A new (?) eurogiant

From the almost prehistoric times when there was no Internet, I am back with some news about our old good fellows, the dinosaurs. This time we go again to Spain, exactly to Teruel, where a team of paleontologists has discovered the fossil of the largest dinosaur's femur (the upper bone of the leg) ever to be found in Europe.

 Location of Teruel, Spain

Along with the femur, which measures 1,92 m, there have been found a right tibia 1,25 m long, 15 tail vertebrae, 11 chevrons, a nearly complete set of teeth and part of the skull. The sediments surrounding the bones are 145 million years old, so this dinosaur may have lived in between the late Jurassic and the early Cretaceous.

 

Photo by Dinopolis, the Teruel dinosaur thematic park.

In 2006, Turiasaurus riodevensis (something like "lizard of Riodeva, Turia", being Turia the latin name for Teruel), the biggest European dinosaur known until now (with a lenght exceeding 30 m), was unearthed from this same spot (the Riodeva dig). However, the discovery can't be yet assigned to a species, neither T. riodevensis nor a new one.

Reconstruction of Turiosaurus riovedensis, by Carin L. Cain.