A team of researchers in Patagonia unearthed 24 vertebrae and pelvic bones of an animal that had been buried for 98 million years. According to New Scientist, this creature is perhaps “the largest land animal scientists have ever found”. The fossils may belong to a titanosaur sauropod that lived in the lower Cretaceous period.
The discovery in the province of Neuque’n, Argentina, of the specimen, called MOZ-Pv 1221 was reported by a study published in the journal Cretaceous Research by experts from the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cienti’ficas y Te’cnicas (CONICET), who analyzed the 24 vertebrae of the tail and some pelvic bones of the dinosaur.
“We think it’s a titanosaur – he says Alejandro Otero of CONICET – one of the great sauropods, characterized by its enormous size, legs and elongated tail, but the fossils do not seem to correspond with the other known sauropod remains, so even if we have no way to prove it for now, it could also be of a new species “.
VIDEO: ???? Scientists say pieces of 98-million-year-old fossilized bone belonging to a giant #sauropod discovered in southwest Argentina appear to be 10-20% larger than those attributed to Patagotitan mayorum, the biggest #dinosaur ever identified pic.twitter.com/6JQPG70H2g
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This group of long-necked “sauropod” dinosaurs have lived all over the world, he says New Scientist, but some of the last titanosaurs lived in South America. There they evolved to become giants, such as the Patagotitan, a species of titanosaur whose discovery was announced in 2017 in another Argentine province and which is sometimes regarded as “the largest land animal ever”.
The fossils found in the province of Neuquén “belong to an animal that is larger than the Patagotitan” which must have been 37 meters long and
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weigh 69 tons, the researchers wrote.
The latter are unsure “which species the bones might belong to,” he notes New Scientist, but they say there are “stark differences” between these bones and those of dinosaurs previously unearthed in the area, including the Patagotitan.
The fossil skeleton they discovered could therefore be that of an unknown titanosaur. Aline Ghilardi, a researcher at the Brazilian University of Rio Grande do Norte, told the magazine that it needed to be cautious “about the claim that the dinosaur discovered could be larger than the Patagotitan.” Several recent discoveries have been called “the largest titanosaur ever found,” he said New Scientist, before these statements were reviewed “after further analysis”.
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But according to Ghilardi, who was not involved in the research, the Neuquén dinosaur is “undoubtedly a huge animal, among the largest ever discovered”. Excavation must continue – some bones have been unearthed, while others have only been detected – and the estimate of the size of the skeleton could be improved.
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