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Thomson Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Scientists have discovered in northwestern Argentina the oldest known giant dinosaur fossils, a four-legged plant eater with a medium-length neck and a long tail that was a precursor. the greatest land animals of all time.
The researchers said that the dinosaur – called Ingentia prima, which means "the first giant" – measured up to 10 meters long and weighed about 10 tons, living there 210 million years ago during the Triassic period.
Ingentia was one of the first members of a group of dinosaurs called sauropods, which later included the Earth's greatest terrestrial creatures, including the Argentinosaurus, Dreadnoughtus and Patagotitan Patagonian behemoths.
"We see at Ingentia prima the origin of gigantism, the first steps so that, more than 100 million years later, sauropods of 70 tons could exist like those who lived in Patagonia", said paleontologist Cecilia Apaldetti of the Universidad Nacional de San Juan Argentina, lead author of the study published Monday in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.
Unlike later sauropods, the legs of Ingentia were not like pillars. His neck was also shorter than the sauropods later, which had among the longest necks in relation to the length of the body of all animals.
Dinosaurs appeared earlier in the Triassic period, about 230 million years ago. The first were of modest size, far from the immense dinosaurs of the subsequent Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. Scientists had already believed that the first giant dinosaurs appeared about 180 million years ago.
Apaldetti called Ingentia not only the largest dinosaur but the largest land animal of any kind so far. He was at least twice as tall as other plant eaters who shared the warm and learned environment that he lived in. The biggest predators were not dinosaurs, but grandparents of crocodiles.
"Gigantism is an evolutionary survival strategy, especially for herbivore animals, because pruning is a form of defense against predators," Apaldetti said.
Scientists have identified important traits related to gigantism in Ingentia. He had a bird-like respiratory system, linked to the development of air pockets inside the body that gave him large reserves of oxygenated air and kept him cool despite his large size.
Later, giant dinosaurs grew in an accelerated and continuous way, but an examination of its bones showed that Ingientia was growing seasonally rather than continuously, but at an even higher rate.
Ingentia, known from two partial skeletons, was discovered in the province of San Juan, Argentina.
(Report of Will Dunham, edited by Frances Kerry)
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