The newly-identified types survived on Hațeg Island, a big subtropical landmass in Tethys Ocean, some 70 million years back (Cretaceous duration).

Called Uriash kadicithe animal comes from Lithostrotia, a group of titanosaurian dinosaurs that consists of numerous armored types.

“Titanosaurian sauropod dinosaurs consist of the biggest animals to ever stroll on land, with massive types that surpassed 60 loads,” stated Dr. Verónica Díez Díaz, a paleontologist with the Museum für Naturkunde at the Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung, and her associates.

“By the late Early Cretaceous, titanosaurs had actually attained a near-global circulation, with their remains understood from every landmass in the Late Cretaceous.”

“Despite an abundant and international fossil record, titanosaurian evolutionary relationships are inadequately understood, restricting our understanding of this varied clade of megaherbivores (the only group of sauropods to endure into the most recent Cretaceous).”

“In specific, European titanosaurs have actually mostly been ignored in phylogenetic analyses,” they stated.

“This disregard primarily originates from the historic predominance of Gondwanan types, along with the deficiency and incompleteness of Laurasian remains, particularly from Europe.”

“However, this has actually started to alter through a mix of reassessments of existing types and specimens, in addition to the discovery of brand-new remains, consisting of articulated, partial skeletons.”

“As such, the most recent Cretaceous European sauropod fossil record, in specific, is beginning to expose an abundant evolutionary history, with progressively acknowledged value for biogeographical situations and growing incorporation into phylogenetic analyses.”

The holotype of Uriash kadici was discovered in the Densuș-Ciula Formation of Hațeg Basin in Romania.

The dinosaur is approximated to have had a body mass of in between 5 and 8 lots, and a body length near 12 m.

Uriash kadici is the biggest titanosaurian types understood from the Hațeg Basin, and went beyond the optimum worths reached by a lot of other Late Cretaceous European titanosaurs, with the exception of Abditosaurus (with price quotes of 14 loads and 17.5 m in length),” the paleontologists stated.

“The existence of large-sized titanosaurs such as Uriash kadici is notable and needs description due to the fact that it appears to oppose– or a minimum of weaken– the expected action of the ‘island guideline’ upon these animals.”

Uriash kadici co-existed with 3 other titanosaurian types: Magyarosaurus dacus Paludititan nalatzensis and Petrustitan hungaricus

According to the scientists, this variety was most likely even greater as evidenced by the significant quantity of associated fossils.

“Our phylogenetic analyses reveal that these Transylvanian titanosaurs present especially close relationships with Gondwanan types: Magyarosaurus is recuperated either as a member or a close relative of Saltasauridae; Paludititan has affinities with Lognkosauria, in addition to the around coexisting Spanish titanosaur Lohuecotitan; Petrustitan is most carefully associated to South American early diverging eutitanosaurian types; and Uriash shares one function distinctively with Gondwanan titanosaurs,” they stated.

“These analyses likewise enhance the palaeobiogeographical hypothesis that the current Cretaceous European titanosaurs were members of Gondwanan family trees that attacked the previous location throughout the Barremian-Albian ages.”

“Since its preliminary discovery, Magyarosaurus dacus has actually been determined as an overshadowed sauropod, with island dwarfism proposed as a description for the small size of this types and other dinosaurs on Hațeg Island.”

“Whereas Paludititan and Petrustitan are likewise small-bodied sauropods, Uriash was an order of magnitude much heavier and represents among the biggest titanosaurian types discovered in the Late Cretaceous of Europe.”

“We analyze the existence of this body-size variation as either proof that large-bodied types were environmentally omitted from body-size decrease by competitors from small-bodied titanosaurs, or that overshadowing took place stratigraphically earlier amongst numerous family trees and the small-bodied titanosaurs on Hațeg Island are the descendants of existing overshadowed forefathers.”

“By contrast with some previous research studies, we discover no indicator of a body-size associated titanosaur turnover, including replacement of overshadowed types with larger-sized ones, in the uppermost Cretaceous of the Transylvanian location.”

The discovery of Uriash kadici is reported in a paper released this month in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology

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Verónica Díez Díaz et al2025. Modification of Romanian sauropod dinosaurs exposes high titanosaur variety and body-size variation on the most recent Cretaceous Haţeg Island, with ramifications for titanosaurian biogeography. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 23 (1 ): 2441516; doi: 10.1080/ 14772019.2024.2441516