The Titanosaurus fossil unearthed in Argentina in 2014 may be the oldest Titanosaurus fossil ever discovered, scientists noted today. Scientists estimate that Titanosaurus is now the most massive land creature known in the history of the Earth.
AFP reports that a study released by La Matanza University in Argentina points out that the titanosaur, about 20 meters, named Ninjatitan zapatai, was unearthed in 2014 in Neuquen, southwest Argentina, and was active 140 million years ago in the early Cretaceous period in the present-day Patagonia (Patagonia).
The dinosaur is named after the Argentine paleontologist who discovered it, Sebastian Apesteguia, nicknamed El Ninja, and the technician Rogelio Zapata.
The statement quoted Argentine National Council for Scientific and Technological Research (CONICET) researcher Pablo Gallina as saying, “This fossil is important not only because it is a new species of titanosaur, but also because it is one of the oldest titanosaurs recorded worldwide.”
The “titanosaur” is a type of sauropod. The lizard-footed dinosaurs had long necks and tails, and their vegetarian diet would have made them the largest land animals on the planet.
The new discovery also pushes the age of Titanosaurus back to the early Cretaceous period, which is 66 million years older than the previously identified late Cretaceous period, the researchers said in a statement.
The new study was published in the Argentine scientific journal Ameghiniana.
Previously, National Geographic interviewed another Argentine paleontologist, Lucio Ibiricu, in a feature on “The Top Ten”, who analyzed another Titanosaurus fossil and found that this beast could even have grown to about 40 He said that, according to the analysis of another titanic fossil, this beast can even grow to about 40 meters long, without special head up to 9 meters, the body shape is afraid than the blue whale is also huge.
Scientists pointed out that the lizard-footed dinosaur fossil unearthed in Argentina in 2014 may be the oldest one of all the titanosaur fossils. The picture shows an imaginary drawing of a lizard-footed dinosaur. (Image taken from the webpage of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Research of Argentina www.conicet.gov.ar)
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