Paleontologists from the Fundación Conjunto Paleontológico de Teruel-Dinópolis have discovered a gigantic dinosaur femur in the Teruel site of Riodeva. The bone, nearly two meters long, is the longest ever found in Europe.
The piece has been found at the “San Lorenzo” site in Riodeva, the same town where the remains of the giant dinosaur Turiasaurus riodevensis appeared in 2003, which has been estimated to weigh 40 tons and be 30 meters long.
The director of the deposit, Alberto Cobos, explained that the discovery occurred three months ago. “The first thing we found was the femur and then we started digging around to get it out and we found other remains.” So far, elements of the postcranial skeleton have been found that demonstrate its belonging to a gigantic and robust dinosaur: a 1.92 m long right femur, a 1.25 m long right tibia, 15 caudal vertebrae, 11 chevrons and an almost complete ulna . In addition, fragments of a skull have been found, as well as ten teeth similar to those of Turiasaurus riodevensis .
It has not yet been determined if it is a new dinosaur or if it is another specimen of Turiasaurus riodevensis . In the case of treating another specimen of the same species, Cobos specified that “this finding allows us to complete the remains that we had until now and that it would reach 80 percent of it.” Otherwise, it could be the remains of two different individuals and it would mean that “we have another giant sauropod in Riodeva”.
