Excavation work began at the garden in the town of Pombal in 2017, when the property owner noticed fragments of fossilized bones and contacted researchers from the University of Lisbon. Earlier this month, Spanish and Portuguese paleontologists working at the site began uncovering the vertebrae and ribs of what they believe is a brachiosaurid sauropod. Sauropods were the largest of all dinosaurs and the largest land animals that ever lived. “It is not common to find all the ribs of an animal like this, let alone in this position, preserving their original anatomical position,” Elisabete Malafaia, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Lisbon’s School of Science, told Phys. .org website. Part of the fossilized sauropod skeleton was discovered. Photo: Instituto Dom Luiz (School of Science, University of Lisbon, Portugal) The sauropod group – which includes brontosaurus and diplodocus – were herbivores, had long necks and walked on four legs. The size of the bones found in the garden suggests that the dinosaur was 12 meters tall and 25 meters long. Because of the natural location in which the skeleton was found, researchers hope that further excavation may reveal more parts of the same dinosaur. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. The skeleton was found in Upper Jurassic sedimentary rocks, suggesting it is about 150 meters old. “[This discovery] confirms that the area of Pombal has an important fossil record of Late Jurassic vertebrates, which in recent decades has provided the discovery of abundant material very important for the knowledge of the continental fauna that inhabited the Iberian Peninsula about 145 million years ago,” Malafaia added .
