New 22-foot-long titanosaur discovered in Argentina

A team of paleontologists found a new long-necked dinosaur species near a large salt flat in Argentina. Chadititan calvoi, or “titan of the salt” is estimated to have been about 22 feet-long and lived about 78 million years ago. The new species of titanosaur is described in a study published March 5 in the journal Revista del Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales.

From its well-preserved bones, the paleontologists believe that Chadititan was a small and slender dinosaur, with elongated vertebrae and delicate limbs that set it apart from other titanosaurs. It was an herbivore and belonged to the Rinconsaurian group.

The bones were uncovered near a salt flat in the Anacleto Formation in northern Patagonia, Argentina and found among fossils of ancient snails, garfishes, crocodile relatives, clams, freshwater turtles, and other organisms. Among this prehistoric treasure trove, the team uncovered the first fossil record of a family of tropical land snails–Neocyclotidae–and the first example of a small, tropical air-breathing land snail in the genus Leptinaria. This area was once a small pond surrounded by sand dunes and palm trees in what was a more arid and dry environment.

“In addition to Chadititan, the fossils we identified of mollusks, fish, and turtles, enriches our understanding of this ancient ecosystem and expands our knowledge of life in Patagonia near the end of the dinosaur era,” Diego Pol, a study co-author, paleontologist, and National Geographic Explorer, said in a statement. “Just by looking at the presence or absence of species in an area can suggest what makes the environment unique. In this case, the abundance of turtles and scarcity of crocodiles compared to regions in Europe and North America during the same period further highlights how Patagonian ecosystems were distinct as the continents drifted apart during the Cretaceous.”

Freshwater turtles made up over 90 percent of the recovered fossils, which surprised the research team, who represented organizations in Argentina and Uruguay. During the Cretaceous Period, this region was teeming with dinosaurs including megaraptors and Giganotosaurus, but paleontologists did not expect to see this many turtles.

“This high percentage is highly unusual, as in coeval sites from North America and Europe, turtles rarely account for more than 50% of the fauna,” study co-author and paleontologist Federico Agnolin said in a statement.

Continued study of the area aims to broaden our scientific understanding of the dinosaurs and other vertebrates that lived in Patagonia during the last 15 million years of the Cretaceous. Pol’s work will also build an animal database to help other researchers identify the extinction patterns at the end of the Cretaceous in South America and how they related to other regions of the world.