Scientists determine large new dinosaur following Thailand dig | Science and Expertise Information

Boasting the equal weight of 9 elephants, Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis had sufficient distinctive options to be thought-about a brand new species.

Scientists have recognized the stays of an enormous new species of dinosaur in Thailand, estimated to have weighed as a lot as 9 grownup elephants.

“Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis” is the largest-known dinosaur from Southeast Asia, and ⁠a member of the dinosaur lineage known as sauropods, recognized for having lengthy necks and tails, small heads and 4 columnar legs, in keeping with a report revealed on Thursday within the Scientific Reports journal.

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The herbivore stretched 27 metres (89 ft) and weighed about 27 tonnes, in keeping with the examine referenced within the report.

The dinosaur is prone to have roamed what’s now Thailand between 100 and 120 million years in the past and is the biggest ever present in Southeast Asia, researchers stated.

Its head and tooth weren’t among the many fossils recovered, however researchers have a good suggestion of its feeding preferences primarily based on different sauropods.

“Nagatitan was probably a bulk browser that focused on consuming high volumes of vegetation that required little to no chewing such as conifers and possibly seed ferns,” stated Thitiwoot Sethapanichsakul, a University College London PhD pupil in palaeontology and lead creator of the analysis.

Sauropods had been a number of the largest recorded land animals in Earth’s historical past.

“Our dinosaur is big by most people’s standards. It likely weighed at least 10 tonnes more than Dippy the Diplodocus,” stated Sethapanichsakul, referring to the large composite solid beforehand on show at London’s Natural History Museum.

The Thai PhD pupil known as the newly found sauropod “the last titan” as a result of it was unearthed in one of many youngest rock formations the place dinosaurs have been present in Thailand.

He added that it’s becoming to name Nagatitan Southeast Asia’s final “titan” as a result of the area grew to become a shallow sea within the Cretaceous interval, that means ⁠no extra sauropods would dwell there.

Nagatitans belonged to a subgroup of sauropods that originated about 140 million years in the past, and about 90 million years in the past, they grew to become the one sauropods left worldwide, thriving till the dinosaur age ended 66 million years in the past with an asteroid affect.

The first stays of the large creature had been unearthed a decade in the past by locals in northeast Thailand, however the excavation was not accomplished till 2024, in keeping with the examine.

The stays partially resembled these of beforehand found sauropods, however had sufficient distinctive options to be thought-about a brand new species.

Nagatitan’s identify references Naga, a serpent-like being in some Asian non secular traditions that’s prominently depicted in varied Thai temples. ⁠In all, there are 14 recognized named dinosaurs from Thailand.

A life-size reconstruction of Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis is on show at Bangkok’s Thainosaur Museum.