Bones belonging to a dinosaur which was longer than 100 feet have been uncovered in Argentina by Argentine and Brazilian paleontologists. The fossilized bones were found in Patagonia, and show traces that point out the dinosaur was eaten by predators. Patagonia was also where oth­er two larg­est di­no­saur skele­tons known: Ar­genti­no­saur­us, about 115 feet (35 meters) long; and Puer­ta­saur­us reu­ili, 115 to 131 feet (35 to 40 meters) long, were found.

What's much more interesting though is the unique structure of the neck bones, which point out the dinosaur belonged to a previously unknown species of herbivores in Patagonia. The paleontologists named it Futalognkosaurus dukei, which is a name made up from the Mapuche Indian words for "giant" and "chief," and from the company name Duke Energy Argentina, which helped fund the skeleton's excavation.

The findings were published in the peer-reviewed Annals of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences. Lead author Jorge Calvo, director of paleontology center of National University of Comahue, Argentina, said, "This is one of the biggest in the world and one of the most complete of these giants that exist."

"I'm pretty certain it's a new species," confirmed Mr. Peter Mackovicky, who is associate curator for dinosaurs at Chicago's Field Museum, as quoted by AP. "I've seen some of the remains of Futalognkosaurus and it is truly gigantic."

The 105-foot (32-meter) plant eat­er is among the larg­est and most com­plete such fos­sils known. The fos­sil was 70 per­cent pre­served, com­pared to about 10 per­cent for oth­er gi­ant di­no­saur finds. The Patagonian gi­ant is es­ti­mat­ed to have lived 88 mil­lion years ago, dur­ing the late Cre­ta­ceous era.

The first bones in Futalognkosaurus' skeleton were found on the banks of Lake Bar­reales in the Ar­gen­tine prov­ince of Neuquen in February 2000 by a team of researchers from the Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Pa­le­on­tol­o­gists have since dug up the an­i­mal’s neck, back ar­ea, hips and part of the tail, but they failed to find any limb bones.

"It's a new species, it's a new group," Argentine paleontologist Juan Porfiri told a news conference in Rio de Janeiro.

The paleontologists also found at the excavation site a plethora of other fossils of fish, shellfish, at least two types of crocodile-like creatures and several dinosaurs, including the flying Pterosaur and carnivores like Megaraptor, with its 40-centimeter (16-inch) claws. Also, they found a wide range of fossilized plants, showing the predominance of angiosperms (flowering plants) at the time.

(photo credit: interpatagonia.com)