Fossils found in Patagonia are first evidence that long-necked dinosaurs survived millions of years after they were believed to have gone extinct, scientists say
Scientists in Argentina have announced the discovery of the fossilised remains of a unique member of the famous long-necked, plant-munching dinosaurs known as sauropods, the largest land creatures in Earth's history.
The fossils found in Patagonia provide the first evidence that the whip-tailed diplodocid sauropods survived well beyond the Jurassic period, when they were thought to have gone extinct, the paleontologists said.
Pablo Gallina, a researcher at Buenos Aires' Maimonides University, said the find was also the first definitive proof that diplodocids reached South America.
"It was a surprise, because the first remains we found were very deteriorated and we didn't think much of them, but later through careful laboratory work, cleaning rock from the bones, we could see that they were from a diplodocid, something unthinkable for South America."
The team says the fossils show that diplodocids roamed South America during the early Cretaceous era, millions of years after scientists thought these kinds of dinosaurs became extinct. They also suggest that the diplodocid clade, or family group, evolved from other dinosaurs before the Earth's continents split apart, which is earlier than previously thought.
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