Scientists person identified a monolithic caller dinosaur from remains discovered successful Thailand, with the carnal estimated to person weighed arsenic overmuch arsenic 9 big elephants.
The long-necked herbivore stretched 88 feet and weighed astir 27 tons, according to a study published successful the diary Scientific Reports.
It astir apt roamed what is present Thailand betwixt 100 cardinal and 120 cardinal years agone and is the largest ever recovered successful Southeast Asia, researchers said.
They estimated the caller dinosaur had the aforesaid heft arsenic 9 big Asian elephants.
"Our dinosaur is large by astir people's standards — it apt weighed astatine slightest 10 tons much than Dippy the Diplodocus," said pb researcher Thitiwoot Sethapanichsakul, referring to the tremendous composite formed antecedently connected show astatine London's Natural History Museum.
An artist's reconstruction shows the dinosaur whose fossils were unearthed successful Thailand.
Patchanop Boonsai/Handout via Reuters
The Thai Ph.D. pupil called the recently discovered sauropod "the past titan" due to the fact that it was unearthed successful 1 the youngest stone formations wherever dinosaurs are recovered successful Thailand, according to University College London.
The portion aboriginal became a shallow sea, helium added, "so this whitethorn beryllium the past oregon astir caller ample sauropod we volition find successful Southeast Asia."
The archetypal remains of the tremendous carnal were unearthed a decennary agone by locals successful northeast Thailand, but the excavation was not completed until 2024, according to the study, published Thursday.
The remains partially resembled those of antecedently discovered sauropods, but had capable unsocial features to beryllium considered a caller species.
It has been dubbed Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis aft a "mythological serpent-like carnal recovered successful assorted Asian cultures, particularly successful northeastern Thailand, often associated with h2o and Buddhism, and titan, a elephantine successful Greek mythology," the authors write.
At the clip the Nagatitan roamed the region, the ecosystem's largest predator was a comparative of the meat-eating dinosaur Carcharodontosaurus, which measured astir 26 feet agelong and weighed astir 3.5 tons.
"At that size, it was dwarfed by Nagatitan. At afloat size, Nagatitan apt had precise small to fearfulness successful presumption of predation," Sethapanichsakul told the Reuters quality agency.
Researcher Thitiwoot Sethapanichsakul poses with a beforehand limb bony of the Nagatitan astatine the Sirindhorn Museum successful Thailand successful a photograph released May 14, 2026.
Thitiwoot Sethapanichsakul/Handout via Reuters
A life-size reconstruction is connected show astatine Bangkok's Thainosaur Museum, according to University College London.
In 2023, a dinosaur skeleton uncovered by scientists successful northeastern Thailand was besides deemed to beryllium recently discovered species. The skeleton of Minimocursor phunoiensis — which lived 150 cardinal years agone connected what is present the Khorat Plateau — represented "one of the best-preserved dinosaurs ever recovered successful Southeast Asia," scientists said astatine the time.
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