The remains are believed to be those of a sauropod, a 12-meter (39-foot) tall and 25-meter-long herbivorous dinosaur that roamed the Earth about 150 million years ago. “It is one of the largest specimens discovered in Europe, maybe in the world,” paleontologist Elisabeth Malafaya, of the University of Lisbon’s Faculty of Sciences, told AFP on Monday. The bones were discovered by Portuguese and Spanish scientists in the garden of a house near Pombal in central Portugal in early August. The dinosaur fossil. (Dom Luiz Institute, Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon/AFP) Among the bones collected, they found the remains of a rib about three meters long, Malafaia said. Fossil fragments were first noticed at the site in 2017 when the owner was digging up his garden to make room for an extension. He contacted paleontologists, who discovered part of the dinosaur’s skeleton earlier this month and have been examining it ever since. The group with the fossil. (Instituto Dom Luiz/School of Sciences of the University of Lisbon) Sauropods have characteristically long necks and tails and are among the largest animals that have ever lived. The fossils discovered at the Monte Agudo site in Pombal are believed to be those of a brachiosaurid that lived during the Upper Jurassic period. The fact that the vertebrae and ribs were found in the same position and position they would have been in the dinosaur’s anatomy is “relatively rare,” Malafaia said. The team may carry out more excavations in the coming months at the site and in the surrounding area. © Agence France-Presse
