Did Global Warming Trigger the Evolution of Giant Dinosaurs?
The discovery of a new sauropod from Argentina suggests it may have…
Instantly recognizable by their long necks, their four pillar-like legs, and their (usually) massive size, sauropods are possibly the most iconic dinosaurs of all time. The group includes the largest terrestrial vertebrates that had ever walked the earth, with some genera -like Argentinosaurus- growing up to 35 meters (115 ft) in length and over 60 tons in weight. How and why these creatures grew so large had always puzzled scientists.
The discovery of a new sauropod from Argentina combined with geological evidence from the early Jurassic Period provides new insights into the evolution of these giants and helps scientists to better understand the reasons behind their extreme growth.
Sauropod forerunners
Sauropodomorpha — the clade that includes sauropods and their ancestral relatives- evolved in the Late Triassic Period some 230 million years ago. For the first 50 million years of their existence, the sauropodomorphs were represented by several groups of both bipedal and quadrupedal species. They were herbivorous and…
