A new study reveals that fossils excavated in Uzbekistan reveal a previously unidentified dinosaur species that was twice the size of a two-story bus.
Called Dzharatitanis kingi, the giant gentleman was about 20 meters long and was a cousin of Diplodocus, the largest creature that has ever walked the planet.
D. kingi inhabited a coastal plain at the westernmost point of the Asian mass 100 million years ago, when the continents of the Earth were still grouped together.
The creature had a whip-like tail and a long neck, which allowed it to reach the trees to satisfy its huge herbaceous appetite.
An international team from the Bissekty Formation in the Kyzyl Kum Desert, known as the “dinosaur cemetery” of Uzbekistan, unearthed a tail bone belonging to the dino.
Dzharatitanis kingi had a tail-like whip and a long neck that let him reach the trees to satisfy his enormous appetite.
The Bissekty Formation has “produced a large number of mostly dissociated but often exquisitely preserved skeletal remains” of vertebrates, the researchers say.
D. kingi had a small head and sharp teeth like a pencil and would have plucked whole branches from the trees. Its massive frame rested on four pillar-like legs.
D. kingi existed during the Cretaceous period, which lasted from 145.5 to 65.5 million years ago.
It represents both a new species and a new genus of the existing rebbachisauridae family.
Rebbachisaurids were sauropods, among the largest creatures to ever walk the Earth, some weighing the equivalent of 14 African elephants.
Rebbachisauride remains have been excavated in South America, Africa, North America and Europe, but never in Asia.
The tail bone was excavated by an international team from the Bissekty Formation in the Kyzyl Kum Desert (pictured), known as the Uzbek Dinosaur Cemetery.
The Bissekty Formation in Uzbekistan has “produced a large number of mostly dissociated but often exquisitely preserved skeletal remains” of vertebrates.
“This is the first rebbachisaurid reported from Asia and one of the youngest on the known fossil record,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Alexander Averianov, at the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg.
“He ate plants like all other sauropods and lived in a complex environment with many other dinosaurs.”
All previous records of rebacisaurids come from a narrow band extending from southern South America to northeastern South America and northwestern Africa to Europe.
“Rebbachisaurids are interesting because they were present mainly in Africa and South America,” Dr. Averianov said.
Researchers have analyzed fossilized caudal vertebrae (pictured) extracted from the deserts of Uzbekistan, which were once part of the creature’s tail
“The discovery of the first Asian rebbachisaurid, Dzharatitanis kingi, now considerably extends the known distribution of the group to the east.
“It supports the idea that these continents were still connected during the early Cretaceous.”
D. kingi inhabited a coastal plain near the Tethys Ocean at the westernmost point of the Asian mass during the late Cretaceous period.
The Tethys Ocean was a huge body of shallow water that lay between what would become Europe, North Africa, and Southeast Asia.
Rebbachisaurids probably spread to Central Asia from Europe, but it is unclear when they could have occurred.
For most of the Cretaceous period, Asia was separated from Europe by a stretch of water called the Turgai Strait, but there was a land connection between the two land masses.
Rebbachisaurids, including D. kingi, may have crossed from Europe to Asia using a land bridge across the Turgai Strait.
“The rebbachisaurids possibly dispersed from Europe to Asia via a land bridge that crossed the Turgai Strait,” Dr. Averianov said.
Some of the other dinosaurs from the time of D. kingi would have included the much smaller timurlengia, a type of therapy.
Timurlengia, cousin of the fearsome Tyrannosaurus rex, was unearthed at the same site and detailed in a research paper five years ago.
The strong predator would have had a mixture of skin and feathers and would have chased its prey into Central Asia.
“Timurlengia was an agile chasing hunter with slender, leaf-like teeth suitable for cutting meat,” said the study’s author, Professor Hans Sues, of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History.
“He probably took over the large plant eaters, especially the first duck-billed dinosaurs, who shared his world.”
Professor Sues is also co-author of this new study of D. kingi, which has been posted today on PLOS One.
SAUROPPODES: LONG NECK AND SMALL BRAIN DINOSAURS
Sauropods were the first successful group of herbivorous dinosaurs, dominating most terrestrial ecosystems for more than 140 million years, from the late Triassic to the late Cretaceous.
They had long necks and tails and relatively small skulls and brains.
They stretched up to 40 meters and weighed up to 80 tons (14,000 times the weight of an African elephant).
Sauropods were the first successful group of herbivorous dinosaurs, dominating most terrestrial ecosystems for more than 140 million years, from the Late Triassic to the Late Cretaceous.
They were widespread: their remains have been found on all continents except Antarctica.
They had nostrils at the top of the skull, instead of being placed at the end of the snout like those of so many other terrestrial vertebrates.
Some fossils show that these openings in the nostril were so high up to the skull that it was very close to the openings in the eyes.
Sauropods such as the Diplodocus began to diversify in the Middle Jurassic about 180 million years ago.
Source: University of California Museum of Paleontology