While riding through a desolate region of western Egypt, Penn doctoral candidate Joshua Smith noticed something unusual protruding from the sand. He tapped the car's driver, Penn Earth and Environmental Science Chairman Robert Giegengack, on the shoulder and told him to stop.
The odd shape in the sand turned out to be the bone of a dinosaur's limb.
And this summer, after about a year of digging, the research team finally collected enough evidence to prove that they had unearthed a previously undiscovered dinosaur. The team's complete report on their find appeared in the June 1 issue of the journal Science.
The team hypothesizes that the creature, dubbed Paralititan stromeri, may be the second-largest dinosaur ever found, possibly 100 feet long, which places it behind only Argentinosaurus in size. With an estimated mass of close to 70 tons, it may also be the heaviest dinosaur known to man.
Smith warned, however, that the error for these statistics is "very extreme," because the fossils found by the team represent only 20 percent of the dinosaur's total bone structure. However, Smith observed, partial skeletons are common, and it is almost impossible for anyone to find a dinosaur's complete framework.
Nonetheless, several important bones were found, including several vertebrae and dorsal ribs. These specific bones are crucial finds because they give the scientists significant clues as to the overall appearance of the dinosaur.
According to Smith, who organized and led the expedition, Paralititan was a long-tailed, long-necked, four-footed herbivore similar to Brontosaurus. Paralititan fulfills the "classic image of a dinosaur," noted Matthew Lamanna, a Penn graduate student in charge of research on the dinosaur and a self-described "designated dinosaur nerd."
The dinosaur is "very distantly related to Brontosaurus," Smith added. However, he also said Brontosaurus and Paralititan lived on different continents, millions of years apart.
Before too many conclusions about Paralititan are drawn, Smith said, scientists must take into consideration that they currently have only a single specimen of Paralititan.
"We have no idea if it's a big one, we have no idea if it's a small one," Smith said. "It might have been the smallest one ever... to run around."
Yet, since it is more likely that their Paralititan was an average example of the species, Smith and his team are working theory that their dinosaur was a mid-sized Paralititan.
To Smith, finding Paralititan fulfills a lifelong dream. He has been interested in paleontology since he received his first dinosaur book on Christmas in 1976, when he was six years old.
"My parents always thought I'd probably end up a scientist," Smith said. "I don't think that they necessarily knew at the time that I would be a paleontologist, but I don't think that they were that surprised.... I grew up playing around rocks."
