A reconstruction of Kank australis
Gabriel Díaz Yantén.
In my previous post, I wrote about Labrujasuchus expectatus, a bizarre distant relative of the crocodile line which walked on two legs, had tiny arms, and possessed a toothless mouth tipped with a beak. Although not a dinosaur, it looked superficially dinosaur-like — a neat example of convergent evolution. Because earlier and later shuvosaurids were already known from the region, palaeontologists predicted that a form occupying the gap between them should exist, and Labrujasuchus duly turned up in the right place and in the right rock formation.
That is how science works: evidence fits into a testable, predictive framework. Creationism, by contrast, has nothing to offer except hand-waving, misrepresentation and denial when confronted with a bizarre extinct archosaur from some 212 million years ago, just as it has nothing to offer in explanation of this almost equally bizarre dinosaur from about 70 million years ago.
The new species, Kank australis, is described by palaeontologist Dr Matías J. Motta, of the Bernardino Rivadavia Natural Sciences Museum in Buenos Aires (Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales “Bernardino Rivadavia”), and his colleagues in a paper published on 28 May 2026 in the peer-reviewed Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Kank australis was a paravian theropod — an unenlagiid, belonging to a group of small- to medium-sized raptor-like dinosaurs known from Late Cretaceous Gondwanan deposits. Its discoverers suggest that it may have lived rather like a large heron. Its long jaws, armed with teeth, suggest a fish-eating habit, while its cervical vertebrae show structures associated with muscle attachment and the protection of neck blood vessels, features comparable with those seen in modern birds that rely on rapid, precise neck movements. In other words, this was probably not the familiar pop-culture image of a raptor as a fast-running terrestrial predator, but a specialised animal exploiting the riverine and wetland ecosystems of southern Patagonia.
And, as so often with new fossil discoveries, Kank australis fills in yet another of those gaps so beloved of creationists looking for somewhere to hide their ever-shrinking little god. In this case, it helps bridge a distributional gap in the Late Cretaceous record of southern Patagonia, connecting better-known unenlagiid records from northern Patagonia with those from Antarctica, and adding more detail to the still-patchy evolutionary history of these South American paravian dinosaurs.
Unenlagiids – southern raptor-like relatives of birds. The unenlagiids — sometimes treated as the subfamily Unenlagiinae within the dromaeosaurs — were a group of small- to medium-sized predatory theropod dinosaurs from the Southern Hemisphere. They belonged within Paraves, the wider dinosaur group that includes birds and their closest non-avian relatives, including dromaeosaurs and troodontids.The paper in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology was accompanied by a news release by the journal's publishers, Taylor & Francis:
Most unenlagiid fossils have been found in Patagonia, especially Argentina, although related or possible members of the group have also been reported from elsewhere in Gondwana, including Antarctica, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Australia and Madagascar. This southern distribution is important because much of the classic fossil record of bird-like dinosaurs comes from the Northern Hemisphere, especially Asia and North America. Unenlagiids therefore help to fill in the Gondwanan side of the dinosaur-bird story.
The best-known unenlagiids include Unenlagia, Buitreraptor, Neuquenraptor, Pamparaptor, Austroraptor, Diuqin and now Kank australis. They were generally lightly built, long-legged animals with many bird-like features, although they were not birds. Like other paravians, they had the enlarged second toe claw often associated with “raptor” dinosaurs, but their body plans were not simply southern versions of Velociraptor. Several had long, low skulls, narrow jaws, numerous teeth and long, flexible necks, suggesting ecological specialisations different from the popular image of raptors as fast-running terrestrial hunters of large prey.
This is especially relevant to Kank australis. Its long jaws, teeth, neck vertebrae and association with fish-bearing deposits suggest a heron-like, fish-catching animal living around rivers, streams, ponds and wetlands in Late Cretaceous Patagonia. In other words, unenlagiids show that paravian dinosaurs were ecologically diverse, experimenting with different ways of life before the end-Cretaceous extinction removed all non-avian dinosaurs.
