Particle.news
Download on the App Store
26 ARTICLES
·
16h ago

Nagatitan Chaiyaphumensis Identified as Southeast Asia’s Largest Dinosaur

The discovery clarifies how giant long‑necked dinosaurs evolved in Asia late in the Early Cretaceous.

Artist reconstruction of the Cretaceous Period sauropod dinosaur Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis, whose fossils were unearthed in Thailand, seen in this illustration released on May 14, 2026. Nagatitan is the largest dinosaur ever found in Southeast Asia. Patchanop Boonsai/Handout via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES. MANDATORY CREDIT
Researcher Thitiwoot Sethapanichsakul poses with a front leg bone, or humerus, of the Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis at the Sirindhorn Museum in Kalasin Province, Thailand, in 2024.
A life reconstruction of the Cretaceous dinosaur Duonychus tsogtbaatari, whose fossils were unearthed in Mongolia, is seen in this illustration obtained by Reuters on March 25, 2025. Masato Hattori/Handout via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY
Dinosaur fossil

Overview

  • Researchers formally described the new species in Scientific Reports on Thursday, led by University College London with Thai partners who named it Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis.
  • The team estimates the animal was about 27 meters long and 25 to 28 tonnes in mass, based on limb measurements that include a 1.78‑meter humerus.
  • Fossils from Chaiyaphum province were first noticed by a local villager in 2016 near a pond, and excavations through 2019 with work finished in 2024 yielded vertebrae, ribs, pelvis, and limb bones but no skull or teeth.
  • Analysis places the dinosaur in Euhelopodidae, an Asia‑only branch of titanosauriform sauropods, and the authors dub it Thailand’s “last titan” because the area’s younger rocks formed as a shallow sea.
  • A life‑size reconstruction is on display at Bangkok’s Thainosaur Museum, and the UK–Thai project used 3D scanning and printing to study the bones in ways that can speed future finds in the region.