Fossils excavated in Uzbekistan reveal a previously unidentified species of dinosaur twice the size of a double-decker bus, a new study reveals.
Called Dzharatitanis kingi, the soft giant about 20 meters tall and was a cousin of Diplodocus – the largest creature that ever walked on the planet.
D. kingi inhabited a coastal plain at the westernmost point of the Asian landmass 100 million years ago when the continents of the earth were still merged.
The creature has a whip like a tail and a long neck, which has enabled it to reach high into the trees to satisfy its enormous herbaceous appetite.
A tailbone of the dino was excavated by an international team at the Bissekty Formation in the Kyzyl Kum Desert – known as Uzbekistan’s ‘dinosaur cemetery’.
Dzharatitanis kingi had a whip like a tail and a long neck, and let it stretch high in the trees to satisfy his enormous appetite.
According to the researchers, the Bissecty Formation says a large number of mostly remaining, but often beautifully preserved skeletal remains’ of vertebrates.
D. kingi had a small head and razor-sharp pencil-like teeth and would have torn whole branches off trees. Its massive frame is supported on four pillar-like legs.
D. kingi existed during the Cretaceous period, which lasted from 145.5 and 65.5 million years ago.
It represents both a new species and a new species in the existing rebbachisaurid family.
Rebbachisaurids were sauropods – one of the largest animals that have ever walked the earth, some of which weigh the equivalent of 14 African elephants.
Rebbachisaurid remains have been excavated in South America, Africa, North America and Europe, but never in Asia.
The tailbone was exhumed by an international team at the Bissekty Formation in the Kyzyl Kum Desert (pictured) – known as the Dinosaur Cemetery of Uzbekistan.
The Bishop’s formation in Uzbekistan has ‘yielded a large number of mostly separated, but often beautifully preserved skeletal remains’ of vertebrates
“This is the first rebbachisaurid reported from Asia and one of the youngest in the known fossil record,” the study’s lead author, Dr. Alexander Averianov, told the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg.
“It was herbivorous like all other sauropods and lived in a complex environment with many other dinosaurs.”
All previous records of rebbachisaurides come from a narrow band stretching from the southernmost part of South America through the north-east of South America and North Africa to Europe.
“Rebbachisaurids are interesting because they were mainly present in Africa and South America,” said Dr. Averianov said.
Researchers analyzed petrified hemispheres (photo) from the deserts of Uzbekistan that once formed part of the animal’s tail.
‘The discovery of the first Asian rebbachisaurid, Dzharatitanis kingi, now significantly expands the group’s known distribution to the east.
“It supports the idea that these continents were still connected during the early Cretaceous.”
During the Late Cretaceous, D. kingi inhabited a coastal plain near the Tethys Ocean at the westernmost point of the Asian landmass.
The Tethys Ocean was an enormous and shallow body of water that would stand between Europe, North Africa and Southeast Asia.
The rebbachisaurides probably spread from Europe to Central Asia, but it is not clear when this could have occurred.
For most of the Cretaceous, 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, may have migrated from Europe to Asia using a land bridge across the Turgai Strait
“The rebbachisaurids may have spread from Europe to Asia via an agricultural bridge over the Turgai Strait,” says Dr Averianov.
Some of the other dinosaurs in the time of D. kingi would include the much smaller timurlengia, a type of therapy.
Timurlengia – a cousin of the terrifying Tyrannosaurus rex – was excavated at the same site five years ago and set out in a research article.
The beautiful predator would have had a mixture of skin and feathers and chased away its prey in Central Asia.
“Timurlengia was a nimble hunter with slender, blade-like teeth suitable for cutting through meat,” study author Professor Hans Sues of the National Museum of Natural History told the Smithsonian Institution.
“It probably ate the various large herbivores, especially early duckbill dinosaurs that shared their world.”
Professor Sues is also co-author of this new study by D. kingi, who has been published today in PLOS One.
SAUROPODS: DINOSAURS WITH LONG NECK AND SMALL BRAIN
Sauropods were the first successful group of herbivorous dinosaurs to dominate most rural 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 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 rural ecosystems for over 140 million years, from the Late Triassic to the Late Cretaceous.
They were widespread – their remains were found on all continents except Antarctica.
They had nostrils on top of their skulls – rather than being at the end of the snout like those of so many other terrestrial vertebrates.
Some fossils show that these nostril openings were so far into the skull that there were very close to the eye openings.
Sauropods like the Diplodocus began to diversify in the Middle Jurassic about 180 million years ago.
Source: University of California Museum of Paleontology