The 20-meter lizard, discovered in Argentina in 2014, roamed what is now Patagonia about 140 million years ago.
A colossal dinosaur unearthed in Argentina could be the oldest titanosaur ever found, roaming what is now Patagonia about 140 million years ago, at the beginning of the Cretaceous period, scientists said on Sunday.
The 65-foot (20-meter) lizard, Ninjatitan zapatai, was discovered in 2014 in the province of Neuquen in southwestern Argentina, La Matanza University reported in its analysis.
“The main importance of this fossil, in addition to being a new species of titanosaur, is that it is the oldest recorded for this group worldwide,” said a statement quoted by researcher Pablo Gallina of the Conicet Scientific Council.
The Titanosaurs were members of the sauropod group – giant plant-eating lizards with long necks and tails that could have been the largest animals to ever cross the Earth.
The new discovery, according to the statement, meant that the titanosaurs lived longer than previously thought – at the beginning of the Cretaceous period, which ended with the death of dinosaurs about 66 million years ago.
Fossils from 140 million years ago are “really very rare,” said Gallina, the lead author of a study published in the Argentine scientific journal Ameghiniana.
The creature was named after the Argentine paleontologist Sebastian Apesteguia, nicknamed “El Ninja” and the technician Rogelio Zapata.