Sektensaurus
"island lizard"
- Length
- 3 m (9.8 ft)
- Period
- Late Cretaceous (68–66 Mya)
- Place
- Antarctica · Argentina
- Food
- Herbivore
- Clade
- Dinosauria The clade containing all dinosaurs, terrestrial archosaurs with upright limbs.
Sektensaurus (meaning “island lizard”, sekten meaning “island” in Tehuelche) is a genus of ornithopod dinosaur, possibly an elasmarian, from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) of Patagonia, Argentina. Its remains were uncovered in the fluvial tuffs of the Lago Colhué Huapí Formation in the Golfo San Jorge Basin. The type and only species is S. sanjuanboscoi. Sektensaurus is the first non-hadrosauroid ornithopod of central Patagonia. The discovery of the genus increases the anatomical knowledge of ornithopods and adds new data on the compositions of dinosaur faunas that lived in Patagonia close to Antarctica at the end of the Cretaceous.
What we know
- Named by Ibiricu et al. 2019.
- Body length estimated at about 3 m.
- Fossils found in Antarctica and Argentina.
What we guess
The reconstruction notes for Sektensaurus — soft tissue, color, behavior — haven't been written up yet. Only the recorded basics above are filled in so far.