Remains of Europe’s largest dinosaur discovered in a garden in Portugal

Remains of what can be regarded as the largest dinosaur ever discovered in Europe were found in a back garden in Portugal. When the property owner in the city of Pombal found pieces of fossilised bone in the yard and called scientists from the University of Lisbon, an excavation operation in the area began in 2017.

The vertebrae and ribs of what Spanish and Portuguese palaeontologists believe to be a brachiosaurid sauropod have been discovered at the site earlier this month.

The largest living land animal, and the largest of all dinosaurs, was the sauropod.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

Elisabete Malafaiafrom the University of Lisbonsaid, "It is not usual to find all the ribs of an animal like this, let alone in this position, maintaining their original anatomical position."

As per the size of the bones discovered in the yard, the dinosaur was 12 metres tall and 25 metres long, The Guardian reported.

Researchers are hopeful that additional excavation will turn up more pieces of the same dinosaur because of the skeleton’s natural posture.

The skeleton was discovered in Upper Jurassic sedimentary strata, indicating a 150-million-year age range.

The Guardian reported that Malafaia further said, "[This discovery] confirms that the region of Pombal has an important fossil record of Late Jurassic vertebrates, which in the last decades has provided the discovery of abundant materials very significant for the knowledge of the continental faunas that inhabited the Iberian Peninsula at about 145m years ago."

It is believed that the sauropod group, which includes brontosaurus and diplodocus, consisted of herbivorous animals with long necks and four legs.

(With inputs from agencies)