Paleontologists from Spain and Portugal working on the site in the city of Pombal believe it may be the largest sauropod dinosaur remains yet discovered in Europe.
A skeleton of an 82-foot-long dinosaur was uncovered on the property of a man in central Portugal.
Paleontologists from Spain and Portugal working on the site in the city of Pombal believe it may be the largest sauropod dinosaur remains yet discovered in Europe.
Sauropods are herbivorous, four-legged dinosaurs with long necks and tails.
The excavation began in 2017 after the landowner discovered bone parts on his property during construction.
In recent weeks, scientists say they have discovered the vertebrae and ribs of a putative brachiosaurid sauropod, or brachiosaurus, that stood approximately 39 feet (12 meters) tall and was approximately 82 feet (25 meters) long.
The Brachiosauridae family consists of huge species that existed between the Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous periods, around 160 to 100 million years ago.
Elisabete Malafaia, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Lisbon, remarked, “It is unusual to find all of an animal’s ribs in this configuration, let alone retaining their original anatomical orientation.”
This preservation technique is uncommon in the fossil record of dinosaurs, particularly sauropods from the Upper Jurassic of Portugal.
