Paleontologists Identify 20-Meter Argentine Sauropod as First Jurassic South American Brachiosaurid
Updated
Updated · Sci.News · May 11
Paleontologists Identify 20-Meter Argentine Sauropod as First Jurassic South American Brachiosaurid
4 articles · Updated · Sci.News · May 11
Bicharracosaurus dionidei, a newly described 20-meter sauropod from Argentina’s Chubut province, lived about 157 million years ago and is the first Jurassic brachiosaurid reported from South America if its placement holds.
Fossils including vertebrae, ribs and hip bones were first flagged by local farmer Dionide Mesa in 2001 at the Cañadón Calcáreo Formation, one of the few Gondwanan sites preserving multiple sauropod skeletons from that era.
Two phylogenetic datasets placed the dinosaur mostly within Macronaria, though its anatomy also shows unexpected similarities to Diplodocidae, underscoring debate over early neosauropod evolution.
The find gives researchers rare southern-hemisphere evidence to compare with long-dominant Northern Hemisphere fossils and could reshape how the rise of giant herbivorous sauropods is reconstructed.
With a body mixing two dinosaur types, what did this Patagonian giant actually look and move like?
Does this dinosaur's bizarre skeleton force scientists to completely rewrite the sauropod family tree?
Why are giant Jurassic dinosaur fossils so much rarer in the Southern Hemisphere than in North America?