Meet Turiasaurus, first mega dinosaur to be found in Europe

Europe can now lay claim to its own massive dinosaur with the discovery of a 150 million-year-old fossil of a leaf-eating creature which grew up to 120ft long.

Scientists have discovered dozens of fossilised bones of the sauropod dinosaur at a site called Barrihonda-El Húmero near the village of Riodeva in Teruel, Spain.

Fully grown, Turiasaurus riodevensis would have weighed between 40 and 48 tons, equivalent to the combined weight of six or seven adult male elephants. Its immense size puts Turiasaurus on a par with some of the largest dinosaurs in the world, whose remains have been unearthed in Africa and America but never before in Europe.

Details of the discovery are published today in the journal Science by a team led by Rafael Royo-Torres of the Joint Palaeontology Foundation of Teruel-Dinopolis. Brooks Hanson, deputy editor of physical sciences at Science, said the claw of the first digit on the dinosaur's foot was the size of an American football. "The humerus - the long bone in the foreleg that runs from the shoulder to the elbow - was as large as an adult [human]," said Mr Hanson.

The features of its skeleton indicate that the creature differed signifiantly from other large sauropod dinosaurs found in North and South America. "This dinosaur is also more evolutionary primitive than other giant sauropods found," said Mr Hanson.

In addition to the humerus, the scientists have found fragments of the dinosaur's skull, scapula, femur, tibia and fibula, as well as teeth, vertebrae, ribs and phalanges - the tips of the fingers and toes.

Sauropod dinosaurs typically had long necks and relatively small heads in terms of their large bodies and long tails. They fed on vegetation and many of them may have lived a semi-aquatic existence which would have helped to support their massive bulk.

Until the latest find, the fossil of the largest sauropod in Europe was found in southern England, but this was estimated to be far smaller than the specimen found in Spain.

The teeth of Turiasaurus had long roots and heart-shaped crowns. They grew in rows with overlapping tips, and wrinkled enamel which would have helped to break apart its diet of leaves, stems and roots.

They probably walked slowly like modern-day elephants but may have been able to run for short periods.Scientists had thought that sauropods had a second brain in their tail but it now appears to be simply an enlargement of its spinal cord to help control the long extension of its backbone.