'Most gigantic': 122-million-year-old dinosaur identified in Spain

The dinosaur could have reached more than 80 feet in length and stood over 30 feet tall when it was alive, researchers said. (Image credit: @Licualopodo/X)

A previously unknown "giant" dinosaur that lived 122 million years ago has recently been unearthed in Spain. The new dinosaur species with long necks has been named Garumbatitan morellensis.

When it was alive, the dinosaur could have reached more than 80 feet in length and stood over 30 feet tall, researchers told Spanish media outlet El Mundo. The creature, a herbivorous, was so large that it may have been capable of consuming roughly 30 to 40 kg of vegetation every day, they added.

It is likely to be one of the "most gigantic" dinosaurs on record, paleontologists and study authors José Miguel Gasulla and Francisco Ortega from Spain's National University of Distance Education, told El País.

In a study published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, paleontologists described the new dinosaur species Garumbatitan morellensis and highlighted a set of anatomical characteristics that differentiate this dinosaur from other sauropods or herbivorous dinosaurs had very long necks, long tails, small heads, and thick, pillar-like legs.

Today we published a new study in @ZoolJLinnSoc conducted from the @IdlLuiz (@FC_UL @ULisboa_ ) and Grupo de Biología Evolutiva @UNED, establishing a new dinosaurian species, the sauropod Garumbatitan morellensis! The link is here: https://t.co/Tm1GS7asZT#paleontology #geology pic.twitter.com/dtckakq16R

— Pedro Mocho (@PD_Mocho) September 28, 2023

"Garumbatitan is one of the largest sauropods found in the Lower Cretaceous of Europe," Mocho told Newsweek. "This new sauropod is one of the best-preserved sauropods found in the Lower Cretaceous of Europe, which provides us key information about the evolutionary history of the group in this geographic domain. Its study reveals that in the Iberian Peninsula lived early members of a sauropod group called Somphospondyli, which were the only sauropod group present at the end of the Cretaceous, before the mass extinction of all non-avian dinosaurs."

The restoration of the dinosaur's remains will add important information to understand the initial evolution of this group of sauropods, the researchers said.

Read more: Researchers find rare dinosaur nests in Madhya Pradesh