Their relationship to birds is particularly interesting. Birds are not merely “descended from dinosaurs”; in modern evolutionary classification, birds are dinosaurs — specifically avian theropod dinosaurs. Unenlagiids were close relatives of the bird line, but they were not necessarily direct ancestors of modern birds. Different phylogenetic studies have placed them either as early-diverging dromaeosaurs or as a separate paravian group close to Avialae, the branch that includes birds. Either way, they sit close to the dinosaur-bird transition and help show how bird-like characters evolved in a branching, mosaic pattern rather than appearing all at once.
That is why fossils such as Kank australis matter. They do not show a neat ladder of progress from “reptile” to “bird”, because evolution does not work like that. Instead, they reveal a branching evolutionary bush of feathered, bird-like theropods, some closer to the avian line than others, each adapted to its own environment. Creationism, with its fixed “kinds” and magical special creation, has no useful explanation for such a pattern. Evolution predicts precisely this sort of messy, branching, transitional diversity — and the rocks keep providing it.
Heron-like, fish-eating dinosaur from 70 million years ago discovered in Argentina
Palaeontologists estimate that the new species — described based on fossils unearthed at a ranch in Argentina — grew up to three metres long
A new raptor-like dinosaur from some 70 million years ago that ate fish and behaved like modern herons has been unearthed from southern Patagonia.
The new species, which has been named Kank australis, was identified based on the discovery of fossil remains including teeth, vertebrae and toe bones.
K. australis is an unenlagiid, a family of small-to-medium sized theropod dinosaurs whose members have been unearthed from Late Cretaceous deposits in South America, Antarctica, Australia and Madagascar.
Based on comparison with another unenlagiid — Neuquenraptor argentinus, which lived in northern Patagonia 90 million years ago — researchers believe adults of the new species likely grew up to some 2.5–3 metres long.
The new species is described by palaeontologist Dr Matías Motta, of the Bernardino Rivadavia Natural Sciences Museum in Buenos Aires (Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales “Bernardino Rivadavia”), and his colleagues in a paper published today in the peer-reviewed Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
“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 molluscs,” says Dr Motta.
Based on the analysis of ancient soil samples and fossilised plant remains, he explains, we know that “70 million years ago the climate was temperate and humid, with seasonal rainfall, very different from the current cold and relatively dry conditions.”
Analysis of the fossilised remains of the new dinosaur, meanwhile, has shined light on how it might have lived.
“The cervical vertebrae of Kank show special structures for muscle attachment and the protection of neck blood vessels — features particularly important in modern birds with complex neck movements, such as herons,” says Dr Motta.
“This suggests Kank may have been an active fisher, contrasting with common portrayal of raptors as agile terrestrial predators, like Velociraptor from the Northern Hemisphere.”
The discovery also helps fill in some more of the patchy evolutionary history of the unenlagiids in South America. While seven different species have been recorded in northern Patagonia, until now the fossil record had only yielded a few isolated remains from the south of the region that palaeontologists were unable to attribute to particular species.
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.
Dr. Matías J. Motta, lead author
Laboratorio de Anatomía Comparada y Evolución de los Vertebrados
Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales “Bernardino Rivadavia”
Buenos Aires, Argentina.
K. australis was unearthed at La Anita farm, near the city of El Calafate, in Santa Cruz, Argentina.
“Field excavations have been conducted there since 2018, uncovering a wide variety of fossil animals and plants,” says Dr Motta.
“The first remains of Kank were discovered in 2018, but were too fragmentary to be identified as a new species,” he adds. “Subsequent expeditions recovered additional material, with the discovery of a cervical [neck] vertebra in 2024 proving key to recognising it as a new unenlagiine dinosaur.”
Like other unenlagiids, Dr Motta explains, K. australis sports an enlarged, ‘raptorial’ claw on the second toe of its foot.
