Bones Found May Be The Largest Dinosaur Ever, Scientists Say

Dinosaurs are a topic that piques everyone’s curiosity. They are practically dragons without wings and they really existed. And the entire universe that surrounds them seems to be mysterious and suitable for exploration. Perhaps that is why there are so many people studying to discover different things. From how they walked, to their reproduction or skin type.

Dinosaurs are a group of several animals that are members of the dinosaur clade. The assumptions are that they appeared on Earth at least 223 million years ago, and were the dominant ones on the planet for more than 167 million years throughout the dinosaur era.

We all have the concept of a dinosaur well fixed on the head, either by children’s programs, like Barney or Dinosaur Family, or by science fiction films, like Jurassic Park. The fascination for these creatures and the desire to see them alive, has not diminished over time.

The questions, which are raised about these animals, are answered with the fossilized bones that are found. But, even so, they are not able to give us all the information we need or to solve all our doubts. Some mysteries surrounding these animals simply cannot be solved and what we are left with are assumptions as answers.

Bones

However, the fossils found from these animals give scientists and researchers an idea of ​​what the animals’ life, food and size was like. Now, scientists have discovered huge fossils in southwestern Argentina. These fossils are 98 million years old and may have belonged to the largest dinosaur that has ever been discovered.

The pieces of bones that were discovered belong to the sauropod and appear to be between 10 and 20% larger than the fossils attributed to Patagotian mayorum, which is the largest dinosaur ever identified.

Sauropods were huge dinosaurs. They were herbivores, had a long neck and tail. They were the greatest terrestrial creatures that ever existed. Among them, the Patagotian mayorum, which is also from Argentina, weighed approximately 70 tons and was 40 meters long. The length is the equivalent of four school buses.

Alejandro Otero, of the Museo de La Plata, in Argentina, is trying to get an image of this new dinosaur from two dozen vertebrae and pieces of pelvic bone that have been discovered so far.

Discovery

And the search for more parts of this dinosaur’s body continues. For scientists, the animal’s “holy grail” will be to find the great femur or bones of the humerus. This is because they are useful for estimating the body mass of an extinct animal.

These huge fossils were discovered in 2012 in the Neuquen River Valley. However, according to paleontologist Jose Luis Carballido, of the Museo Egidio Feruglio, excavation work only started in 2015.

“We have more than half the tail, a lot of hip bones. Obviously it’s still inside the rock, so we have a few more years of excavation ahead of us, ”he said.

According to geologist Alberto Garrido, director of the Museum of Natural Sciences in Zapala, this huge skeleton was found in a rock layer dated approximately 98 million years ago. This was the upper Cretaceous period.

“We suspect that the sample may be complete or almost complete. It all depends on what happens with the excavations. But, regardless of whether it is bigger than Patagotitan or not, the discovery of an intact dinosaur of such dimensions is a novelty ”, he concluded.