Argentine and Brazilian paleontologists said Monday that they have discovered a new species of dinosaur in Argentina's Patagonia region.
Argentine paleontologist Juan Porfiri and Brazilian researcher Alexander Kellner told reporters that they were lucky to find 70 percent of the animal's bones, while typically archaeologists could only find 10 percent.
The giant animal, which measured between 32 and 34 meters from head to tail and was as tall as a four-storey building, probably lived 80 million years ago in northern Patagonia at the end of the Cretaceous period.
The creature, from the titanosaurios line, was named Futalognkosaurus Dukei. The first part of the name is indigenous Mapuche language for "giant chief of the lizards", while the second part was named after Duke Energy Corp, the company that paid for the excavation.
The excavation yielded fossil bones from a large number of other animals, and very well preserved leaves, Kellner added. The leaves showed that the north of Patagonia had a warm, humid climate in the late Cretaceous, which allowed rainforests to develop.
The gigantic herbivore's body had been partially eaten by other carnivores and dumped in a brook, creating a type of dyke, accumulating bones and leaves in its structure for many years until all became fossilized.
Source:Xinhua
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