Kank australis Dinosaur Fossil Data from Late Cretaceous Patagonia

Matías J. Motta describes the unenlagiid dinosaur Kank australis gen. et sp. nov. from the Maastrichtian beds of southern Santa Cruz, Argentina. The dataset includes descriptions of vertebrae, isolated pedal phalanges, and shed teeth, with the holotype featuring a unique combination of characters. The data was last updated on 2026-05-28 and is shared under a CC-BY-4.0 license.

Use Cases

• Comparative morphological analysis based on described vertebrae and pedal phalanges.
• Phylogenetic placement of a new unenlagiid species based on apomorphic character states.
• Studying faunal diversity in Late Cretaceous southern Patagonia based on fossil descriptions.

Strengths

• Includes detailed anatomical descriptions of multiple fossil elements (vertebrae, phalanges, teeth).
• Focuses on a new genus and species (Kank australis) from a less-sampled region (southern Patagonia).
• Data is openly licensed (CC-BY-4.0) for reuse.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The dataset is small (14.9 MB), suggesting it may contain descriptive data rather than large measurement tables.

Provenance

Source

figshare

Collection Method

Scientific description of fossil specimens.

Time Range

Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian)

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-28 23:01:34; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Southern Santa Cruz, Patagonia, Argentina