Neuquén: they presented a new dinosaur and propose that the flag of the province have them

Argentine researchers presented on Thursday Meraxes Gigas, a new species of giant carnivorous dinosaur found in the province of Neuquén. According to the experts, it is the most complete skeleton of this type of predators found so far, which will allow not only to characterize in detail these inhabitants of America millions of years ago but also to “discuss the evolutionary process”. The discovery of this specimen dates back to 2012, when, based on an agreement between the paleontological team of the Ernesto Bachmann Museum of Villa El Chocón, the Paleontology Area of the Félix de Azara Natural History Foundation and The Field Museum, with funding from The National Geographic Society, the Municipality of Villa El Chocón, the Azara Foundation and The Field Museum (Chicago, USA), numerous dinosaur bones were found in a field located a short distance from the north coast of the Ezequiel Ramos Mexía reservoir, in the province of Neuquén.La extraction of the large bones of this animal took four annual campaigns of two to four weeks each and had the participation of numerous people such as the authors of the paper, and also technicians and students. The extraction was just the beginning. The preparation of the skeleton, that is, the cleaning of the bones by extracting the surrounding sandstone, took years. The scientific work was published in the latest issue of the prestigious scientific journal Current Biology. The title of the paper is “New giant carnivorous dinosaur reveals convergent evolutionary trends in theropod arm reduction.” The most complete skeleton to date
“The importance of Meraxes lies in the fact that it is the first of the carcharodontosaurids (giant carnivorous dinosaurs) of America that appears quite complete. Until now we had had problems with the others we found because they were very incomplete; for example, we didn’t have a single skull to measure,” said Sebastián Apesteguía, one of the excavators, a paleontologist and Conicet researcher at the Azara Foundation. In the case of Meraxes, Apesteguía stressed, “a complete skull was found and also the arms and legs, so we can have a lot of details of proportions of measurements and discuss the evolutionary process; for example, to analyze why the largest skull dinosaurs among carnivores have such small arms.” The Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Daniel Filmus, congratulated the scientists and stressed that the discovery “fills us with pride and accounts for the magnitude and quality of Argentine research and the importance of having a State that invests in science and technology.” A Game of Thrones name
The name Meraxes refers to one of the dragons of the fictional universe of Game of Thrones, created by writer George R.R. Martin. “Linking dragons and dinosaurs has been going on for many years. We had several names but Juan Canale (of the team) is reading the books on which the series is based and liked the name of Meraxes, and as our specimen is a kind of sleeping dragon we thought it was good, “said Apesteguía.A tweet proposes that the flag of Neuquén “carry dinosaurs”
“The province of Neuquén in Argentina does not have a flag with dinosaurs. But it should. This is the sign you see on RN 237.” Thus begins the Twitter thread of Federico Kukso, a renowned science journalist, dinosaur aficionado, who provides six concise arguments to explain that Neuquén “is a recommended destination for dinosaur lovers.” In this way, he published a thread on that social network where he details the six reasons why Neuquén “is a recommended destination for dinosaur lovers” that can be seen below: 

Original source in Spanish