The Portuguese accidentally discovered a 24-meter-long dinosaur in his backyard

A Portuguese man accidentally discovered the largest dinosaur bone ever found in Europe.

In 2017, while working on the Pombal Building in Portugal, he noticed fossilized bone fragments in his backyard. The man contacted the scientists who began the initial excavations later that year.

Efforts are underway to excavate this dinosaur, and this month Spanish and Portuguese paleontologists discovered several other massive remains. To date, a “collection of the main structural elements of the hull” has been collected, including 3-meter vertebrae and ribs. a report.

“It is one of the largest specimens found in Europe, and possibly in the world,” Elizabeth Malafayasays a paleontologist from the University of Lisbon’s Faculty of Science in Portugal. France Press agency (Agence France Presse).

The bones may belong to a sauropod, a type of herbivorous dinosaur with a long neck and tail. This group of dinosaurs includes the largest terrestrial creatures that ever roamed the Earth. Scientists evaluate this model to which it belongs Brachiosauridae According to one report, the family was 39 feet long and 82 feet long and lived about 160 to 100 million years ago, from the late Jurassic to early Cretaceous period.

Malafaya says in the report that the Pombal region in central Portugal, where the bones were found, “contains an important fossil record of late Jurassic vertebrates,” and has allowed for several “very important” discoveries about the 145 million animals that lived there. . years ago. However, he says this discovery is unique.

“It is not usual to preserve all of the animal’s ribs in their original anatomical position, let alone this one,” Malafaya says in the report. This type of preservation is relatively rare for large dinosaurs. Portuguese fossil record and specific and unusual environment indicates taphonomic resources“, as you say CBS NewsChrist Brito.

The way the specimen was preserved suggests its bones can still be found, and according to CBS, the scientists plan to continue excavating next year.

Meanwhile, Malafaya says, researchers will take the newly discovered fossilized bones to a lab where they will remove the sediments, document the results, prepare them for further study and display them at the museum. NEWSWEEKs White Robin.

Steve Brusatte, a paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, who was not involved in the project, said: CNNHafsa Khalil’s discovery of “policing – a dinosaur rib coming out of someone’s garden… [It goes to show] If the rocks are of the right age and type to preserve Jurassic bones either in the wild or Someone’s Backyard. “