New Species of Long-Necked Dinosaur Fossils Discovered in Patagonia
Argentina has been a hotbed of discoveries in paleontology over the past several years and they’ve just had another one. The diggers have just unearthed what they say is a new species of prehistoric creature, one that went extinct some 90 million years ago.
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00:03 Argentina has been a hotbed of discoveries in paleontology over the past several years,
00:08 and they've just had another one. These diggers have unearthed what they say is a new species
00:13 of prehistoric creature, one that went extinct some 90 million years ago. The paleontologists
00:18 started excavating the area way back in 2012, finding at the time fossil material, leading them
00:24 on the chase. However, they've only just found the fossilized skeleton of what they are calling
00:28 Cytosaura mure, or star lizard in Latin. It was a long-necked dinosaur which stretched 65 feet long,
00:34 with the archaeologists estimating it likely weighed around 32,000 pounds. They add it's
00:40 probably part of the sauropod family, ones known for their large bodies and long necks,
00:44 and were herbivores. That group of dinosaurs originated in the early Jurassic period,
00:49 but lasted through the late Triassic. This star lizard, however, died in the late Cretaceous
00:54 epoch. Likely doing so around 25 million years before the asteroid that killed most living things
00:59 on Earth struck our planet. This is just the latest discovery, revealing what a hotbed of
01:04 prehistoric dinosaur activity was going on in Patagonia.