Excavation for the construction of a railroad in the municipality of Davinópolis (metropolitan region of Imperatriz), in Maranhão, revealed a fossil of a giant dinosaur that is still unknown to the scientific community.
Among the material found was a femur measuring more than 1.5 meters in length, other long bones, such as a possible tibia, foot and hand, numerous ribs and vertebrae.
The fossil was the first known dinosaur for the region and possibly an important record for the evolutionary history of the group of sauropods, which inhabited what is now Brazil about 130 million years ago, in the period known as the Early Cretaceous.
Although it is not yet possible to know the species of the new dino, due to the size of the bones and its type, they are most likely from a titanosaurus, a group of long -necked dinosaurs that appeared in the late Jurassic, nearly 163 million years ago. They lived until the end of the Cretaceous, when they disappeared along with other non-avian dinosaurs (66 million years ago).
“It is already known in the literature of some records further north of the state, but it is the first large vertebrate fossil for the locality, which generally finds fossils of fish and plants”, explains Elver Luiz Mayer, paleontologist and professor from Unifesspa (Federal University of the South and Southeast of Pará), responsible for the preparation and study of the dino.
The estimated size of the dinosaur is up to 18 meters long, almost twice as long as another long-necked one also found in the state of Maranhão, the Amazonsaurus Maranhensis, one of the smallest titanosaurus described to date.
But, different from Amazonsaurus, the new specimen is near the region known as the Tocantins of the Itapecuru Formation, while the former is found further north of the state.