Gigantic fossils found in Thailand expose the “last titan,” a long-necked dinosaur that measured up to 120 million years earlier when the area was semi-arid, a brand-new research study discovers.

Called Nagatitan chaiyaphumensisthe newly found types is the biggest sauropod, or long-necked dinosaur, discovered in Southeast Asia to date. It likely determined about 90 feet (27 meters) in length and weighed around 30 heaps (27 metric lots), according to a research study released Thursday (May 14) in the journal Scientific Reports

“Our dinosaur is big by most people’s standards — it likely weighed at least 10 tonnes [11 tons] more than Dippy the Diplodocus (Diplodocus carnegii),” research study very first author Thitiwoot Sethapanichsakula paleontologist at University College London, stated in a declarationIt is not the biggest recognized sauropod, weighing less than half as much as its South American family members Patagotitan and ArgentinosaurusThe research study group revealed the fossils from the Khok Kruat Formation in the Chaiyaphum province of northeastern Thailand. A regional citizen very first identified the fossils in 2016 in a bone bed on the side of a drying pond.

Amongst the recuperated fossils are a number of vertebrae, pelvic bones and leg bones, consisting of the dinosaur’s best thigh, or thigh bone. The thigh had actually broken into a number of pieces, the researchers approximated it would have been about 6.5 feet (2 meters) in length– about as high as a high human.

(Image credit: Thitiwoot Sethapanichsakul)

N. chaiyaphumensis was a kind of dinosaur referred to as a somphospondylan sauropod, a subgroup of big, long-necked dinosaurs that lived from the late Jurassic through the Cretaceous. Fossils from this group have actually been discovered on every continent. The shapes of N. chaiyaphumensis‘s vertebrae and leg bones set it apart from other formerly understood sauropods.

The group called the sauropod’s genus Nagatitan after Naga, “the mythological serpent-like creature found in various Asian cultures, especially in northeastern Thailand, often associated with water and Buddhism,” they composed in the research study. “Titan,” Is from the giants in Greek folklore. The types name chaiyaphumensis is called for the Chaiyaphum province.