A giant fossil of a sauropod, possibly the largest dinosaur to have ever lived in Europe, may have emerged purely by chance. In 2017, a homeowner in Pombal, Portugal, saw some fossilized bones during construction work. After five years of research, he has learned that he is about to sit on a record-breaking prehistoric specimen.
Excavations continue in the area where a 12-meter-high and 25-meter-long sauropod was found between 160 and 100 million years ago. If this estimated size is correct, it will be the largest of its kind ever found in all of Europe.
Paleontologists from Portugal and Spain are helping to unearth this giant specimen, and note that it is in a pretty good position as well as being huge.
“It is unusual to find all of an animal’s ribs this way, not just in this position, but retaining their original anatomical position,” said Elisabete Malafaia, a postdoctoral researcher at the Faculty of Science at the University of Lisbon (Ciências ULisboa) in Portugal. It is relatively rare in the fossil record of dinosaurs, particularly sauropods, from the Portuguese Upper Jurassic period.”
Their efforts uncovered the vertebrae and ribs they estimated were a brachiosaurid sauropod dinosaur that was among the largest animals to ever exist. The way the bones are arranged gives paleontologists hope that they will be able to find more pieces of the skeletal puzzle.
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