New dinosaur species discovered in Patagonia

Patagonia in Argentina is one of the richest dinosaur fossil deposits in the world. The geological conditions of the region, with vast expanses of Cretaceous sediments exposed by erosion, make discoveries relatively frequent. However, each newly described species provides unique data on the diversity of life in the late Cretaceous.

The titanosaurs, the group to which this find belongs, are the largest known sauropod dinosaurs. They lived in the supercontinent that is now South America during the period when the continents were still separating, which explains the presence of giant forms without equivalent in the northern hemisphere. An animal 30 meters long and possibly 70 tons in weight would have needed to consume immense volumes of vegetation, which in turn implies very productive ecosystems.

The process of identifying a new species from fossil fragments is laborious: morphological comparison with hundreds of already catalogued specimens, analysis of proportions, dating of the geological formation. Confirmation that it is a species distinct from those already known can take years from the initial discovery of the bones.