A new "giant" species of long-necked dinosaur, believed to have roamed the earth roughly 122 million years ago, has been discovered in Spain.
The species is called Garumbatitan morellensis and was described in a new study published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society last month.
The new species belongs to the sauropod group, which is made up of colossal-sized herbivores known for their long necks and long tails.
Researchers uncovered remains of at least three individuals at the Sant Antoni de la Vespa fossil site near the city of Morella, including massive vertebrae, lengthy leg bones and two near-complete sets of foot bones, which is an extremely rare find for sauropods.
"One of the individuals we found stands out for its large size, with vertebrae more than one meter [3.3 feet] wide, and a femur that could reach two meters [6.6 feet] in length," Pedro Mocho, leader of the study, said in a statement. "We found two almost complete and articulated feet in this deposit, which is particularly rare in the geological record."
The fossils date back to the early Cretaceous period, between 66 and 145 million years ago.
The newly found fossils show unusually shaped bones, which could help scientists better understand the evolution of these gigantic, long-necked dinosaurs, Smithsonian Magazine reported.
"Our study highlights the enormous complexity of the evolutionary history of sauropods from the European Cretaceous – in particular, from the Iberian Peninsula, with species related to lineages present in Asia and North America, as well as some groups related to forms from the African continent," said Mocho.
Scientists have discovered sauropod fossils all over the world, so determining their origin has been difficult. But this recent discovery in Spain hints that Europe could be where they first roamed, Live Science's Harry Baker explained.