140 million year old dinosaur fossil discovered in Argentina

A colossal dinosaur excavated in Argentina may be the oldest titanosaur ever found after wandering around present-day Patagonia about 140 million years ago, scientists said Sunday.

The 65-foot (20-meter) lizard, Ninjatitan zapatai, was discovered in 2014 in the province of Neuquen in southwestern Argentina, La Matanza University reported in its analysis.

"The most important thing about this fossil, besides being a new species of titanosaurus, is that it is the oldest worldwide for this group," said Conicet Scientific Council researcher Pablo Gallina.

Titanosaurs were members of the sauropod group - giant herbivorous lizards with long necks and tails that were possibly the largest animals ever to walk the Earth.

The statement says the discovery means that titanosaurs lived longer than previously thought - at the beginning of the Cretaceous, which ended about 66 million years ago with the dinosaurs' demise.

Fossils from 140 million years ago are very rare', said Gallina, principal author of a study printed in the Argentine scientific journal Ameghiniana.

The creature is identified after the Argentine paleontologist Sebastian Apesteguia, nicknamed "El Ninja," and the technician Rogelio Zapata.