New Large Dino in Patagonia

L A   B U I T R E R A,   Argentina,   Jan. 25 -- Herdsman Raul Avelas was nonchalant when he spied huge bones on his patch of Argentina’s badlands a decade ago, seeing them as just another protrusion for his flock to stumble over en route to his adobe homestead.

“Since I started walking around the countryside here as a boy I’ve seen several bones, but I never gave it much importance,” Avelas said, adjusting his black beret and picking at his brown-stained teeth.

But Buenos Aires paleontologist Sebastian Apesteguia knew otherwise after chatting with Avelas a year ago. The fossils he and his seven-man team have since unearthed from a desolate, vulture-ridden cliff at La Buitrera (The Vulture Cage) in southern Argentina’s Patagonia are believed to be from the biggest dinosaur species ever discovered.

Huge Vertebrae

“There is nothing comparable to this so it is probably a new species,” the wiry Apesteguia said. The tip-off were the two cervical vertebrae each measuring 3.84 feet, the biggest ever unearthed.

“They were so big they seemed like a femur or tibia, but on closer examination they turned out to be neck vertebrae,” said Jorge Gonzalez, a technical artist from the Argentine Natural Sciences Museum in Buenos Aires who is in on the dig.

With 10 to 12 vertebrae making up the neck, scientists envision a plant-eating sauropod stretching 154-160 feet from head to tail and towering 45 feet. That is roughly half a city block long and five stories high.

The closest rival is the Argentinosaurus discovered in the same region. It was the largest type of dinosaur ever found but the new find is 26 feet longer and sports the same body shape: small head, serpentine neck, barrel-shaped middle and a long tail. It weighed in at 88 tons or more.

Air Full of Spice

La Buitrera is about 50 miles as the buzzard flies from the town of Cipolletti in southern Rio Negro province. It is sparse land full by thorny scrub where the air smells like a rich combination of oregano and mint and temperatures regularly soar over 104 degrees.