Paleontologists have discovered a new species of dinosaur in Wyoming. Credit: Octávio Mateus
Researchers have identified a new species of dinosaur that roamed present day Wyoming about 150 million years ago.
Researchers from Italy and Portugal have discovered Galeamopus pabsti, a Jurassic creature similar to Diplodocus but with more massive legs and a particularly high and triangular neck close to its head.
This discovery represents the second species of the genus Galeamopusi discovered by paleontologists Emanuel Tschopp and Octávio Mateus that is different to Diplodocus.
Diplodocus sauropods are known for their greatly elongated necks and tails that represent the typical body shape of sauropods. These species are known to have roamed modern day Africa, South America and Europe but the highest diversity of the species is known to be from the western U.S., where more than 15 different species have been discovered to have been from including the Brontosaurus.
According to the study, Diplodocidae is subdivided into the two subgroups Apatosaurinae, which includes the genera Apatosaurus and Brontosaurus and diplodocines, which are more diverse
In a collaboration between paleontologists from the Department of Earth Sciences of the University of Turin, Italy; the Faculty of Science and Technology, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, and the Museum of Lourinhã in Portugal, researchers have discovered a series of new dinosaurs since 2012.
Galeamopus pabsti was originally excavated in 1995 by a Swiss team led by Hans-Jakob “Kirby” Siber and Ben Pabst.
The study was published in PeerJ.
