Paleontologists may have found the largest dinosaur of all time

Paleontologists in Argentina have discovered bones they believe belonged to a dinosaur so large it would have been the largest land animal to ever live.

Paleontologists have confirmed that a pile of bones, discovered in an Argentinian section of Patagonia, belonged to a type of dinosaur known as a sauropod, according to an article published in the scientific journal Cretaceous Research. Sauropods were dinosaurs with extremely long necks, elongated tales, small heads and legs that resembled trunks or pillars. Brontosaurs, apatosaurs, and brachiosaurs are some of the best-known sauropods that have ever existed.

The bones found in the Argentinian province of Neuquén appear to belong to a titanosaur, a group of huge sauropods that experts say survived until the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction. That was the time around 66 million years ago when an asteroid allegedly hit the planet and wiped out the majority of the animals that lived here at that time. Until then, titanosaurs like the famous patagotitan and puertasaurus are said to have thrived in the same areas of South America where the new fossils were discovered.

It is not known whether this new dinosaur exceeds the size of the patagotitan, as well as that of all other known sauropods, as the fossil record is incomplete. That said, scientists are intrigued by the proportions of pelvic bones and vertebrae discovered.

Alejandro Otero, paleontologist at Museo de La Plata in Argentina and co-author of the study reporting the discovery, told Salon via email that there were a number of physical differences between the new dinosaur and other titanosaurs. which lead researchers to believe that it is a different and larger species. These include the shapes of various parts of the vertebrae, the appearances of neural spines (or the spike-like appendages that have appeared on the backs of many dinosaurs), and differences in size. Otero also pointed out that “this new specimen comes from a younger age than the Patagotitan”.

Otero also told Salon via email that “the specimen reported here strongly suggests the coexistence of larger and medium-sized titanosaurs” with smaller sauropods known as rebbachisaurids “in the early Upper Cretaceous in the province of Neuquén. “. This suggests that natural selection has forced different species to find alternative ways to use their environment in order to coexist, a phenomenon known as ‘beautiful partition’. The new discoveries in Patagonia have “contributed to a better understanding of the phylogenetic relationships of titanosaurs, revealing the existence of a hitherto unknown lineage and shedding new light on the evolution of body mass”.

That said, Otero said the new findings wouldn’t change much what we know about paleontology without further research.

“We have to go back to the field to collect more bones in order to learn more about this huge specimen,” Otero wrote to Salon, explaining that groups like Spain’s Ministry of Science and Innovation, the Fund European Regional Development Committee and a number of other organizations have contributed to the funding of work already carried out on this subject.