Portuguese and Spanish paleontologists unearthed in early August, in the garden of a house in central Portugal, the fossilized skeleton of a dinosaur that could be the largest sauropod discovered in Europe.
“It is one of the largest specimens known at a European level, perhaps worldwide,” paleontologist Elisabete Malafaia, from the Dom Luiz Institute of the University of Lisbon, told AFP on Monday.
Among the set of vertebrae and ribs found, dating from the Jurassic, about 150 million years ago, the researchers found traces of a rib about three meters long, he said.
The first discovery of these fossils was in 2017, when an inhabitant of the Pombal region drilled on his land to build an annex on his property.
In early August, a team of researchers unearthed the remains of the dinosaur to carry out in-depth studies of the fossils.
In the coming months, new excavations could be carried out at the site and in the region.
Sauropods were herbivorous, quadrupedal dinosaurs, recognizable by their long necks. They could reach 12 meters high and 25 long.
The fossils discovered in Pombal would belong to an animal of the brachiosaurid family that lived during the Upper Jurassic.
The fact that these skeletal remains were found together, in the “original” position they were in while the animal was alive, is “relatively rare,” Malafaia said.
