An international team of archaeologists recently made an incredible discovery.

While carrying out an excavation on the site of Orcau-1, in the Spanish Pyrenees, they discovered 53 bones belonging to the skeleton of an

Abditosaurus kuehnei.

This is a new species of giant dinosaur that had never been described until now, reports

France 3 Occitanie on

Saturday

.

These bones also constitute the most complete semi-articulated skeleton of a titanosaur ever discovered in Europe.

According to the first information presented Monday in the journal

Nature Ecology & Evolution

, "the forgotten lizard", as it was called, was 18 meters long and weighed 14 tons.

This makes him the largest dinosaur ever found in southern Europe.

New species of sauropod dinosaur in the Spanish Pyrenees!

Described 60 years after its discovery, Abditosaurus kuehnei (the forgotten lizard of Kühne, its discoverer in 1954) lived 70.5 million years ago and measured ~ 17m long and weighed 14 tons.

https://t.co/lSWR8oTPTL pic.twitter.com/cTxwPJ7SGe

— Vincent Reneleau 🦕 (@VincentReneleau) February 8, 2022

Dimensions that question

The presence of a herbivore of these dimensions in this location has thus raised many questions among researchers.

"The titanosaurs usually found in the Upper Cretaceous of Europe tend to be small or medium-sized because they evolved in island conditions," says Bernat Vila, paleontologist and lead author of the paper published in

Nature

. .

European dinosaurs would thus be characterized by a smaller size.

According to scientists, the dinosaur found would therefore belong to a group originating in Africa or South America.

This would imply the existence of a migration between Europe and the Gondwana supercontinent from which gradually emerged Africa, South America, Antarctica, Australia, India and the Arabian Peninsula.

The specimen could thus have taken advantage of a global drop in the level of the oceans to move.

World

Turkey: Searched for 200 years, an ancient city discovered by an amateur archaeologist

Culture

Archaeology: How excavations enrich our shared history

  • Spain

  • Archeology

  • Science

  • Pyrenees

  • Dinosaur

  • 0 comment

  • 0 share

    • Share on Messenger

    • Share on Facebook

    • Share on Twitter

    • Share on Flipboard

    • Share on Pinterest

    • Share on Linkedin

    • Send by Mail

  • To safeguard

  • A fault ?

  • To print