Scientists in Brazil have announced the discovery of the remains of the largest dinosaur ever found in the country. The bones of the gigantic animal called "Austroposeidon magnificus" were unearthed about 66 years ago but was not studied until recently and was tucked away in a cupboard.
According to Agence France-Presse, the director of Rio de Janeiro's Earth Sciences Museum, Diogenes Campos, said the fossilised dinosaur vertebra were discovered by paleontologist Llewellyn Ivor Price near the city of Presidente Prudente in Sao Paulo state in 1950s but was not studied.
Price had so many other specimens to identify that he did not get the time to study this specimen and died in 1980 without being acknowledged for the discovery, said Campos.
After Price's death, the scientist said, lack of money and manpower were holding back the research.
"A friend said to me just yesterday, 'Diogones, what, it took you 60 years?'," he said.
"We were waiting for the staff..., for a laboratory that started from nothing to mature," he added. "We made a first effort with students about eight years ago and it didn't succeed."
It was very recently that Campos' student Kamila Bandeira made the mysterious creature her subject for doctoral thesis and took it out from the cupboard for examination.
Campos, while talking about the delay in the study, also threw light on the sad state of researchers who study dinosaurs by saying that there are only serious dinosaur experts in the country today.
THE DISCOVERIES
After research, it was found that the monster belongs to the Titanosaur group of herbivores and was 25 meters (82 feet) long. This group of dinosaurs has huge bodies, long neck and relatively smaller skulls.
It is also estimated that "Austroposeidon magnificus" walked the earth some 70 million years ago.
Dinosaur discoveries mostly happen in the thick flora and bare deserts of the southwest US, the south of Argentina or Mongolia. The fossil of the biggest dinosaur till date was discovered in Argentina in 2014. The creature was estimated to be 40 meters (130 feet) long.
Like many other discoveries, "Austroposeidon magnificus" was found during road building near Sao Paulo.
