A new dinosaur was recently identified in Thailand, and it may be the largest one ever discovered in Southeast Asia. The species has been named Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis.
“Naga” comes from a large, serpent-like creature from Southeast Asian folklore, and “Titan” comes from Greek mythology. The inclusion of “Chaiyaphum” refers to the province where the fossils were found.
The dinosaur was a plant-eating giant with a long neck that lived in the area around 100 to 200 million years ago. It likely stretched more than 88 feet in length and weighed about 30 tons.
In 2016, a local man named Thanom Luangnan noticed some strange-looking rocks on the banks of a public pond in the Khok Kruat Formation in the Chaiyaphum Province of northeastern Thailand.
When the rocks were examined more closely, they actually turned out to be the fossilized remains of a dinosaur.
During the initial excavations, 10 bones were unearthed, including a front leg bone that was six feet long. Funding for the project ran out in 2020, but resumed three years later in 2023 with a grant from the National Geographic Society.
When paleontologists analyzed the ribs, hip, limb bones, and vertebrae, they realized that the dinosaur was a new species and was especially unique to Southeast Asia due to its massive size.
N. chaiyaphumensis lived during the Cretaceous period. Back then, Thailand was closer to the equator than it is now. Rising levels of carbon dioxide trapped the heat, causing the climate to be warmer.
There were also open, dry shrublands, savannahs, and some forests. The fossil site was likely part of a river system, so N. chaiyaphumensis would have lived alongside fish, crocodiles, and pterosaurs that ate fish.
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Dinosaurs evolved to be even bigger after N. chaiyaphumensis. They were at their largest about 10 million to 15 million years later. The abundance of plants to eat may have been how the herbivorous creatures were able to grow so large.
“Sauropods seem to have become particularly large at this time, with gigantic forms living in South America, China, probably North Africa, and now with [N. chaiyaphumensis], a fairly large one in Southeast Asia,” said Paul Upchurch, a co-author of the study and a paleontologist at University College London.
N. chaiyaphumensis most likely spent a lot of time consuming vegetation they didn’t really have to chew, such as conifers and seed ferns.
As a full-sized adult, N. chaiyaphumensis didn’t have to worry too much about predators. The only real threat would have been Carcharodontosaurus, a meat-eating dinosaur around 26 feet long, but even then, N. chaiyaphumensis could hold its own.
The research team hopes that the new dinosaur discovery will spark more interest in the field of paleontology. The results of the study were published in the journal Scientific Reports.
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
