Scientists have unearthed 98-million-year-old massive fossils in southwestern Argentina, they say, that could belong to the largest dinosaur ever discovered.
Human-sized fossilized bone pieces belonging to the giant sauropod appear to be 10-20 percent larger than those attributed Patagonian swimsuit, the largest dinosaur ever identified, according to a statement from the CTYS scientific agency at the National University of La Matanza.
Sauropods were huge long-necked, long-tailed, plant-eating dinosaurs, the largest terrestrial creatures they have ever lived.
Between them, Patagonian swimsuit, also from Argentina, weighed about 70 tons and was 40 meters long, approximately the length of four school buses.
(Jose Luis Carballido / CTyS-UNLaM / AFP)
Alejandro Otero, of the Silver Museum of Argentina, is working to gather an image of the new dinosaur of two dozen vertebrae and pieces of pelvic bone discovered so far.
He has published an article on the unidentified dinosaur for the scientific journal Cretaceous research, according to the university statement.
The search for more body parts, buried in the rock, continues. For scientists, the holy grail will be the large bones of the femur or humerus, which are useful for estimating the body mass of an extinct creature.
Mass fossils were discovered in 2012 in the Neuquén River Valley, but excavation work only began in 2015, according to paleontologist Jose Luis Carballido of the Museo Egidio Feruglio.
(Jose Luis Carballido / CTyS-UNLaM / AFP)
“We have more than half the tail, a lot of hip bones,” said Carballido, who also worked on the classification of Patagotità A few years ago.
“Obviously it’s still inside the rock, so we have a few more years of digging ahead.”
The massive skeleton was found in a layer of rock dated about 98 million years ago during the Upper Cretaceous period, added geologist Alberto Garrido, director of the Zapala Museum of Natural Sciences.
“We suspect the specimen may be complete or nearly complete,” he said.
“It all depends on what happens to the excavations. But regardless of whether it’s bigger (than Patagotità) or not, the discovery of an intact dinosaur of this size is a novelty. ”
© France-Presse Agency