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World's 'biggest dinosaur' discovered in Argentina

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ANI London

Paleontologists have unearthed fossiled bones largest dinosaur ever in Argentina that is believed to have walked on Earth.

According to the researchers, the animal was 40m long and 20m tall and weighed 77 tonnes, being as heavy as 14 African elephants, and seven tonnes heavier than Argentinosaurus, the BBC reported.

The scientists said that they believe that it is a new species of titanosaur, enormous herbivores dating from the Late Cretaceous period.

The remains, which were discovered by a local farmer, who stumbled on the fossils in the desert near La Flecha, about 250km (135 miles) west of Trelew, Patagonia, were excavated by a team of palaeontologists from the Museum of Palaeontology Egidio Feruglio, led by Dr Jose Luis Carballido and Dr Diego Pol.

 

The researchers said that given the size of these bones, which surpass any of the previously known giant animals, the new dinosaur is the largest animal known that walked on Earth, which lived in the forests of Patagonia between 95 and 100 million years ago, based on the age of the rocks in which its bones were found.

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First Published: May 18 2014 | 10:30 AM IST

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