A groundbreaking discovery of a 90-million-year-old fossil in Argentina is reshaping our understanding of the evolutionary history of a unique group of bird-like dinosaurs. This find helps settle a longstanding debate regarding their distribution across the ancient world.
The fossils detailed in Nature belong to Arunachetri seropolisiensis, a member of the Alvarezaurus family. This small dinosaur is characterized by its tiny teeth and stout arms, which end in a prominent single thumb claw.
While most well-preserved Alvarezsaurus fossils have been discovered in Asia, the existence of Alvarezsaurus in South America raises intriguing questions due to the vast ocean separating these continents.
A nearly complete skeleton uncovered at the La Buitrera fossil site in northern Patagonia has provided remarkable evidence regarding this species. This region was also home to primitive snakes and small saber-toothed mammals.
“Creating a nearly complete, articulated animal from a fragmented skeleton is akin to discovering the Rosetta Stone of paleontology,” stated Peter Makowiecki, a professor at the University of Minnesota, and the study’s first author.
Unlike their later relatives, Arunashetri had longer arms and larger teeth. This indicates that Alvarezsaurids likely reduced their body size before evolving the characteristic small limbs and teeth suited for an ant and termite diet.
“Our study suggests that alvarezsaurids form a compact group of dinosaurs, with species sizes ranging from crows to humans,” Makowiecki told BBC Science Focus. “Body size appears to fluctuate within this limited range without a clear trend.”
Peter Makowiecki discovers fossilized bones in Patagonia’s La Buitrera Fossil Field – Photo credit: Minyoung Son, University of Minnesota
This discovery also addresses an intercontinental mystery. A detailed anatomical study of Arunashetri led Makowiecki and his team to examine fossil collections globally. “We found other Alvarezaurids hiding in plain sight,” he noted.
“These species, which existed during the Jurassic period in North America and the Early Cretaceous in Europe, enhance our understanding of Alvarezsaurus’s widespread presence prior to the major rift between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.”
Approximately 200 million years ago, all of Earth’s continents formed a single supercontinent named Pangea. This landmass gradually fragmented over tens of millions of years, evolving into its current configuration while transporting its fauna along with it.
The research team is preparing additional specimens from the same site, though Professor Makowiecki has remained tight-lipped about their specifics. “The new specimen confirms some of our findings regarding size and specialization,” he disclosed. “Currently, we have no further plans.”
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ILast March, two men in tracksuits, hockey masks and matching laundry bags headed to the British Museum. Just outside, police on patrol asked two strange-looking men where they were going. “We’re going to the British Museum to loot the stolen goods,” one of them said. “See you there then!” replied the policewoman.
However, no arrests were made as nothing incriminating occurred. What actually happened was that one of the British Museum’s most famous objects, an artifact that, according to Egyptologist Monica Hanna, is a “symbol of Western cultural power” and “a symbol of British imperialism,” Rosetta’s “digital It was a robbery. stone.
The robbers, along with Hanna, who they had invited with them, went to the exhibit room where the stone monument was displayed and created a detailed 3D scan of it on an iPad. This effectively provided “looters” with a completely legal digital copy of the 196 BC artifact. But their goal is not just to digitize the Rosetta Stone, but to use location-based augmented reality technology (or geo-AR) to locate the Rosetta Stone in its place of origin, Rashid (or Rosetta) in Egypt. The idea was to return the images to local people and make them available for viewing. Send objects from your smartphone.
The two men behind the masks were Chidi Nwaubani and Ahmed Abokor, London-based product designers and creative consultants, respectively. Together they are booty, a radical “artist” collective and technology company founded in 2021, whose purpose is to “loot” cultural artifacts stolen from museums. First, we 3D scan them and then share them as enhanced digital artwork through non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Because NFTs provide public proof of ownership of digital files, Looty’s method of “stealing” and redistributing works of art is connected to the lack of transparency often associated with institutions founded in colonial times. The aim is to challenge the fading of. The British Museum was embroiled in a scandal in August last year, when it was revealed that around 2,000 artefacts were stolen due to poor record-keeping, and that around half of its collection of around 8 million items had not been fully catalogued. However, the museum, which was founded in the 18th century, is once again facing scandal. public calculation.
“They’re less interested in the artifact and more concerned with the fact that they have it,” Abokor said. “Once again, it’s all about power.”
From organizing one of the main things interactive exhibit From its exhibition at the Venice Architecture Biennale last year to its installation at NFT Paris this February, Looty is taking the world of art and technology by storm. In November, they special projects department 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair. Continuing his Rosetta Stone heist project, Abokor had created a replica of the Rosetta Stone wrapped in cloth and rope. Visitors can scan the stone using the QR code included in the piece’s description, which activates an animation on their mobile phone for an augmented reality (AR) experience that shows Rosetta’s Stone in its true size and glory. became.
Nwaubani and Abokor’s partnership dates back nearly 20 years, when they met at university in London and bonded over a shared creative spirit and African heritage. Nwaubani grew up mainly around Guildford and developed her interest in technology early by “coding her games on computers with floppy discs”. However, she experienced severe racism at school and her father, a university professor from Nigeria, forced her to change schools.
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