Longest dinosaur bone found
Palaeontologists in Spain have found the fossiled thigh bone of a
dinosaur that is almost two metres in length, the longest such femur
ever discovered in Europe, they said Friday.
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Fossiled thigh bone of a dinosaur that is almost two metres
(more than six feet) in length, the longest such bone ever
discovered in Europe. AFP |
The Dinopolis Foundation, a dinosaur research institute, said the
1.92-metre (6.3-feet) bone was found earlier this year at a site at
Riodeva near Teruel in eastern Spain along with a 1.25-metre (4.1-feet)
tibia and 15 vertebrae.
The bone is believed to belong to a giant long-necked dinosaur
weighing more than 40 tonnes and measuring 30 metres (98 feet), the
Turiasaurus Riodevensis, first discovered in 2004 at the same site, it
said in a statement. The new fossils, in addition to those gathered in
2004, should allow the foundation to construct a skeleton of the animal,
which lived some 145 million years ago, Dinopolis said. The announcement
comes two weeks after palaeontologists revealed the discovery in the
same region of a new type of dinosaur with a hump that they believe is
the forerunner of flesh-eating leviathans which once ruled the planet.
The fossil was uncovered in the Las Hoyas formation in central
Spain's Cuenca province, a treasure trove of finds that date to the
Lower Cretaceous period of between 120 and 150 million years ago.
AFP |
