Museum researchers have told BBC News that, “Given the size of these bones, which surpass any of the previously known giant animals, the new dinosaur is the largest animal known that walked on Earth.” Researchers from the Museo Paleontologico Egidio Feruglio in Argentina have uncovered the ancient life of hundred million years ago, more than 200 fossils in southern Argentina’s province of Chubut.
The newly discovered Titanosaur is measuring bigger than both the both the T-Rex and the Argentinosaur. According to The Guardian, dinosaur specialist Jose Luis Carballido said that, “It’s like two trucks with a trailer each, one in front of the other, and the weight of 14 elephants together.”
The Huffington Post reported that, the fossil finds included bones from the dinosaurs’ neck and back, along with pieces of the tail and legs. The team estimates that the herbivore measured 40 meters (131 feet) from head to tail, stood 20 meters tall (65 feet) and weighed 77 metric tons (about 170,000 pounds) based on the remains. They uncovered part of the neck, most vertebrae from the tail, as well as leg and foreleg bones.
Until now, what was known, worldwide, about sauropods was from fragmentary discoveries,” reported 36-year-old paleontologist from the Egidio Feruglio Museum in the southern city of Trelew, calling the find “extraordinary,” according to a report by AFP.
NBC News has noted that the ancient fossils were first spotted by a rural farm worker back in 2011. The fossils were found in a dinosaur cemetery in central Chubut. The researchers said the newly discovered site has more than 200 fossils, according to the Calgary Sun.
Though the species does not have a name yet, the Guardian reported that, paleontologists suspect that the largest dinosaur that ever lived will be named according to its mammoth size and in recognition of the farmers who initially unearthed the creature’s bones from the ground in Argentina.
Image credit: www.guardianlv.com
