The giant who walked on Earth 200 million years ago

ARGENTINA (CNNEspañol) –

A group of Argentine researchers has discovered what is, until now, the oldest giant dinosaur: it weighed 10 tons, measured 10 meters long and lived there more than 200 million years. 19659003] The discovery of this new species, called Ingentia prima, took place in 2015 at Balde Lodge in Leyes, southeast of the province of San Juan, in the west of the country. The results of the research were published this week in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution .

The importance of discovery is that it advances the beginning of gigantism among dinosaurs in 30 million years, as explained to CNN en Español Cecilia Apaldetti, researcher at the Institute and Museum of Natural Sciences of the University of San Juan and senior author of the study on the subject.

Lee: An obsession that benefits your child's brain

"Until now, we thought that gigantism had appeared in the middle of the Mesozoic era, it was to say in the Jurassic period [hace entre 201 y 145 millones de años] ", explains the researcher. However, this new dinosaur species belongs to the Triassic period, between 250 and 200 million years ago.

It's the time when evolution began and the wildlife "was not very big," says Apaldetti, indicating that this dinosaur "exceeds the size of all the dinosaurs known up to now "for this period. Therefore, it is "a discovery that alters the known history of giant dinosaurs," said the National University of San Juan in a press release.

Ingentia Prima (name of the Latin that would mean first giant ) was discovered in 2015. It is a herbivorous dinosaur, quadruped (four-legged), neck "not very long" , weighing 10 tons and 10 meters long tail tail. head, describes the researcher

We recommend: It is so that stress affects the reproduction of dinosaurs

The researchers do not have complete skeleton, but partial. The discovery came from parts of two different individuals, according to the author of the study. "We were told approximately what is autonomy in general: we know the neck, arms and part of the legs and tail," he added.

This new species, directly related to the origin of gigantism, has its particular growth, added the researcher. "The study involves a histological study, which studies the microstructure of bones," he said. In this way, scientists can see in the fossils how people grew up

"Those of us who know the greatest giants in the world are born and have grown up continually, until that time." They reach adult height and grow very slowly, "he pointed. The difference with Ingentia Prima is that, instead of growing continuously, "what it did was to grow cyclically, only in periods of abundant resources, but at very high speeds, two or three times faster than giant dinosaurs. "

Lee: Why do we paint dinosaurs like this?

" We can see this through the growth rings that remain in the bones, as we can see in the trees today. "he said, the scientist