Posted on 12/15/2018 9:33:21 AM PST by ETL
A new kind of giant dinosaur has been described in Russia. Dubbed Volgatitan, the herbivore belonged to a family of long-necked dinosaurs called sauropods. It weighed 17 tons and walked the earth 200 million to 65 million years ago.
The enormous dinosaur was identified from seven of its vertebrae, which had been stuck in a cliff for 130 million years until they were discovered on the banks of the Volga river near Ulyanovsk in 1982. ..."
The bones sat for 20 years until they were re-examined by Averianov. ..."
“[After] checking the literature when I returned home, [I] confirmed that this is a new taxon of titanosaurian sauropods,” Averianov recounted. A taxon refers to a specific group.
Titanosaurs were the last surviving group of the giant long-necked dinosaurs and were some of the largest land animals known to have lived. It was previously believed that Titanosaurs’ evolution took place mainly in South America in the Early Cretaceous before some taxa migrated to North America, Europe and Asia in the Late Cretaceous. However, this new discovery in Russia shows that Titanosaurs were more widely distributed in the Early Cretaceous and that some of their important evolutionary stages may have happened in Eastern Europe and Asia.
Weighing in at 17 tons, Volgatitan’s not even close to being the largest titan of the Titanosaurs.
“The largest members of this lineage reached 50-70 tons, but they lived much later, in the Late Cretaceous period,” Averianov explained.
“Volgatitan is one of the oldest titanosaurian sauropods which lived in the beginning of the Early Cretaceous period, some 130 million years ago.
However, it is quite large comparative to other earliest Cretaceous sauropods.”
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
It walked the earth from 200 million to 65 million years ago (most long-lived animal ever) but has been stuck in a cliff for 130 million years? How did it manage to walk while stuck in a cliff?
Millions of years from now, some scientist will find Gorby's head preserved in amber, and write a paper explaining why the humans all had that red mark on their heads.
Funny - had me picturing them digging up Barney...
Titanosaurus...
The lamest foe Godzilla ever faced.
(Terror of Mechagodzilla)
Does that last pose show an “oopsy”?
Collagen?
Those dang Russians! Always trying to outdo everyone else!...................
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.