The largest dinosaur ever discovered in Argentina
The first elements analyzed for an incomplete skeleton indicate that the fossil remains found in 2012 in southwestern Argentina are the largest dinosaurs ever discovered, according to a recent study published in the journal Creatios Research.
"What has been found so far is the first 24 vertebrae of the tail and parts of the hip and chest cavity," said Alejandro Otero, the lead author of the first study on this titanosaur, a group of long-necked dinosaurs that left traces of them on all continents.
However, Otero explained that long bones such as the humerus or femur, which are traditionally used to make accurate estimates of body mass, have not been extracted from the rocks in which they were found.
But according to early analyzes, the bones of this giant, 98-million-year-old dinosaur that dated back to the Cretaceous period, were thus "10 to 20 percent larger" than the bones of the Patagotitan myrum, the largest dinosaur known to this day, as the researcher explained in The Department of Vertebrate Fossils at the La Plata Museum (South) in a report published by La Matanza National University.
Patagotitan, which was also discovered in Argentina in 2017 and weighed about 70 tons, or the equivalent of 10 African elephants, was about 40 meters long and had a very long neck.
"It's a beautiful specimen because it is practically articulated and we have more than half of the tail, and a lot of thigh bones. Most of it is still buried in the rock and we still have a few years of excavation," said Jose Luis Carbaido, the researcher who led the studies on Patagotitan.
Alberto Garrido, director of the Museum of Natural Sciences in Zabala, said, "We think we will be able to get the sample out completely or almost completely. It will all depend on how the digging continues. But regardless of whether it is the largest dinosaur or not, finding an arthropod dinosaur, a dinosaur with that." Size is exceptional. "
