Fossils Of Oldest Huge Dinosaur Group Member Discovered In Argentina

Fossils Of Oldest Huge Dinosaur Group Member Discovered In Argentina

ARGENTINA – Scientists have found fossils of the oldest-known member of the huge dinosaur group in the Patagonian wilderness of Argentina.

ARGENTINA
Palaeontologists excavate of dinosaur bones that belonged to a titanosaur in Neuquen province, Argentina, on February 19, 2021. CTyS-UNLaM/Handout via REUTERS | Uplifted from: GMA News

The said fossils are said to represent the oldest-known member of the titanosaurs named Ninjatitan zapatai that lived million years ago during the Cretaceous Period

Ninjatitan is identified as a titanosaur, the oldest-known member of a group of long-necked plant-eating dinosaurs that walked on four pillar-like legs.

Ninjatitan’s incomplete skeletal remains were south of the city of Neuquen. The researches said that the dinosaur proved that the titanosaurs group first appeared longer ago than previously known.

“It is the oldest record known, not only from Argentina but worldwide,” 

“Titanosaurs are recorded on various sides of the world, but the oldest-known records were more modern than this find.”

This came from a statement from Pablo Gallina, a researcher at the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research of Argentina (CONICET) and the study’s lead author.

Ninjatitan was a large dinosaur, but much smaller than Argentinosaurus. It has a length of about 65 feet or 20 meters. Its presence supports the idea that the group came from the southern hemisphere. The findings were published in the scientific journal Ameghiniana.

Based on the report, titanosaurs are part of the sauropods, an even larger dinosaur group that includes others with similar body designs such as Brontosaurus and Diplodocus.

A number of titanosaurs that inhabited Patagonia reached gigantic proportions such as Argentinosaurus, Patagotitan and Dreadnoughtus.

CONICET researcher José Luis Carbadillo said that the age of Ninjatitan’s remains could have led people to assume that the bones belonged to a dinosaur group that pre-dated titanosaurs.

“In Patagonia, titanosaurs are only known about from less than 120 million years ago,” 

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