Paleontologists say the discovered the fossilized bones of the biggest dinosaur that ever lived, the BBC reported.
The bones were first found by a local farmer in a desert near La Flecha, 135 miles west of the city of Trelew in the Patagonia region of Argentina. A team of paleontologists from the Museum of Paleontology Egidio Feruglio went on to unearth the skeleton of a nearly 100 million-year-old prehistoric beast.
The bones belonged to a 77-ton, 65-foot-tall dinosaur dating back to the Late Cretaceous period. At 130 feet long, scientists believe it is a new species of titanosaur, a plant-eating giant that lived during the same time period.
"Given the size of these bones, which surpass any of the previously known giant animals, the new dinosaur is the largest animal known that walked the Earth," researchers told the BBC.
The dinosaur, weighing more than 14 African elephants, is seven tons heavier than the former largest dinosaur ever discovered, Argentinosaurus, the BBC reported.
But some experts claim that it is too soon to call the discovery the biggest dinosaur ever.
"One problem with assessing the weight of both Argentinosaurus and this new discovery is that they're both based on very fragmentary specimens," Paul Barrett, a dinosaur expert at the Natural History Museum in London, told the BBC.
"No complete skeleton is known, which means the animal's proportions and overall shape are conjectural."
There is also the fact that there are many different methods scientists use to calculate the weight of a dinosaur, which can yield different results, Barrett said.
Though scientists know for sure the new titanosaur was enormous, it still has no name.
"It will be named describing its magnificence and in honor to both the region and the farm owners who alerted us about the discovery," researchers told the BBC.
