GW PALEO

Dasosaurus tocantinensis is a newly identified species of giant, long-necked sauropod dinosaur discovered in Brazil. It lived approximately 120 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous epoch, a time when much of the world's landmass was still connected in the supercontinent Gondwana. This plant-eating dinosaur measured around 20 meters (about 65-66 feet) long, roughly the length of two standard buses, making it one of the largest dinosaurs ever found in Brazil.

Fossils of Dasosaurus tocantinensis were unearthed in 2021 during infrastructure work near Davinópolis, Maranhão state, in northeastern Brazil, and its description was published in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology in early 2026. The partial skeleton included a 1.5-meter-long femur, several tail vertebrae, limb bones, ribs, and parts of the pelvis. Researchers noted distinctive features such as unusual ridges and grooves on its tail vertebrae and a pronounced bulge on its thigh bone, traits not seen together in any other known dinosaur species.

The name Dasosaurus combines the Greek word "dasos" (forest), referencing the Amazon region near the discovery site, while "tocantinensis" honors the nearby Tocantins River. This dinosaur belongs to a group of titanosauriform sauropods called Somphospondyli. Remarkably, its closest known relative is Garumbatitan morellensis, a sauropod found in Spain. This connection suggests an intriguing evolutionary history, with its lineage potentially originating in Europe and dispersing to South America via northern Africa before the Atlantic Ocean fully opened, around 130 million years ago. This discovery expands the known diversity of Early Cretaceous sauropods in South America and highlights ancient biogeographical links between continents that are now widely separated.