New Species of Long-Necked Dinosaur Discovered

A new species of sauropod dinosaur that stretched 39 feet (12 m) from head to tail has been unearthed in Patagonia, Argentina

Dubbed Lavocatisaurus agrioensis, the new dinosaur is thought to have lived approximately 110 million years ago (Cretaceous period).

The creature was a type of sauropod, a group of huge plant-eating dinosaurs that includes the largest animals ever to walk the Earth.

One adult and two immature specimens of Lavocatisaurus agrioensis were recovered near the locality of Agrio del Medio, a small town in the central part of the province of Neuquén, Patagonia.

“We found most of the skull bones of Lavocatisaurus agrioensis: the snout, the jaws, a lot of teeth, also the bones that define the orbit of the eyes for example and, in that way, we were able to do a very complete reconstruction,” said Dr. José Luis Carballido, a paleontologist at the CONICET-Egidio Feruglio Museum.

The paleontologists estimate that adult Lavocatisaurus agrioensis grew to about 39 feet long, while juveniles were around 20-23 feet (6-7 m) long.

“The discovery was made in the center of the Argentinean province of Neuquén,” Dr. Carballido said.

“At that site, 110 million years ago, the environment was very desert, with sporadic lagoons, so we were surprised to find the fossils there.”

“Although it is estimated that this group of sauropods could have been adapted to move in rather arid environments, with low vegetation, with little humidity and little water, it is an environment in which one would not be looking for fossils.”

“The same aridity of the environment indicates that the fossil remains of these three individuals were not displaced and gathered next to a waterway, but that they moved in groups and died together.”

“There is no way to know if there was kinship among the members of this group, so it will be left to the imagination to guess if it was a father or a mother with two of their children.”

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Image result for New Species of Long-Necked Dinosaur Discovered
Lavocatisaurus agrioensis. Top image: (A) an adult specimen, axis in lateral view (A1, photograph; A2, drawing); eight cervical vertebrae in lateral view (A3, photograph; A4, drawing); anterior caudal vertebra in lateral view (A5); middle caudal vertebra in lateral view (A6); posterior caudal vertebra in lateral view (A7); posteriormost caudal vertebra in lateral view (A8); left tibia in lateral view (A9); (B) left scapula from a juvenile specimen, in lateral view (C) skeletal reconstruction based on adult and juvenile specimens. Scale bars – 10 cm. Bottom image: (A) left maxilla from an adult specimen in lateral view; (B) right maxilla in anterodorsal (B1) and posteroventral (B2) views, numbers indicate the tooth positions; (C) left dentary in dorsal (C1) and lateral (C2) views, numbers indicate the tooth positions; (D) right squamosal (inverted) in lateral view; (E) right jugal (inverted) in lateral view; (F) dentary teeth, numbers indicate the tooth positions; (G) eight associated teeth in labial view (G1), close up of two teeth in labial view (G2), showing the absence of wear facets; (H) nine associated teeth in lingual view (H1), close up of the teeth in labial view (H2), showing the wear facets; (I) skeletal reconstruction, based on the adult specimen. Scale bars – 10 cm in A-E and 1 cm in F-H. Image credit: Canudo et al, doi: 10.4202/app.00524.2018.

Sauropoda

Sauropods were herbivorous (plant-eating), usually quite long-necked[13] quadrupeds (four-legged), often with spatulate (spatula-shaped: broad at the tip, narrow at the neck) teeth.

They had tiny heads, massive bodies, and most had long tails. Their hind legs were thick, straight, and powerful, ending in club-like feet with five toes, though only the inner three (or in some cases four) bore claws.

Their forelimbs were rather more slender and ended in pillar-like hands built for supporting weight; only the thumb bore a claw.

Many illustrations of sauropods in the flesh miss these facts, inaccurately depicting sauropods with hooves capping the claw-less digits of the feet, or multiple claws or hooves on the hands. The proximal caudal vertebrae are extremely diagnostic for sauropods.[14]

Size

Image result for sauropod wikipedia

Size comparison of selected giant sauropod dinosaurs

The sauropods’ most defining characteristic was their size. Even the dwarf sauropods (perhaps 5 to 6 metres, or 20 feet long) were counted among the largest animals in their ecosystem. Their only real competitors in terms of size are the rorquals, such as the blue whale. But, unlike whales, sauropods were primarily terrestrial animals.

Their body structure did not vary as much as other dinosaurs, perhaps due to size constraints, but they displayed ample variety.

Some, like the diplodocids, possessed tremendously long tails, which they may have been able to crack like a whip as a signal or to deter or injure predators,[15] or to make sonic booms.[16]

Supersaurus, at 33 to 34 metres (108 to 112 ft) long,[17] was the longest sauropod known from reasonably complete remains, but others, like the old record holder, Diplodocus, were also extremely long.

The holotype (and now lost) vertebra of Amphicoelias fragillimus may have come from an animal 58 metres (190 ft) long;[18] its vertebral column would have been substantially longer than that of the blue whale.

However, a research published in 2015 speculated that the size estimates of A. fragillimus may have been highly exaggerated.[19]

The longest dinosaur known from reasonable fossils material is probably Argentinosaurus huinculensis with length estimates of 25 metres (82 ft) to 39.7 metres (130 ft).[20][21]

The longest terrestrial animal alive today, the reticulated python, only reaches lengths of 6.95 metres (22.8 ft).[22]

Others, like the brachiosaurids, were extremely tall, with high shoulders and extremely long necks.

Sauroposeidon was probably the tallest, reaching about 18 metres (60 ft) high, with the previous record for longest neck being held by Mamenchisaurus.

By comparison, the giraffe, the tallest of all living land animals, is only 4.8 to 5.5 metres (16 to 18 ft) tall.

The best evidence indicates that the most massive were Argentinosaurus (120 metric tons[23]), Puertasaurus (80 to 100 metric tons [24]), Alamosaurus, Paralititan, Antarctosaurus (69 metric tons[23]).

There was poor (and now missing) evidence that so-called Bruhathkayosaurus, might have weighed over 175 metric tons but this has been questioned.[25]

The weight of Amphicoelias fragillimus was estimated at 122.4 metric tons[18] but 2015 research argued that these estimates may have been highly exaggerated.[19]

The largest land animal alive today, the Savannah elephant, weighs no more than 10.4 metric tons (11.5 short tons).[26]

Among the smallest sauropods were the primitive Ohmdenosaurus (4 m, or 13 ft long), the dwarf titanosaur Magyarosaurus (6 m or 20 ft long), and the dwarf brachiosaurid Europasaurus, which was 6.2 meters long as a fully-grown adult.[27]

Its small stature was probably the result of insular dwarfism occurring in a population of sauropods isolated on an island of the late Jurassic in what is now the Langenberg area of northern Germany.[28][29]

The diplodocoid sauropod Brachytrachelopan was the shortest member of its group because of its unusually short neck.

Unlike other sauropods, whose necks could grow to up to four times the length of their backs, the neck of Brachytrachelopan was shorter than its backbone.

On or shortly before 29 March 2017 a sauropod footprint about 5.6 feet (1.7 meters) long was found at Walmadany in the Kimberley Region of Western Australia.[30] The report said that it was the biggest known yet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauropoda#Size

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