Relict duck-billed dinosaurs survived into the last age of the dinosaurs in subantarctic Chile
Alarcon-Munoz, Jhonatan
Universidad de Chile
Vargas, Alexander O.
Universidad de Chile
Puschel, Hans P.
Universidad de Chile
Soto-Acuna, Sergio
Universidad de Chile
Manriquez, Leslie
Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos (Unisinos)
Leppe, Marcelo
Inst Nacl Antartico Chileno
Kaluza, Jonatan
Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas (CONICET)
Milla, Veronica
Universidad de Chile
Gutstein, Carolina S.
Universidad de Chile
Palma-Liberona, Jose
Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile
Stinnesbeck, Wolfgang
Ruprecht Karls University Heidelberg
Frey, Eberhard
Staatl Museum Nat Kunde Karlsruhe SMNK
Pino, Juan Pablo
Universidad de Chile
Bajor, Daniel
Universidad de Chile
Nunez, Elaine
Universidad de Chile
Rubilar-Rogers, David
Museo Nacl Hist Nat Chile
Cruzado-Caballero, Penelope
Universidad de la Laguna
Journal
Science Advances
ISSN
2375-2548
Open Access
gold
Volume
9
In the dusk of the Mesozoic, advanced duck-billed dinosaurs (Hadrosauridae) were so successful that they likely outcompeted other herbivores, contributing to declines in dinosaur diversity. From Laurasia, hadrosaurids dis-persed widely, colonizing Africa, South America, and, allegedly, Antarctica. Here, we present the first species of a duck-billed dinosaur from a subantarctic region, Gonkoken nanoi, of early Maastrichtian age in Magallanes, Chile. Unlike duckbills further north in Patagonia, Gonkoken descends from North American forms diverging shortly before the origin of Hadrosauridae. However, at the time, non-hadrosaurids in North America had become replaced by hadrosaurids. We propose that the ancestors of Gonkoken arrived earlier in South America and reached further south, into regions where hadrosaurids never arrived: All alleged subantarctic and Antarctic remains of hadrosaurids could belong to non-hadrosaurid duckbills like Gonkoken. Dinosaur faunas of the world underwent qualitatively different changes before the Cretaceous-Paleogene asteroid impact, which should be considered when discussing their possible vulnerability.