In early August, a team of Portuguese and Spanish researchers exhumed parts of what they believe to be a fossilized brachiosaurus skeleton in the city of Monte Agudo, Pombal, Portugal, according to a press release last week.
Sauropods – which includes the largest dinosaurs in the world They were herbivorous dinosaurs that were recognizable by their long necks and tails. Based on the unearthed remains, researchers estimate that the dinosaur was about 12 meters (39 feet) high and 25 meters (82 feet) long.
The team has so far discovered important parts of the skeleton, including the vertebrae and ribs.
“It is not unusual to find all the ribs of an animal like this, let alone in this position, while maintaining their original anatomical position,” Elizabeth Malavia, a postdoctoral researcher in the University of Lisbon’s Faculty of Science, said in the statement.
“This mode of preservation is relatively uncommon in the fossil record of dinosaurs, particularly sauropods, from the Portuguese Upper Jurassic.”
This discovery is part of an ongoing project that began in 2017.
That year, while carrying out construction work on the property, the owner noticed several fossilized bone fragments in his backyard, according to the statement.
He contacted the research team, which began the first excavations that year.
Steve Brusatte, a paleontologist and professor at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, who was not involved in the project, called the project “Gobsmaking – a dinosaur thorax emerging from someone’s garden.”
“(It appears) that you’re likely to find them anywhere where there are rocks of the right age and the right type to preserve Jurassic bones, whether it’s in the Badlands or in someone’s backyard,” he told CNN, adding that finding dinosaur remains involves finding Opportunity and Conditions In dry, rough terrain, wind and water erosion exposes rocks and the terrain is often a fossil hotspot.
Dinosaurs of the group Brachiosauridae, to which the skeleton is believed to belong, It lived between the Upper Jurassic and the Lower Cretaceous periods about 160 to 100 million years ago, the press release added.
The skeleton found in Pombal has been preserved He indicates that more of them could be discovered, with more excavations planned at the site.