Palaeontologists in Thailand have discovered a new species of dinosaur from fossils found in Kalasin province in the country’s northeast.
The plant-eating dinosaur, named Uragasaurus kalasinensis, is thought to have lived about 150 million years ago, the BBC reported.
It had an unusually long neck and measured up to 20 metres — roughly the length of a cricket pitch.
Dr Apirut Nilpanapan from Mahasarakham University told BBC Thai that the specimen was part of a large fossil collection from Phu Noi, a site first identified in 2008, when a local man found fragments resembling serpent scales.
The fossil that led to the discovery of the new species was a recovered dorsal vertebra — a bone from the middle or upper back — which showed distinctive characteristics.
A CT scan revealed that the dinosaur belonged to the Mamenchisauridae family of sauropod dinosaurs, characterised by their extremely long necks, which likely helped them reach vegetation at different heights.
The scan also revealed unique characteristics, including a Y-shaped arrangement of supporting bones known as laminae.
Dr Apirut said the features, in particular a unique air-cavity structure, were “unlike any other dinosaur in the world. … That’s what sets it apart”.
The study was published earlier this month in Springer Nature and Nature Scientific Reports.
The report comes just two months after it was revealed that a different type of long-necked herbivore dinosaur — the nagatitan — had been identified by scientists from remains dug up in Chaiyaphum province of Thailand.
The nagatitan is the largest-ever dinosaur found in Southeast Asia, weighing 27 tonnes — as much as nine adult Asian elephants — and measuring 27 metres in length.
