Armless dinosaur discovered in Argentina, Exceeding 70 million years

Paleontologists have discovered the skull of a strange dinosaur belonging to a family of dinosaurs that had no arms, which lived in the Southern Hemisphere about 70 million years ago.

The dinosaur, named Goymisia okoya, belonged to the Abelisaurid, a group of carnivorous dinosaurs that lived in parts of modern Africa, South America and India, according to the study published this month in the journal Vertibriate Paleontology.

Dr Anjali Goswami, study leader from the Museum of Natural History, said in a statement: "This new dinosaur is completely unusual, and has several key characteristics that indicate it is a new species, and provides important new information about an area of ​​the world that we don't know much about."

While some preliminary research suggests that the mighty T-Rex may have actually used its tiny arms to bring prey closer to it, the paleontologists behind the new study say that many Abelisaurid species had shorter front limbs than those of the T-Rex. They are completely useless, and the Abelisaurid species could not grab prey or objects, forcing the dinosaurs to rely on their powerful heads and jaws to capture prey.

Fossils of this group of dinosaurs have been found in rocks throughout Africa, South America, Europe, as well as India dating back to the late Cretaceous period. Paleontologists also found that the skull of Goymisia okoya was as small as the brain of other abelisaurid species, indicating a small brain size. Scientists also identified rows of small holes in the front of the skull that allowed to reduce the temperature of the dinosaur's body by pumping blood to the thin layer of skin in the front of the head to get rid of excess heat.

Scientists say the fossil is further evidence in the chain of evidence that northwestern Argentina had a unique group of creatures unlike those found elsewhere in the world at this time. And while Argentina is best known for its fossils of dinosaurs from this group, as well as 35 other species already present, researchers say that almost all of these fossils are from Patagonia, in the south of the country, and only a few fossils of these animals have been found in the northwest.

Dr Goswami said: 'It appears that the dinosaurs that lived in this area were very different from those in other parts of Argentina, which supports the idea of ​​distinct provinces in Cretaceous South America. Understanding a global event like extinction requires compiling a set of global data, but there are a lot of parts of the world that haven't been studied in detail, and tons of fossils still have to be discovered.”