American and Argentine scientists have discovered a new species of dinosaur, which turned out to be the largest known. The lizard, named Patagotitan mayorum, reached a length of 37 meters, and its mass was 69 tons. He lived in the Cretaceous period 100 million years ago. The find is reported in an article published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
The remains of the animal, including fossilized vertebrae and ribs, were found in southern Argentina in Patagonia. According to the researchers, the dinosaur belongs to the sauropod - a large group of four-legged herbivorous dinosaurs with long necks. In addition, Patagotitan mayorum is a titanosaur, an especially large representative of the sauropod. Previously, another titanosaur, Argentinosaurus, was considered the most gigantic dinosaur.
In July 2017, a group of paleontologists from Italy and France discovered the remains of a large reptile Razanandrongobe sakalavae in Madagascar, which lived 165 million years ago. The reptile turned out to be a relative of crocodiles, hunted dinosaurs and could even cope with a predatory lizard.
In the spring of 2017, paleontologists at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia reported the discovery of the largest known dinosaur footprint. The footprint of the ancient creature reaches 1.75 meters in length.