Megatitanosaur ‘Shiva the destroyer’ discovered in Argentina. This is what it looked like. Watch!
Buenos Aires, Argentina Edited By: Moohita Kaur Garg Updated: Apr 22, 2024, 12:10 PM IST Found in the North Patagonia region of southern South America, the discovery of B. shiva adds to the family of ‘megatitanosaurs’–enormous titanosaurs that exceeded 55 tons (50 metric tons). (Image credit: Screenshot/Video-Grabriel Diaz Yantén/Paleogdy) Photograph:(Others)
This newly discovered dinosaur, B. Shiva, is among the largest sauropods, and as per a study published December 18, 2023, in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, stretched an impressive 98 feet (29.87 metres) in length and is thought to have weighed about 74 tonnes.
Hindu deity Shiva ‘the destroyer’ has inspired the name of a titan dinosaur that roamed Argentina more than 90 million years ago. A fossil of the colossal creature named Bustingorrytitan Shiva was discovered late last year in western Argentina.
Found in the North Patagonia region of southern South America, the discovery of B. shiva adds to the family of ‘megatitanosaurs’– enormous titanosaurs that exceeded 55 tonnes (50 metric tons). This finding indicates that such giant sauropods evolved separately within their lineage titanosaurs, said the study lead author María Edith Simón, a palaeontologist who ran the B. shiva excavation.
The remains of B. shiva were initially unearthed by a local farmer named Manuel Bustingorry in 2000, and subsequent excavations led by palaeontologist María Edith Simón have revealed at least four individual dinosaurs from this species. These include a relatively complete skeleton alongside three other partial specimens, all dating back to the Huincul Formation, the same geological formation where the famous Argentinosaurus was discovered.
Unlike other known sauropods, B. shiva exhibits unique characteristics such as distinctively shaped crests on the humerus and femur, reports Live Science. This differentiation suggests the presence of at least two gigantic titanosaur lineages — B. Shiva’s saltasauroids and Argentinosaurus’ lognkosaurs — coexisting in North Patagonia during the middle of the Cretaceous period (145 million to 66 million years ago).
