Nightmarish Heron-like Dinosaur Unearthed in PatagoniaSkip to ContentLog InSubscribe<br>Nautilus Facebook<br>Nautilus X (formerly Twitter)<br>Nautilus TikTok<br>Nautilus YouTube<br>Nautilus Bluesky<br>Nautilus Instagram
Advertisement
PaleontologyNightmarish Heron-like Dinosaur Unearthed in Patagonia<br>Pretty tough to be a fish 70 million years ago
JC
By Jake Currie
1:00 PM CDT on May 29, 2026<br>Share on Facebook<br>Share on X (formerly Twitter)<br>Share on Reddit<br>Share on Email<br>Share on Bluesky
Southern Argentina during the Late Cretaceous didn’t have the cool, arid climate it does today. Instead it was temperate, muggy, and teeming with prehistoric life. Snails, fish, lizards, and even a distant relative of the modern platypus lived in the ancient Patagonian rivers and lakes, and all of them may have been lunch for a newly discovered dinosaur: Kank australis.<br>Featured Video
“Kank lived in a landscape of meandering rivers and streams with seasonal ponds, inhabited by aquatic plants such as water lilies and animals including fish, insects, and various mollusks,” Matías Motta of the Bernardino Rivadavia Natural Sciences Museum and co-author of a study describing the species said in a statement.<br>Paleontologists unearthed a smattering of fractured K. australis bones from the fossil-rich Chorrillo Formation in Southern Argentina during a 2018 excavation. Unfortunately, they were too fragmented to be identified until a neck bone was discovered six years later. According to the team, that was the key to identifying the new species.<br>Read more: “Unraveling the Evolution of Flight”<br>On the neck vertebra closest to the dinosaur’s body, the paleontologists noticed small bony protrusions. These little nubs were attachment sites for muscles, similar to those in modern birds that have long, agile necks capable of complex maneuvers, like herons.<br>According to the researchers, K. australis fed also like a heron, wading into the water to snatch unsuspecting fish with its tooth-filled jaws. “Their elongated snouts, numerous teeth, and long, flexible necks suggest adaptations for fishing, similar to modern herons,” Motta explained.<br>Credit: Gabriel Díaz YanténUnlike herons, though, the dinosaur also had long, sharp claws on its largest toes, similar to raptors. In fact, it’s a member of the family unenlagiidae, which includes Neuquenraptor argentinus—a similar dinosaur that lived 20 million years earlier. Based on comparisons to that species, the paleontologists estimate K. australis could grow to be almost 10 feet long.<br>The find is shedding light on the diversity and spread of unenlagiids in South America as well. While several species have been found farther north, including the 16-foot austroraptor, Southern Patagonia has yielded fewer specimens.<br>“Kank helps bridge a distributional gap for the Late Cretaceous of southern Patagonia, connecting known records from northern Patagonia and Antarctica, and showing that this family was dispersed across different latitudes of South America,” Motta said.<br>In other words, the Late Cretaceous was a good time to be an unenlagiid, but a bad time to be a fish.<br>Enjoying Nautilus? Subscribe to our free newsletter.<br>Lead image: Gabriel Díaz Yantén
Advertisement
Share on Facebook<br>Share on X (formerly Twitter)<br>Share on Reddit<br>Share on Email<br>Share on Bluesky
JC
Jake Currie<br>Jake Currie is a writer based in Brooklyn, NY.
Stay in touch<br>Sign up for our free newsletter
Email<br>Sign up
More from Paleontology<br>Explore Paleontology<br>Paleontology<br>The Cephalopods Are Coming<br>Fossil records reveal Earth’s mass extinctions are followed by a rise of ocean cephalopods. They’re rising again.
Peter Ward
May 29, 2026
Paleontology<br>This “Feathered Dragon” Shook Its Tail Feathers in the Time of Dinosaurs<br>Some things never go out of style
Jake Currie
May 28, 2026
Paleontology<br>This Toothless, Beaked Crocodile Ancestor Walked on Two Legs<br>It came on the scene during a time of evolutionary experimentation
Jake Currie
May 26, 2026
Paleontology<br>There’s a New T. Rex in Town—and It Swims<br>It’s mean, too
Jake Currie
May 22, 2026
Paleontology<br>We Finally Have the Answer for T. Rex’s Tiny Arms<br>They have their massive heads to blame
Jake Currie
May 19, 2026
Paleontology<br>These Three Newly Discovered Mammals Survived the Extinction Event That Wiped Out the Dinosaurs<br>And we followed in their tiny footsteps<br>1Comments
Jake Currie
May 19, 2026
© Copyright 2026<br>Made in partnership with Lede