“However,” he adds, “it differs in having teeth with sharp and pronounced longitudinal ridges and notably pneumatic cervical vertebrae (with internal air chambers).”
“It is also smaller and more gracile compared to other unenlagiids from the end of the Cretaceous, such as Austroraptor cabazai, a giant (around five metres long) unenlagiine from northern Patagonia.”
The discovery of the new dinosaur adds to mounting evidence that unenlagiids were piscivores — that is, fish-eaters.
Their elongated snouts, numerous teeth and long, flexible necks suggest adaptations for fishing, similar to modern herons. In the case of Kank, its remains were found alongside fish fossils, reinforcing this idea.
Dr. Matías J. Motta.
However, the palaeontologist notes, it is possible that Kank also preyed on other animals that lived in the same ecosystem, which included frogs, lizards, turtles, and even mammals like Patagorhynchus pascuali, a semi-aquatic monotreme related to modern echidnas and platypuses.
“Kank coexisted with larger carnivores such as Maip macrothorax, a formidable megaraptorid dinosaur more than 10 metres long, which may have been capable of preying upon it,” Dr Motta adds.
The genus of the newly discovered species pays homage to a myth of the Aonikenk, the southernmost group of the indigenous Tehuelche people of Patagonia.
“Kank refers to an old giant rhea [a large, flightless South American bird] whose powerful running steps left the imprint of its toes in the sky, forming the constellation known as Choiols,” explains Dr Motta.
“In Latin, this constellation is called Crux, the Southern Cross — which points toward the southernmost region of the planet, where Kank was discovered.”
Similarly, the species name — “australis”, literally “from south” — is also a nod to the latitude of the discovery.
With their initial study complete, the researchers are planning further digs into the Chorrillo Formation.
“The site where Kank was discovered has provided extensive information about the Late Cretaceous environment of southern Patagonia, so continuing excavations there is crucial,” explains Dr Motta.
“Finding more Kank fossils will help us better understand its biology and ecological role.”
In the meantime, the team are also studying new fossils from four sites in northern Patagonia.
“These findings indicate that unenlagiids were widely distributed during the Late Cretaceous,” Dr Motta says.
He adds: “We are particularly interested in investigating the environments they colonised and speciated in — especially in ecosystems dominated by large apex predators such as abelisaurids and megaraptorans.”
Publication:
So, yet again, palaeontology has done what creationism never does. It has taken a fragmentary fossil record, placed a new discovery within a coherent evolutionary framework, and used anatomy, geology, geography and comparative biology to explain why this animal existed where and when it did. Kank australis is not an isolated curiosity; it is another piece of a much larger pattern — the diversification of bird-like theropod dinosaurs in the Late Cretaceous world of Gondwana.
For evolutionary science, there is nothing embarrassing or unexpected about such a creature. A long-jawed, probably fish-eating paravian dinosaur, with neck adaptations suggestive of rapid striking movements, is exactly the sort of specialised form that natural selection can produce when an animal lineage explores a particular ecological niche. Nor is there anything mysterious about its mixture of features. Evolution does not produce organisms according to neat human categories; it modifies existing structures, producing mosaics of traits in branching lineages, some of which survive, while most eventually vanish.
Creationism, by contrast, has no explanatory framework for any of this. It cannot explain why bird-like dinosaurs occur in the rocks where evolutionary theory expects them, why they appear in a temporal sequence tens of millions of years before modern birds diversified, or why their anatomy shows precisely the kind of transitional, mosaic pattern expected of common descent. All it can do is pretend the evidence does not say what it plainly says, or wave it away with empty assertions about “kinds”.
Kank australis is therefore not just another fossil dinosaur. It is another small but telling reminder that the history of life is written in rocks, bones, anatomy and geography, not in Bronze Age origin myths. Once again, the evidence fits evolution naturally and effortlessly, while creationism is left trying to force yet another inconvenient fossil into a story of which it was never part.
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