2023-05-20 23:02:08
Published on :
It is called the chucarosaurus, it was about 30 meters long, and it is the last to join the great family of dinosaurs. Argentinian scientists have announced the discovery of this giant herbivore, which roamed its neck several meters long in what is now Argentine Patagonia, around 90 million years ago.
With our correspondent in Buenos Aires, Theo Conscience
In the Quechua language, “chucaro” means “indomitable animal”. Add “saurus”, which means “the lizard” in Latin, and you will get the chucarosaurus, the indomitable reptile. “Chucarosaurus diripienda”, from its scientific name, was presented to the general public on Thursday, May 18 by a team of paleontologists from CONICET (National Council for Scientific and Technological Research).
This distant cousin of brachiosaure and diplodocus was discovered in the province of Rio Negro, in Argentine Patagonia. The remains of two different individuals were found in 2019, not far from those of the taurovenator, a giant carnivore identified three years earlier.
In a study published in the journal Cretaceous Research, Argentine paleontologists describe the chucarosaurus as a herbivorous colossus with an endless neck. His 2-meter femur indicates, according to them, that he was about 30 meters long, enough to make him “ one of the biggest dinosaurs known to date.
Despite an estimated weight of between 40 and 50 tons, or the equivalent of ten African elephants, the authors of the study believe ” that the thinness of his bones suggests that he was more slender than other giants of the Cretaceous.
Read also : Why so many misconceptions about dinosaurs?
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