survived.

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Photo: tass.ru