The era of Colossosaurs has arrived | A new line …

The recognition of a new line of dinosaurs called Colossosauria, which would be the world's largest titanosaur, is the most recent discovery of a team of researchers from different countries, led by the Dinosaur Laboratory and Museum. l & # 39; UNCuyo. The results of various badyzes and studies have already been published in the prestigious magazine "Annais da Academia Brasileira de Ciencias", which have reached a large part of the international scientific community.

Colossosaurs included the heaviest land animals ever known, with maximum mbades of 50 to 70 tonnes. Like the Argentinian Patagotitan, Argentinosaurus, Puertasaurus and Notocolossus forms, the latter with a 1.76 m long humerus, the largest humerus known to this group.

Among other details, UNCUYO described the fact that these dinosaurs developed very long necks (up to 12 meters) and small heads; reproduction by eggs (oviparous); high growth rates during the early stages of life and respiration, supplemented by air sacs similar to those of birds. All these unique characters from the history of evolution would have been the ones that led to an increase in their body mbad.

The relevance of this recognition is found not only in the extreme size of these giant titanosaurs, but also because of the biological adaptations they imply, which are complex.

"The contribution is to synthesize the anatomical knowledge of titanosaur sauropods, with emphasis on their phylogenetic study, that is, kinship. We are struck by the great diversity of this group. A group of them was really gigantic and this is a challenge for paliobiological models referring to physiology, locomotion, growth, feeding and reproduction rhythms. Importantly, we have now identified this group and given it its name, "said Bernardo González Riga, researcher at CONICET and director of the Dinosaur Laboratory and Museum of the Faculty of Science. and Natural Sciences (FCEN), from which they conducted the studies. Specialists from different parts of the country, as well as the United States and Brazil, participated.

González Riga and his colleagues, who in Mendoza discovered and named 4 species of dinosaurs, said that these synthetic and phylogenetic badyzes were a synthesis of two decades of scientific studies. This research is reinforced and reinforced by the creation of the team of the laboratory and the dinosaur museum, integrated among others by professionals such as Leonardo Ortiz David, Juan Pedro Coria, Belen Tomaselli, Claudio Mercado and Germán Sánchez.

"The phylogeny of titanosaurs is a controversial issue because every year new species meet in the world and their diversity is truly incredible. González Riga pointed out that there was no extrinsic (environmental) factor explaining gigantism and that the attention of paleontologists was derived from the fact that these extraordinarily gigantic sizes were much larger than those of extinct mammals (mammoths, rhinos) or any other terrestrial vertebrate.

"Knowledge of the large animals that populated this distant past and its extinctions provides insight into current adaptations of vertebrates and their fragile relationship with environmental and ecological changes," the researchers added.