Fossils of a gigantic dinosaur are emerging from the ground in Argentina after 98 million years 鈥� and the creature may be the largest land animal that scientists have ever found.
The ancient bones are from a titanosaur. At one point, this group of long-necked 鈥渟auropod鈥� dinosaurs lived across the world. Some of the last titanosaurs lived in South America, where they evolved into giants including Patagotitan, which is聽sometimes claimed to be the largest land animal ever to exist.
The fossils unearthed by the team, which was led by researchers at Argentina鈥檚 National Scientific and Technical Research Council, belong to an animal 鈥渃onsidered one of the largest sauropods ever found, probably exceeding Patagotitan in size鈥�, according to the peer-reviewed paper. The team declined to comment on the discovery for this story.
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鈥淚t is one of the most complete colossal titanosaurs of that age, which considerably helps to understand the group鈥檚 evolution,鈥� says Aline Ghilardi at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte in Brazil, who studies titanosaur parasites and wasn鈥檛 involved in this study.
Excavations in the province of Neuqu茅n in Argentina are ongoing. So far, the team has unearthed 24 vertebrae, as well as some pelvis bones. Some of the bones have been excavated, while others have only been detected.
According to the paper, the researchers aren鈥檛 sure which species the bones might belong to. However, they state that there are 鈥渃lear differences鈥� between these bones and those of previously unearthed dinosaurs in the region, including Patagotitan. This suggests that the fossils could be evidence of an unknown titanosaur.
Ghilardi is cautious about the claim that the dinosaur might be larger than Patagotitan, noting that several recent discoveries have been called the largest titanosaur ever found聽only for the statements to be revised after further analysis. 鈥淏ut it is undoubtedly a huge animal, among the largest ever discovered,鈥� she says, adding that she is excited to see if ongoing excavations unearth more bones to improve the accuracy of body size estimates.
The discovery also reveals that these massive sauropods probably lived at about the same time as small sauropods, indicating a complicated ecosystem that could support a diversity of long-necked, herbivorous dinosaurs, each occupying a distinct ecological niche.
鈥淭hese long-necked dinosaurs were able to coexist in the same environment by consuming different plant materials, and to do that, among other things, size apparently mattered,鈥� says Ghilardi.
Cretaceous Research
