Scientists believe that gigantic fossils, 98 million years old found in southwestern Argentina, may be the most known dinosaur.
Human fragments of fossil bone belonging to the giant sauropod appear to be 10% -20% larger than those donated to Patagotitan Mayorum, the largest dinosaur ever identified, according to a statement Wednesday from CTYS scientific group La Matanza National University.
Souropods were long-necked, long-tailed dinosaurs that ate plants – the largest terrestrial creatures ever.
Among them was the Patagotitan Mayorum, also from Argentina, weighing about 70 metric tons and was 40 meters (131 feet) long, or about four school buses.
Alejandro Otero of Museo de La Plata of Argentina is working on putting together a new look dinosaur from two dozen vertebrae and fragments of pelvic bone found so far.
He has published a paper on the unknown dinosaur for the scientific journal Cretaceous Research, according to a university statement.
The question of more body parts, buried deep in a rock, continues. To scientists, the sacred spleen acts as the large bones of a femur or humerus, which is helpful in estimating the body mass of a long-extinct creature.
The large fossils were discovered in 2012 in the Neuquen River Valley, but excavation work began only in 2015, according to paleontologist Jose Luis Carballido of the Museo Egidio Feruglio.
“We have more than half a tail, a lot of hip bones,” said Carballido, who also worked on Patagotitan classification a few years ago. “Obviously it’s still inside the rock, so we have a few more years digging ahead of us.”
The giant skeleton was found in a series of rocks dated about 98 million years ago in the Upper Cretaceous period, added geologist Alberto Garrido, director of the Zapala Museum of Natural Sciences.
“We suspect the sample may be complete or almost complete,” he said. “It all depends on what happens with the excavation. But whether it’s bigger (than the Patagotitan) or not, finding an incomplete dinosaur of those dimensions is a new thing.”