Fossils unearthed in Uzbekistan reveal a previously unidentified dinosaur species that was twice as large as a two-story bus, a new study shows.
Named Dzharatitanis kingi, the gentle giant measured about 20 meters in length and was a cousin of Diplodocus – the largest creature to ever walk the planet.
D. kingi inhabited a coastal plain at the westernmost point of the Asian land mass 100 million years ago, when the Earth’s continents were still grouped together.
The creature had a whip-like tail and a long neck, allowing it to reach the top of the trees to satisfy its huge herbaceous appetite.
A tail bone belonging to the dino was unearthed by an international team at the Bissekty Formation in the Kyzyl Kum Desert – known as the “dinosaur cemetery” in Uzbekistan.
Dzharatitanis kingi had a whip like a tail and a long neck, letting it reach the trees to satisfy his enormous appetite.
The Bissekty Formation “produced a large number of skeletal remains largely dissociated, but often exquisitely preserved” by vertebrates, say the researchers.
D. kingi had a small head and sharp teeth like a pencil and would have torn whole branches from trees. Its massive frame was supported on four pillar-like legs.
D. kingi existed during the Cretaceous, which lasted 145.5 and 65.5 million years ago.
It represents both a new species and a new genus from the already existing rebbachisaurid family.
Rebbachisaurids were sauropods – among the largest creatures to ever walk the Earth, some weighing the equivalent of 14 African elephants.
Rebbachisaurid remains have been exhumed in South America, Africa, North America and Europe, but never in Asia.
The tail bone was unearthed by an international team at the Bissekty Formation in the Kyzyl Kum Desert (pictured) – known as the Dinosaur Cemetery in Uzbekistan.
The Bissekty formation in Uzbekistan “produced a large number of skeletal remains largely dissociated, but often exquisitely preserved” by vertebrates
“This is the first reported rebbachisaurid in Asia and one of the youngest of the known fossil records,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Alexander Averianov, of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg.
“He ate plants like all other sauropods and lived in a complex environment with many other dinosaurs.”
All previous records of rebbachisaurids come from a narrow band that extends from southern South America through northeastern South America and northwestern Africa to Europe.
“Rebbachisaurids are interesting because they were mainly present in Africa and South America,” said Dr. Averianov.
Researchers analyzed fossilized (illustrated) caudal vertebrae taken from the deserts of Uzbekistan, which were once part of the creature’s tail
“The discovery of the first Asian rebbachisaurid, Dzharatitanis kingi, now considerably expands the known distribution of the group to the east.
“It supports the idea that these continents were still connected during the early Cretaceous.”
D. kingi inhabited a coastal plain near the Tethys Ocean, at the westernmost point of the Asian land mass, during the late Cretaceous.
The Tethys Ocean was a huge, shallow body of water between what would become Europe, North Africa, and Southeast Asia.
Rebbachisaurids probably spread to Central Asia in Europe, but it is not clear when this could have happened.
For most of the Cretaceous period, Asia was separated from Europe by a stretch of water called the Turgai Strait, but there was a land connection between the two land masses.
Rebbachisaurids, including D. kingi, could have crossed from Europe to Asia using an earth bridge over the Turgai Strait
“Rebbachisaurids have possibly dispersed from Europe to Asia through a land bridge over the Turgai Strait,” said Dr. Averianov.
Some of the other dinosaurs around D. kingi would have included the much smaller thymurlengia, a type of therapod.
Timurlengia – a cousin of the frightening Tyrannosaurus rex – was unearthed in the same location and detailed in a research paper five years ago.
The lucky predator had a mixture of skin and feathers and chased its prey in Central Asia.
“Timurlengia was an agile, thin-toothed, hunter-like hunter, suitable for cutting meat,” said study author Professor Hans Sues of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History.
“It probably preyed on various large plant consumers, especially early duck-billed dinosaurs, who shared their world.”
Professor Sues is also the co-author of this new study of D. kingi, which was published today in PLOS One.
SAUROPODE: DINOSAURS WITH LONG HANDLE AND SMALL SLEEVE
Sauropods were the first successful group of herbivorous dinosaurs, dominating most terrestrial ecosystems for over 140 million years, from the Late Triassic to the Late Cretaceous.
They had long necks and tails and relatively small skulls and brains.
They stretched up to 40 meters and weighed up to 80 tons (80,000 kg) – 14 times the weight of an African elephant.
Sauropods were the first successful group of herbivorous dinosaurs to dominate most terrestrial ecosystems for over 140 million years, from the Late Triassic to the Late Cretaceous.
They were spread – their remains were found on all continents except Antarctica.
They had nostrils raised on their skulls – rather than being located at the tip of their snouts like those of many other terrestrial vertebrates.
Some fossils show that these nostrils were so high up to the skull that they were very close to the eye openings.
Sauropods such as Diplodocus began to diversify in the Middle Jurassic about 180 million years ago.
Source: University of California Museum of Paleontology