Scientists uncover new giant amongst giants

Scientists believe they have found the bones of the largest dinosaur ever uncovered.

The discovery was actually made by an Argentinian farm worker last year, but palaeontologists from Argentina’s Museum of Palaeontology Egidio Feruglio, headed by Dr Jose Luis Carballido and Dr Diego Pol excavated the remains and believe them to be from a new species of titanosaur – a huge herbivore of the long-necked sauropod group that lived in the Late Cretaceous period.

Outside experts say the new species is at least as big as the Argentinosaurus, a plant-eating sauropod whose towering legs and long neck and tail currently set the record for length and weight. Paleontologist Jose Luis Carballiro says the thigh bone is the longest of any vertebrate, at 2.4 metres long, making its projected standing height in excess of 20 metres – or around the height of a seven-storey building. He estimates the animal weighed around 80,000 kilograms.

Paleobiologist Paul Upchurch of University College London says he saw the bones first-hand, and that it’s early to call it the largest dinosaur. But he says it’s a new species and promises to be part of the most complete fossil yet of the super-giants.