Until now, these gigantic quadrupeds, the titanosaurs, were not known, dating back more than 120 million years. But this newly found is 140 million years old. Titanosaurs, then, originated at the beginning of the Cretaceous period.
This fossil specimen of tyrannosaur excavated in Patagonia of Argentina, Ninjatitan zapatai, It was part of a creature 20 meters long.
Impact on knowledge about titanosaurs
The discovery of Ninjatitan has taken place in the Bajada Colorada Formation, southeast of Neuquén. The first discovery was a very complete scapula of this animal. In the following campaign, three vertebrae and some bones from its hind legs appeared; a part of the femur and what would be his fibula.
Ninjatitan represents an impact on knowledge about titanosaurs. Since the discovery of Nijatitan zapatai The idea is reinforced that titanosaurs had a Gondwanan origin, in the southern supercontinent made up of what is currently South America, Africa, India, Australia and Antarctica.
According to Pablo Gallina, researcher at the Azara Foundation at Maimónides University and lead author of the study that describes the discovery, in the journal Ameghiniana:
This discovery is also very important for understanding the evolutionary history of sauropods, because fossil records from the beginning of the Cretaceous period, about 140 million years ago, are really very scarce throughout the world.
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The news
A titanosaur is discovered that is 20 million years older than the oldest in Patagonia
was originally published in
Xataka Science
by
Sergio Parra
.