Boasting the equal weight of 9 elephants, Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis had sufficient distinctive options to be thought-about a new species.
Published On 15 May 2026
Scientists have recognized the stays of a massive new species of dinosaur in Thailand, estimated to have weighed as a lot as 9 grownup elephants.
“Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis” is the largest-known dinosaur from Southeast Asia, and a member of the dinosaur lineage referred to as sauropods, identified for having lengthy necks and tails, small heads and 4 columnar legs, in accordance with a report printed on Thursday within the Scientific Reports journal.
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The herbivore stretched 27 metres (89 toes) and weighed about 27 tonnes, in accordance with the research referenced within the report.
The dinosaur is more likely to have roamed what’s now Thailand between 100 and 120 million years in the past and is the most important ever present in Southeast Asia, researchers mentioned.
Its head and enamel weren’t among the many fossils recovered, however researchers have a good suggestion of its feeding preferences primarily based on different sauropods.
“Nagatitan was probably a bulk browser that focused on consuming high volumes of vegetation that required little to no chewing such as conifers and possibly seed ferns,” mentioned Thitiwoot Sethapanichsakul, a University College London PhD scholar in palaeontology and lead creator of the analysis.
Sauropods had been a few of the largest recorded land animals in Earth’s historical past.
“Our dinosaur is big by most people’s standards. It likely weighed at least 10 tonnes more than Dippy the Diplodocus,” mentioned Sethapanichsakul, referring to the big composite forged beforehand on show at London’s Natural History Museum.
The Thai PhD scholar referred to as the newly found sauropod “the last titan” as a result of it was unearthed in one of many youngest rock formations the place dinosaurs have been present in Thailand.
He added that it’s becoming to name Nagatitan Southeast Asia’s final “titan” as a result of the area turned a shallow sea within the Cretaceous interval, that means no extra sauropods would dwell there.
Nagatitans belonged to a subgroup of sauropods that originated about 140 million years in the past, and about 90 million years in the past, they turned the one sauropods left worldwide, thriving till the dinosaur age ended 66 million years in the past with an asteroid influence.
The first stays of the big creature had been unearthed a decade in the past by locals in northeast Thailand, however the excavation was not accomplished till 2024, in accordance with the research.
The stays partially resembled these of beforehand found sauropods, however had sufficient distinctive options to be thought-about a new species.
Nagatitan’s identify references Naga, a serpent-like being in some Asian non secular traditions that’s prominently depicted in varied Thai temples. In all, there are 14 identified named dinosaurs from Thailand.
A life-size reconstruction of Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis is on show at Bangkok’s Thainosaur Museum.