Portuguese and Spanish paleontologists unearthed in early August, in the garden of a house in central Portugal, fossilized bones of a dinosaur that could be the largest sauropod ever discovered in Europe.
“It is one of the largest examples that are known in Europe, even in the whole world,” paleontologist Elisabete Malafaia, from the Dom Luiz Institute of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, said on Monday.
Among all the vertebrae and ribs collected, dating to the Jurassic period about 150 million years ago, the researchers found the remains of a rib about three meters long, he said.
New excavations planned
The first discovery of these fossils dates back to 2017, when an inhabitant of the Pombal region dug up the earth with an excavator to build an annex on his property.
At the beginning of August, a team of researchers unearthed the remains of the dinosaur to carry out in-depth studies on these fossils. Further excavations could be carried out in the coming months at the site of its discovery, as well as in the surrounding region.
The fossils discovered near Pombal should belong to an animal of the brachiosaur family that lived during the Late Jurassic.
The fact that these skeletal parts were found together, in the “original” position they had while the dinosaur was alive, is “relatively rare,” Elisabete Malafaia noted.
Source: BFM TV
