A previously unknown "dragon-like" monster has been revealed.

(NLĐO) - The new species, Ardetosaurus viator, belongs to the lineage of the longest beasts that ever walked the planet.

According to Sci-News, fossilized bone fragments of a mysterious beast, unearthed more than three decades ago from the Howe-Stephens quarry in the Morrison Formation of northern Wyoming (USA), have finally been successfully classified.

New species of monster unearthed in the US - Graphic image: Ole Zant

The research team, led by paleontologist Tom van der Linden from the Oertijdmuseum (a natural history museum in the Netherlands), has named it Ardetosaurus viator, a completely new species of bivalve.

Prairie dinosaurs, or the superfamily Diplodocoidea, are a branch of the sauropod family, which includes some of the longest animals to ever walk the planet.

They share common characteristics such as long necks, long tails, plump, heavy bodies, and four legs as thick as pillars.

Compared to other Sauropods, the hermaphrodite had a more "slender" body, a very long neck, and a very long tail.

This group is known in North and South America, Europe, and Africa, and lived from 161 to 135 million years ago.

Among them, the monster that recently surfaced in the US is approximately 150 million years old, meaning it lived during the mid-Jurassic period.

Ardetosaurus viator was also the first anatomically mature Sauropod specimen described at the Howe-Stephens quarry, where several of its relatives had also been discovered.

This specimen also shows some transitional features in the cervical-dorsal bones and caudate vertebrae, evidence suggesting it was gradually evolving morphologically to better adapt to its environment.

It adds to the data showing just how diverse and rapid the Sauropod family was in evolving into one of the most abundant groups of dinosaurs in the subsequent Cretaceous period.

Research on the new monster species has just been published in the scientific journal Palaeontologia Electronica.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/my-lo-dien-quai-thu-luong-long-chua-tung-biet-196241012104151818.htm