This is an enormous treasure! Fossilised bones – 150 in “remarkable condition” – of seven giant dinosaurs believed to be the largest creatures ever to walk the Earth, have been unearthed in the desert near La Flecha in Patagonia, Argentina. Based on its huge thigh bones, this creature measured 40m (130ft) long and 20m (65ft) tall and weighed almost 77 tonnes – or 14 African adult elephants. This is probably a new species of titanosaur – an enormous herbivore dating from the Late Cretaceous period.
After the unexpected bones’ discovery by a farmer, the fossils were excavated by a team of palaeontologists from the Museum of Palaeontology Egidio Feruglio, led by Dr Jose Luis Carballido and Dr Diego Pol.
In this video, the paleontologist Dr Diego Pol explains how the weight of the dinosaur was calculated:
According to the paleontologists, the new dinosaur is a type of sauropod similar to the giant herbivore Argentinosaurus and lived in the forests of Patagonia between 95 and 100 million years ago.
A name still has to be found… Its name should represent both its unique magnificence and honor the region and the farmers who discovered it first…
