Despite a lack of formal training in paleontology, he started collecting fossils with many friends at an early age, and created a museum in their home town.

He later became the curator of the National University of Tucumán, where he was named Doctor honoris causa[3] in 1976, and then in the late 1970s became a senior scientist at the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales in Buenos Aires.

"[8] With fellow Argentine Jaime Powell, Bonaparte studied Saltasaurus and suggested that in life, it was covered in armored plates known as osteoderms.

Bonaparte's finds illustrate this divergence, and caused paleontologist Robert Bakker to dub him the "Master of the Mesozoic.

[5] His students included Rodolfo Coria, Luis Chiappe, Fernando Novas, Jaime Powell, Guillermo W. Rougier, Leonardo Salgado, Jorge Calvo, Sebastián Apesteguía and Agustín Martinelli.