August 25 , 2016

by Anna Liesowska

Scientists from Tomsk State University believe they have found a new species of dinosaur after painstaking work to examine bones discovered in 2008.

Large pieces of fossil were found seven years ago during an expedition on the banks of the Kiya River in the area of Shestakovo village, in the Kemerovo region.

The unique remnains were inside rocks, so scientists could not take them away at the time and instead took them to the university for examination. Since then experts have been conducting delicate work to extract fragments from the sandstone.

Now it appears they have uncovered a brand new dinosaur belonging to the Titanosauriformes group, which included some of the largest monsters that ever roamed the Earth.

Dr. Stepan Ivantsov, a scientific researcer in the Laboratory of Mesozoic and Cenozoic Continental Ecosystems, said: 'When we discovered this finding, it was only clear that the remains belonged to a very large herbivorous dinosaur from the sauropods group.

'It was the first scientifically described dinosaur from this group in Russia. Now after work on the extraction of all the remnants and the restoration [of the bones] are almost completed, we can confidently say that we have found a new species, and maybe even genus.

Scientists are now working on describing their findings. A part of a shoulder blade, cervical vertebrae, and sacrum, will be exhibited permanently in Paleontological Museum of Tomsk State University.

The experts believe another finding made at the same location in 1995, a dinosaur foot, could also belong to the same newly discovered species of sauropods.

Dr. Ivantsov said: 'We constantly find the remains of dinosaurs on this site, near Shestakovo village. They fall down from the steep river bank regularly and we collect them.

'The bones obviously lie somewhere in the middle of the 10 metre high river bank. We cannot just take them out of there because it demands using explosives and we don’t want to do that because it will destroy the remains, besides the territory should be a protected nature area.

'We also can't say at the moment if fossils found in 2008 and the fossil found earlier belong to the same specimen. To understand how many specimens are on the site, we need to have several paired bones.

The scientist said he dreams of being able to display the bones of the dinosaur on the second floor of the main building of Tomsk State University (TSU) so that everybody can see it. He said: 'This will not require much space. It will be enough to put it on a table the size of a plinth. For safety, it should be placed in a transparent cube.

'All this will not require big expense. At the same time our university, which is unique in itself, will get another 'highlight'. I think it will lead to increased interest for visitors to TSU.'