New dinosaur discovered in Patagonia?: 16-10-2007
Travellers interested in paleontology will be excited to know that scientists believe they have unearthed a previously undiscovered dinosaur species in Argentina.
Named the Futalognkosaurus dukei, after the Mapuche Indian words for "giant chief of the lizards" and Duke Energy Argentina, which funded the excavation, the Patagonian dinosaur was dug from the banks of Lake Barreales in Neuquen and is believed to be a herbivore which would have lived 88 million years ago, during the late Cretaceous period.
Judging by the skeleton, this dinosaur would have been one of the tallest of the creatures, measuring at least 32 metres high, according to Argentine and Brazilian experts, and is likely to be a new species due to the unique structure of its neck.
"It's among the biggest dinosaur finds and the most complete for a giant dinosaur," Alexander Kellner, a researcher with the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro, told Reuters.
Apparently having been eaten by predators, the dinosaur's remains had washed into a river and formed a dam which trapped other remains.
"The accumulation of fish and leaf fossils, as well as other dinosaurs around the find, is just something fantastic. Leaves and dinosaurs together is a great rarity. It's like a whole lost world for us," Kellner said.
The first bones were found in 2000, and parts of the dinosaur have been stored in the National Museum of Brazil while the jigsaw of the mystery dinosaur was completed.
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