Scientists identify 30-ton Thailand dinosaur, New Dinosaur Discovery

Scientists identified a new dinosaur discovery from northeastern Thailand: Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis, a long-necked plant-eater estimated to have weighed nearly 30 tons and stretched over 88 feet. The research team said the bones came from Chaiyaphum Province, where a local man found the fossils in 2016 and reported them to Thailand's Department of Mineral Resources.

The discovery was announced Thursday in Scientific Reports. Sita Manitkoon, a paleontologist at Mahasarakham University in Thailand and a National Geographic Explorer, led the research team that described the animal from remains preserved in 113-million-year-old rock.

Chaiyaphum Province fossils

Thanom Luangnan uncovered the fossils in 2016 on the banks of a public pond in northeastern Thailand. The remains included vertebrae, ribs, hip bones and limb bones, and the team described the specimen as the most complete sauropod specimen discovered from the Khok Kruat Formation.

Manitkoon said, "Initial measurements of the bones excavated suggested that this could be the largest dinosaur ever found in Southeast Asia." The estimate places the animal among the biggest dinosaurs identified from the region, based on the bones recovered rather than a full skeleton.

Scientific Reports study

Pedro Mocho, a paleontologist at the Universidade de Lisboa and a coauthor of the study, said, "This is the most complete sauropod specimen discovered from the Khok Kruat Formation." The study also placed Nagatitan in the somphospondyli group, with the dinosaur living during the Early Cretaceous, about 110 to 120 million years ago.

The Khok Kruat Formation has yielded only fragments of large dinosaurs before this find, making the new specimen unusually informative for researchers studying how giant sauropods evolved in Southeast Asia. The same formation indicates the region was covered by relatively open, slightly dry shrublands, and Thailand sat closer to the equator when Nagatitan lived.

Thanom Luangnan and Nagatitan

For Luangnan, the find began with strange-looking rocks in 2016 and ended with a named species in a scientific journal. For researchers, the bones now give a clearer view of a giant dinosaur that lived in Thailand, and a reference point for future work on the Khok Kruat Formation.