Scientists on Monday unveiled a replica of a skeleton they said was from the largest dinosaur species yet discovered in Brazil -- a mid-sized herbivore that roamed central Brazil some 80 million years ago during the late Cretaceous period.
A scientific description of the dinosaur, which represents a previously unknown species and measured some 13m from head to tail, was published on Aug. 11 in Brazilian National Museum's bulletin.
Scientists named the dinosaur species Maxakalisaurus topai in homage to the Maxakali Indian tribe, which inhabits the region of Minas Gerais state where the bones were found.
PHOTO: EPA
"This is the biggest dinosaur yet described in Brazil," said Alexander Kellner, lead author of the scientific description. "We have found the bones of what appear to be larger dinosaurs, but we still haven't been able to put them together for scientific descriptions."
Kellner said the bones were excavated near the Serra da Boa Vista, a mountain near the city of Prata, some 700km northwest of Rio de Janeiro, over the course of four field seasons between 1998 and 2002.
The dinosaur, which weighed an estimated nine tonnes, belongs to the Titanosaur group, which means Titanic lizard. Kellner said four species in that group have been discovered so far in Brazil.
Kristina Curry Rogers, curator of paleontology of the Science Museum of Minnesota and who was not involved with the discovery, reviewed Kellner's paper and confirmed Maxakalisaurus represented an important new species.
"It's pretty cool really. It's a pretty complete Titanosaur. They've even got a little of a skull which is incredible for a Titanosaur because we've found maybe less than 10 skulls for that group," Rogers said by telephone from Minnesota.
Rogers said the find was also interesting because the Brazilian scientists found osteoderms, or bony plates that some dinosaurs develop within their skin.
Because the skin rarely survives along with the fossil, however, scientist are unsure where the osteoderms were placed on the living dinosaur.
"It tells us a little bit more about the family, because only some have these specialized bones," Rogers said. "It gives us a little more information."
Kellner said out of the 1,000 known dinosaur species in the world, only 15 have so far been described in Brazil -- a country larger than the continental US.
By comparison, some 50 dinosaur species have been discovered in neighboring Argentina, including the Argentinasaurus, also a Titanosaur, which is probably the largest dinosaur yet discovered, weighing around 100 tonnes and measuring around 30m.
"If dinosaur species were soccer goals, Brazil would be getting pounded," Kellner said.
He said it was especially hard to find dinosaur remains in Brazil, because so much of the country is jungle, whereas dinosaur fossils are most likely to be found in deserts and semiarid regions.
Kellner added that a lack of adequate funding also hindered dinosaur research in Brazil.
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
‘PERSONAL MISTAKES’: Eileen Wang has agreed to plead guilty to the felony, which comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison A southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government and has resigned from her city position, officials said on Monday. Eileen Wang (王愛琳), mayor of Arcadia, was charged last month with one count of acting in the US as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She was accused of doing the bidding of Chinese officials, such as sharing articles favorable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law. The 58-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person city council, from which the mayor is selected
DELA ROSA CASE: The whereabouts of the senator, who is wanted by the ICC, was unclear, while President Marcos faces a political test over the senate situation Philippine authorities yesterday were seeking confirmation of reports that a top politician wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had fled, a day after gunfire rang out at the Philippine Senate where he had taken refuge fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. “Several sources confirmed that the senator, Senator Bato, is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential
HELP DENIED? The US Department of State said that the Cuban leadership refuses to allow the US to provide aid to Cubans, ‘who are in desperate need of assistance’ US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said that Cuba’s leadership must change, as Washington renewed an offer of US$100 million in aid if the communist nation agrees to cooperate. Cuba has been suffering severe economic tumult led by an energy shortage that plunged 65 percent of the country into darkness on Tuesday. Cuba’s leaders have blamed US sanctions, but Rubio, a Cuban American and critic of the government established by Fidel Castro, said the system was to blame, including corruption by the military. “It’s a broken, nonfunctional economy, and it’s impossible to change it. I wish it were different,” he told
RSS