The Aragosaurus Research Group of the University of Zaragoza has recovered the remains ofa new dinosaur,Petrobrasaurus, found inan oil drilling in northern Patagonia.
The description of this new specimen has just been published by the scientific journalGeologica Acta. The studies, co-directed by José Ignacio Canudo, from the Aragonese group Aragosaurus-IUCA, and Leonardo Salgado, from the University of Comahue (Argentina), determine that the dinosaur, a large sauropod, could have reached around about20 meters in length. Petrobrasaurus presents somesmall sharp and fine teethfor an animal of this size, a plant eater.
The excavation work, carried out between September and October 2006, made it possible to recover teeth, cervical, dorsal and caudal vertebrae, part of the hip and the front and rear limbs. Without a doubt the most spectacular were theof complete femurs, which seemed almost together. To transport the fossil bones a crane was necessary, sinceEach 1.60 meter femur weighed around 300 kilograms.
The name ofPetrobrasaurusthisdedicated to the Brazilian oil company Petrobras, which came to change the location of the well that was being carried out with heavy machinery so as not to destroy the fossils that appeared in 2004, during the previous tasks to carry out an oil drilling in the vicinity of Puesto Hernández.
The reptile belongs to the group of sauropods that are calledtitanosaurios, which dominated the ecosystems of South America during the Upper Cretaceous. In factPetrobrasaurusIt comes from Santonian rocks, about 85 million years old. This dinosaur has also contributed paleobiogeographic information, since it is a distant relative of other African titanosaurs, offering further proof that Africa and South America were united until the beginning of the Upper Cretaceous.
