A spectacular find of bones of a huge dinosaur succeeded in Portugal. It is the largest discovery of remains of extinct animals in Europe.
Pombal – Scientists have been researching the extinct dinosaurs for years. A model simulation recently provided a thesis on the reason for the extinction of dinosaurs. A small town in Portugal has now apparently become the scene of a historic discovery from the age of the dinosaurs. In Pombal, a town of just over 17,000 people, a team of researchers unearthed skeletal remains in a backyard. These arguably belong to a sauropod, the largest land animal in Earth’s history.
Dinosaur find in Pombal (Portugal): Almost 25 meter long Brachiosaurus unearthed
As the portal Popsci.com reported, the now exposed skeleton can be assigned to an almost 25 meter long animal. The scientists have not yet announced which genus of sauropods the skeleton belonged to. However, the researchers also found vertebrae and ribs at the site of the skeleton find, which could probably come from a Brachiosaurus. Brachiosaurs lived almost 160 to 100 million years ago, i.e. in the Upper Jurassic to the Lower Cretaceous.
Sauropods were strictly herbivores. With their extremely long necks and tails, the dinosaurs had an impressive body length. The Brachiosaurus is considered the largest Sausopod genus, it could be almost 30 meters long and reached a weight of more than 77,000 kilograms.
The researchers involved in the excavations were also enthusiastic about the spectacular find of bones. “It is not common to find all of an animal’s ribs in this shape, let alone in this position and in their original anatomical location. This type of preservation is relatively uncommon in the fossil record of dinosaurs, particularly sauropods, from the Upper Portuguese Jurassic,” Elisabete Malafaia of the University of Lisbon’s Faculty of Science was quoted as saying in a press release.
Giant dinosaur remains found in Portugal – largest sauropod find ever found in Europe
The team of Portuguese scientists had already been called to the site in 2017. The owner of the property where the dinosaur bones are found discovered the remains during construction work in a backyard. First, researchers had examined the site. The breakthrough came during the excavations from August 1 to 10 of this year: The researchers uncovered the bony remains of the largest sauropod dinosaur ever excavated in Europe.
And maybe this is just the beginning. Because the dinosaur researchers are hoping for even more bone remains in the region around the discovery site. “Research at the Monte Agudo paleontological site confirms that the Pombal region has an important fossil record of Late Jurassic vertebrates,” said scientist Malafaia.
The “great discovery” met with enormous interest on social networks. “How exciting,” commented one Facebook user. Others described the find as “the horror of every house builder”: “It’s your own fault if you report it,” wrote one user. “Now it’s a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooobebebebe done already to start with.”
Meanwhile, a giant fossil of a primeval monster was recently discovered in Britain. The skull alone weighed a ton.(kh)
