Sensational find

Researchers discover new long-necked dinosaur

The new species was given the name "Qunkasaura pintiquiniestra". (symbolic image)

(Bild: AFP/STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN)

A giant on the Iberian Peninsula: experts have discovered a dinosaur in Spain that was around 20 meters long and weighed 15 tons. The long-necked herbivore lived around 75 million years ago, explained the researchers from Spain and Portugal. 

They describe the titanosaur in the journal "Nature Communications Biology". The previously unknown species promises important insights into dinosaurs shortly before their extinction around 66 million years ago, the researchers write. The presence of the species in Spain reveals that Europe, contrary to previous assumptions, "was a melting pot of native and immigrant sauropods in the late Cretaceous period".

Relatives in Asia and North America
"Until now, almost all European titanosaurs belonged to the native Lirainosaurus genus, which evolved in isolation in Europe from the end of the Cretaceous until their extinction," explained co-author Francisco Ortega. The new discovery shows that titanosaurs, which are related to Asian and North American dinosaurs, migrated to Europe at the end of the Cretaceous period.

The fossils were discovered at the Lo Hueco excavation site around 200 kilometers southeast of Madrid. It is one of the most complete sauropod skeletons ever found in Europe, Ortega emphasized at the presentation to journalists.

The new dinosaur was given the name "Qunkasaura pintiquiniestra". The first name is made up of the place of discovery, the province of Cuenca, and "Saura", which alludes both to the Latin word for "lizard" and to the painter Antonio Saura. "Pintiquiniestra" is the name of the character of a giant queen from the book "Don Quixote" by Miguel de Cervantes.

Since its discovery during excavations for the Spanish high-speed rail line in 2007, Lo Hueco has been considered one of the most important paleontological sites of the Upper Cretaceous in Europe. More than 12,000 fossils have been unearthed there so far - of sauropods, but also of turtles and crocodiles.

Another specimen buried
The site is like a textbook on the sauropods of the European Upper Cretaceous, said Ortega. The palaeontologists want to use the remains to find out more about the living conditions back then, among other things. There is still a lot to discover, said Ortega. "We know that there are remains of at least one other specimen in Cuenca."