Third dino species found at Lourinha- new species of sauropod dinosaur

We thought for a long time that it was a species that was known in Spain, the turiasaurus, but in fact the anatomical differences we began to notice were sufficient for us to reclassify it, not just as a new species but as a new genus for science”, said Octávio Mateus.

Anatomical differences discovered by comparison with other dinosaurs of the same genus and family led paleontologists to conclude that this animal had “various different crests on the bones of its limbs”, he explained.

Between 2000 and 2002, excavations near Lourinha discovered a complete rear leg, four metres long, a tooth and a tail bone, which are on exhibition in Lourinha museum.

We now know they belonged to a sauropod, now called “zby atlanticus”, which was about 19 metres long and four metres tall that loved 150 million years ago in the Upper Jurassic period.