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A team of Tomsk State University paleontologists in Siberia, who unearthed the new genus of dinosaurs during excavations in a river bank at a village in West Siberia, the press service of the university said on Wednesday.
"This is already the second kind of sauropod which has been given a scientific name in Russia and also one of the oldest forms of titanosaurs found in Asia. We called it Sibirotitan astrosacralis for its size and special bone structure," the announcement elaborated.
Sibirotitans belong to a group of giant dinosaurs, or sauropods. Scientists say that they were not even the biggest in their group with a weight of about 10 tons and measuring around 12 meters (40 feet) in length.
Because of their huge bulk, these four-legged herbivorous giants rarely fell prey to predators.
The scientists were able to provide a full description of the newly-discovered species based on the teeth, five sacral vertebrae and a special crest on a neural arch of a trunk vertebra found at various times near Shestakovo village in Kemerovo Region in Siberia.
The fossilized are currently on display at the Tomsk State University.
Scientists believe that hiding under a huge piece of rock overlooking the Kiya River is a skeleton of a Siberotitan.
Unable to extract it in one piece, the paleontologists have spent years putting together the huge frame of the unique sauropod.
"It was previously believed that Titanosaurs first appeared in South America about 145 million years ago on the territory of the ancient Gondwana supercontinent," archeologist Pavel Skuchas said, adding that modern science indicates that the Titanosaurs initially appeared in Asia.
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R.C.
* (And inexplicably had four extremities when every other critter there had six.)
RC