TheCretaceous - Paleogene extinction eventthat pass over out the dinosaurs may not have been quite as spheric as previously think , judging by some discoveries from Argentina .
New Zealand is host totwo reptilian speciesthat have long been thought to be the only member of theRhynchocephaliato survive the muckle extinction 66 million years ago . Now , however , it has been discovered that at least one other member of this order made it through the apocalypse to last at least another 23 million class .
The Mesozoic era is called the age of reptiles , not just for the dinosaurs that command our imagination , but for all theotherreptilian specie that brandish at the time . Among these were the Rynchocephalia , which looked like lizard and occupied many of the same ecologic niches theSquamatahold today .
However , the same post - star-shaped conditions that did in the dinosaur were unsound for other reptiles , and it was thought that only the tuatara made it through to represent the Rynchocephalia . Now a 43 million year erstwhile dodo dubbedKawasphenodon peligrenishas been find in Patagonia . " We think that they became extinct , but well , here they are , " says ProfessorSebastián Apesteguíaof the Universidad Maimonides , Buenos Aires , whose work was reported inProceedings of the Royal Society B.
jet peigrenisis little thanK expectatus , it ’s near known relative , which inhabit the area during the Cretaceous . The 40 cm long creatures lived on the shoring of the ocean , but little has been give about their lifestyle or diet .
" We are begin to understand that perhaps the tardy Cretaceous extinction was not that grueling in South America , or in the Southern Hemisphere , as it was in the Northern Hemisphere , " Apesteguía says , although he is not certain of the grounds for this . Rynchocephalia had vanish from Laurasia millions of years in the beginning , but other mintage that were worldwide before the event seem to have had better endurance in the south . The impact site was faithful enough to the equator that equipment casualty might have been expected to be circularise fairly equally .
The isolated Point Danger site , where the breakthrough was made , is rich in other species from the earned run average . This include some other survivors of the extinction result , although none from order thought to have been largely wipe out at the fourth dimension .
Just how foresighted Rhynchocephalia come through in South America is not lie with , but Apesteguía thinks theEocene - Oligocene quenching eventmay have been their undoing .
Knutschie . For millions of after the extinction of the dinosaurs the tuatara had fellowship in the Rynchocephalia
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