Fauna Journal Entry
Huge Dinosaur Bones Found in Egypt (June 8, 2001)
Computer image of Paralititan stromeri. Courtesy Bahariya Dinosaur Project/University of Pennsylvania.
Paleontologists from the University of Pennsylvania have found huge dinosaur bones in central Egypt. The bones are thought to be the remains of the second largest dinosaur ever to walk on Earth. The new plant-eating titanosaurid species has been named Paralititan stromeri.
Paralititan means "tidal giant." The Bahariya Oasis region of the Egyptian desert where the bones were found was once a lush, swampy environment similar to the Everglades. Stromeri is in honor of Dr. Ernst Stromer von Reichenbach, a German paleontologist who first brought attention to the site in the early 20th century.
The newly-discovered giant lived about 94 million years ago in the geologic period known as the Upper Cretaceous. The dinosaur may have measured 80 to 100 feet (24 to 30 meters) long and weighed as much as 70 tons. It is second in size to the South American titanosaurid, Argentinosaurus, which scientists believe weighed as much as 100 tons.
Fossils suggest that both of these giants were closely related. They may have lived together at a time when the African and South American contintents were joined together in the supercontinent known as Gondwanaland.
