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24 August 2019A 25-centimeter-long animal, similar to Scrat, the unfortunate squirrel in the animated film 'Ice Age', in the eternal quest for acorns, was discovered in western Argentina. A team of researchers announced it. Called 'Pseudotherium argentinus', this specimen lived during the Triassic period, 230 million years ago. It was discovered in 2006 in Ischigualasto, in the province of San Juan, by paleontologist Ricardo Martínez, announced the University of La Matanza, Buenos Aires, on their Twitter account.Descubren an idéntica especie a la "ardilla" de la Era de Hielo de 231 millones de años en Ischigualasto https://t.co/8jORR91PX7 pic.twitter.com/l4lEeWzDzo
- Agencia CTyS- UNLaM (@CTyS_UNLaM) August 23, 2019The work of Ricardo Martínez was recently published by the scientific journal Plos One, based in San Francisco. The skull discovered was analyzed at the University of Texas, along with researchers Rachel Wallace and Timothy Rowe. "This new species has a very long, flattened, shallow snout, and even its canines are very long and are found almost on the tip of the snout", commented Martínez, adding that it gives it a "very" similar appearance to that of Scrat.
"En algún momento, pensé en ponerle el nombre de Scrat", contà Martínez, quien realizó a estudio muy exhaustivo of the cráneo de este mamiferoide junto to Rachel Wallace y Timothy Rowe de la Universidad de Texas. Caricaturas of the artist Jorge A. González pic.twitter.com/3xyXgVzluk
- Agencia CTyS- UNLaM (@CTyS_UNLaM) August 23, 2019The paleontologist team thinks this animal has fed on insects and smaller animals. In Argentina there are very numerous fossils of three periods, the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous Mesozoic era.