A group of paleontologists discovered in southern Brazil what was described as the oldest long-necked dinosaur in the world, based on the analysis of three complete fossilized skeletons, academic sources reported today.
The description of the new dinosaur species made by researchers from the University of Sao Paulo (USP) and the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM) was published in the latest edition of the scientific journal Biology Letters .
The new dinosaur, from the species of the sauropods was named baptized “Macrocollum itaquii,” was described from the three complete fossilized skeletons removed in 2013 from Triassic rocks in Agudo, a municipality in the interior of Rio Grande do Sul, the state located more southern of Brazil and border with Argentina and Uruguay.
“In addition to being associated and very well preserved, the materials represent the first record of complete skeletons of dinosaurs in Brazil,” UFSM spokesmen told Efe.
The main characteristic of the new species is its long neck, with about 11 feet of extension.
That characteristic includes the “Macrocollum itaquii” among sauropod dinosaurs such as “Brachiosaurus” and “Apatosaurus”.
According to the authors of the scientific description, the species described in Brazil is the oldest long-necked species in the world, since the rocks from which they were extracted date from about 225 million years ago, that is, from the Mesozoic era.
It is a period from which we have little knowledge of, as there are much older fossils and others much younger, which precedes the period when dinosaurs came to dominate the entire planet.
According to the researchers, the dentition indicates that the new species was herbivorous and its long neck allowed access to the highest vegetation, which was not available to other animals of the same period.
Using a comparative analysis of the anatomy of the fossils of other sauropod dinosaurs also discovered in Rio Grande do Sul, the researchers concluded to the extent that the group perfected the herbivorous diet, its neck was lengthened, until practically doubled.
The name of the new species is a reference to its main characteristic, since “Marcocollum” means long neck, and the researcher José Jerundio Machado Itaqui , one of the creators of the Paleontological Research Support Center of the Fourth Colony, where the fossils are saved.
