They find in Portugal what could be the largest dinosaur in Europe

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Researchers from the

have found what could be the largest dinosaur discovered to date in Europe.

The remains have been found in the center of Portugal, in Pombal, and correspond to a

approximately

.

It all started in 2017. A man from Pombal found several

while doing construction work on the property.

So, he contacted the research team, which carried out the first excavation campaign that same year.

More recently, between August 1 and 10 of this year, Spanish and Portuguese paleontologists have unearthed the remains.

Sauropods were herbivores, quadrupeds, with long necks and tails.

"It is not usual to find all the ribs of such an animal, much less in this position,

. This mode of preservation is relatively uncommon in the fossil record of dinosaurs, particularly sauropods, from the Portuguese Late Jurassic ", says Elisabete Malafaia, a researcher at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, in a note released by the center.

To date, an important set of elements of

, including vertebrae and ribs, of what could be a brachiosaurid sauropod dinosaur, has been obtained.

The

group is made up of large species that lived from the

approximately 160-100 million years ago, and are characterized by the presence of markedly developed forelimbs.

Some of the most emblematic dinosaur species belong to this group of sauropods, such as

and

, as well as the species from the Portuguese Upper Jurassic found in the western region of Portugal,

The conservation characteristics of the fossils and their arrangement indicate the

of this dinosaur.

This hypothesis will be contrasted in future excavation campaigns at the site.

"Research in the paleontological enclave of Monte Agudo confirms that the Pombal region has an

from the Upper Jurassic, which has allowed in recent decades the discovery of abundant materials that are very significant for the knowledge of continental faunas. that inhabited the Iberian Peninsula some 145 million years ago", adds Elisabete Malafaia.

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