Ginormous Fossils of 100-Foot-Long Dinosaur from 90 Million Years Ago Broke the Asphalt Roads While in Transit — Argentina

When the enormous fossils of a 100-foot-long dinosaur from 90 million years ago were being transported, the asphalt roads in Argentina fell apart.

Ginormous Fossils from 90 Million Years Ago

According to a recent study, enormous long-necked dinosaur remains were found in Argentina by paleontologists. This dinosaur, which lived around 90 million years ago, had a neck that was nearly 100 feet long.

This massive dinosaur wasn't always simple to examine. When the researchers were transferring the herbivore's bones to Buenos Aires for study, a traffic accident was caused by the herbivore's fossils, which were so hefty.

The weight caused an accident, according to study senior author Fernando Novas, a Bernardino Rivadavia Natural Sciences Museum researcher, and paleontologist.

Fortunately, no one suffered significant injuries, and the dinosaur's bones, which flew through the air unharmed, were so strong. However, they damaged the road's asphalt.

Chucarosaurus diripienda is the dinosaur's scientific name, which was partly inspired by that incident. "Chucaro" in the Quechua language of the area means "hard and indomitable animal," and "diripienda" in Latin means "scrambled."

The bones of C diripienda were found in 2018 by paleontologists scattered and partially buried on the hills of the Patagonian grassland in the province of Rio Negro. Both the radius, humerus, and metacarpus from the forelimb, the ischium from the hip, and the femora, tibia, and fibula from the rear leg were preserved in the fossil. According to Novas, multiple individuals had to move the bones inch by inch since they were so heavy.

C diripienda would have weighed from thirty to forty tons during its whole life in the middle of the Cretaceous. Novas noted that although it would have weighed between 70 tons, it is not one of the biggest and most massive dinosaurs, like Patagotitan, Argentinosaurus, or Notocolossus.

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Supersaurus Vs C. diripienda

The longest-known dinosaur, Supersaurus, lived approximately 150 million years ago in what is now the American West and is thought to have measured over 128 feet.

A massive creature, the supersaurus had longer front legs than hind legs. Its large, five-toed legs resembled those of an elephant. They most likely had a thumb claw on one toe to defend themselves from predators or even other aggressive sauropods. When compared to its size as a whole, the animal possessed a tiny skull and head. Its neck, which could extend up to 39 to 50 feet, lets it reach the foliage of very tall trees, AZ Animals reports.

C diripienda was rather long, but it made good use of its length. The long tail would have been a useful defense against attacks from the enormous predatory dinosaurs that lurked in its surroundings, and according to Novas, its long neck helped it to feast on the leaves at the tops of the trees, Live Science reports.

The study by Novas and several friends was recently published in the journal Cretaceous Research.