Dinosaur: fossils are found at construction site in Minas – 12/07/2023 – Science

During work on the banks of BR-050, 27 blocks with fossils dating back around 80 million years were found in Uberaba, around 420 km from Belo Horizonte. The finds include ribs, vertebrae and other bone fragments that may belong to a type of titanosaur that inhabited the region.

It is estimated that the blocks contain around 32 fossils. The batch was delivered this Thursday (7) for analysis by the team at the Dinosaur Museum at the Federal University of Triângulo Mineiro (UFTM).

Discovered last month, the set of fossils was removed by a team of paleontologists. The professionals are hired by the highway concessionaire to monitor services carried out in areas of fossiliferous potential along the 436.6 kilometers of BR-050, between the cities of Delta, in Minas Gerais, and Cristalina, Goiás. The stretches were identified through a prior survey.

Responsible for technical monitoring of the services, paleontologist Paulo Macedo said that it was possible to verify part of the material at the site and that ribs, vertebrae and other bone fragments were identified.

“Some of these materials were stuck in the embankment and it was necessary to use special equipment to remove them. Due to the size of these blocks, some weighing more than 200 kilos, we had to prepare part of the fossils at the construction site in order to be able to send them to the museum”, he states.

According to Macedo, it is necessary to wait for scientific studies to identify precisely which species the fossils belong to.

“Apparently, it is a titanosaur, similar to the one found 20 years ago in Serra da Galga, here in Uberaba. But that fossil was 65 million years old, while these now are a little older” , position.

The set of newly discovered fossils was in the same place where a 20-centimeter fossil was found last month, which is still being analyzed and may have belonged to the largest species of dinosaur that ever lived in Brazil: the Uberabatitan.

The new discovery occurs while Uberaba awaits recognition from UNESCO to become the first geopark territory in Minas Gerais. The title is granted to areas or places with geological heritage of international relevance within a holistic vision of education, conservation and sustainable development, leveraged by tourism.

UNESCO evaluators have already been to the city to verify the territory’s potential on site and the final decision should be announced at an event at the beginning of next year.

Member of the scientific committee of the Associação Geoparque Uberaba, paleontologist Luiz Carlos Borges Ribeiro states that the new batch of fossils found puts the city in greater prominence in scientific studies and also strengthens the territory’s chances of obtaining the seal of approval from the world organization.

“The material was found in a different area of ​​the Serra da Galga geological formation, which is also in the municipality and where 90% of the region’s fossils were found. Each fossil find from the area of ​​this other geosite is important because it opens up the possibility that they were new dinosaurs and also to better understand what these ecosystems were like […] This perpetuates our region as the primary source of dinosaurs in Brazil”, he points out.

Borges adds that Uberaba already stands out among other Brazilian locations in the paleontological context due to other finds, such as the largest titanosaur tooth in the world. The material was discovered more than ten years ago during excavations at the Serra da Galga geosite.

After almost a decade of analysis, experts were able to confirm that it is the largest fossil of its kind ever cataloged on the planet and the results of the study were published in October this year in the scientific journal Cretaceous Research.