For years, scientists believed South America was already isolated during the Early Cretaceous Period—a massive land drifting away from the rest of the world as oceans slowly widened between continents. However, a newly discovered dinosaur from Northeast Brazil is challenging that idea in a remarkable way.
Hidden underground in Brazil’s Maranhão state for approximately 120 million years, fossils of a long-necked sauropod dinosaur called Dasosaurus tocantinensis have given up one of their biggest secrets: the dinosaur’s closest relative roamed in present-day Spain.
Buried in Time
Found in the middle of construction work for a road-rail terminal in Davinópolis City, in Northeast Brazil, archaeologists supervising works believed they had discovered bones from mammals which lived during the Ice Age thousands of years ago.
The depth of the fossils—buried nearly eight meters underground—told another story.
Researchers identified the bones as belonging to a giant sauropod, a long-necked herbivore which stretched around 20 meters long. Excavations also lead to tail vertebrae, ribs, bones from the feet and even a femur almost a meter-and-a-half long being recovered. Thus marking one of the largest dinosaur specimens ever discovered intact in the country.
While hidden underground for millions of years, the continents around it shifted and changed shape. Now, its bones are helping scientists reconnect pieces of a world long lost to time.
Bridging lands, crossing history
The big reveal wasn’t the dinosaur’s impressive size. It was its link to Europe.
Researchers from Journal of Systematic Palaeontology found Dasosaurus tocantinensis to be closely related to dinosaur remains found in Spain. This suggests that during the Early Cretaceous, dinosaurs were still roaming between parts of Europe, Africa, and South America.
Scientists hypothesize that ancestors of Dasosaurus dispersed through North Africa between 140 and 120 million years ago when the continents hadn’t fully broken away from their ancient supercontinent group known as Gondwana.
The discovery calls into question a long-held hypothesis that South America was already completely cut-off by the time.
Instead of isolated prehistoric ecosystems diverging, new evidence shows migration, movement, and enduring connections between continents in the early stages of continental drift.
Life without Borders
The discovery of Dasosaurus tocantinensis proves Earth’s prehistoric past was far wilder than scientists realized.
The continents weren’t always divided by oceans nor did they separate overnight. For millions of years, ancient creatures likely migrated along land bridges and chains of islands that have long since sunk back below the water— this fossil proves it.
Previously unknown to science, a single dinosaur discovered in Brazil has provided researchers with proof of an ancient connection between land masses. It shows us that our modern planet, with its fully segregated continents and established oceans, was once a world where animals could still migrate between the lands that would one day become North and South America.
Sometimes, one fossil is enough to change an entire understanding of history: Less fragmented. More connected. Much more alive.
Written by Jaimielyn T. Villapaña, Insight PH
Jaimielyn T. Villapaña, Insight PH is a dedicated campus journalist and contributor. Their insightful writing sparks meaningful conversations and keeps the community informed.
