First two-legged, armoured South American dinosaur unveiled

STORY: This dinosaur lived in Patagonia around 100 million years ago

Location: Rio Negro province, Argentina

It’s the first armored, two-legged South American dinosaur

Discoverers named it Jakapil kanikura, using Mapuche and Puelche words

(Sebastian Apesteguia, Paleontologist)

"Jakapil is a primitive Thyreophora (armored dinosaur) and is one of the first that existed. We knew these animals thanks to some species that lived in the United Kingdom and in some parts of Europe in the Early Jurassic era, over more than 150 million years ago. But Jakapil isn’t one of them – he lived less than 100 million years ago and comes from an old lineage that survived in South America."

Jakapils share some similarities with today’s crocodiles and iguanas

They have a protector skeleton that

covers their backside like crocodiles

And leaf-shaped teeth like iguanas