Chinese paleontologists unveil 14-meter-long dinosaur

Paleontologists in China have discovered a new species of dinosaur that measures 14 meters long, named Gandititan cavocaudatus.

The fossils were found at a construction site in Ganxian district in Ganzhou, East China's Jiangxi province, in June 2021, the Geological Museum of Jiangxi Province said on Tuesday.

The museum has collaborated with the China University of Geosciences in Wuhan and the Jiangxi Geological Survey and Exploration Institute to restore and research the bones.

Han Fenglu, the project's team leader from the university in Wuhan, Hubei province, said that the species is a new titanosaurian sauropod belonging to a giant dinosaur called Titanosauria.

The discovered bones comprise about 40 percent of a dinosaur's skeleton. It is rare to find such complete remains.

Based on initial estimates made by the research team, it is believed that this dinosaur had a neck and tail that were each around five meters long.

This discovery, published in the latest edition of the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology on Jan 17, is of immense importance for studying species' evolution and geographic distribution during the Cretaceous period.

Scientists believe sauropod dinosaurs first appeared around 200 million years ago in the Early Jurassic period. They became widespread around 160 million years ago, existing until the end of the Cretaceous period. However, due to the generally poor preservation of fossils, debates about their origin and evolution continue.

Ganzhou, where the Gandititan cavocaudatus was discovered and named, is known as the "home of Chinese dinosaurs".