Bones Found during Railway Construction in Maranhão Belong to Long-Necked Dinosaur - Folha de S.Paulo

Bones discovered nearly five years ago during railway construction in Davinópolis, in the state of Maranhão, belong to a new dinosaur species identified in Brazil. The find was described in a paper published on the 12th in the journal Journal of Systematic Palaeontology.

Named Dasosaurus tocantinensis, the animal lived approximately 120 million years ago and reached 20 meters in length. It was a titanosauriform, a group of sauropods (the long-necked, four-legged dinosaurs) that also included titanosaurs — the largest dinosaurs ever discovered.

Researchers found leg bones, including a femur measuring approximately 1.5 meters, as well as arm bones, parts of the pelvis, fragments of the foot and ribs.

Based on its features, the authors suggest that the lineage to which this taxon belongs originated in Europe around 130 million years ago.

"This is the first non-titanosaur titanosauriform identified in Brazil," said Bruno Navarro, researcher at the Museum of Zoology of the University of São Paulo (USP) and one of the study’s authors.

In October 2021, workers from Brado, the company responsible for the land where the railway was being built, found the bones. The material was taken to the paleontology laboratory at Unifesspa in São Félix do Xingu (Pará), where it was prepared and studied.

The fossil is currently housed in the collection of the Maranhão Center for Natural History and Archaeology in São Luís and is open to visitors.