Overview

• CONICET paleontologists found the specimen in La Rioja province in northwestern Argentina at roughly 3,000 meters elevation.
• Researchers date the fossil to about 230–225 million years ago, placing it among the earliest known dinosaurs.
• The find preserves the skull, an almost complete vertebral column through the tail, and most bones of the fore and hind limbs.
• An adult individual is estimated at around two meters in length with a mass near 18 kilograms.
• The study appears in Nature, with ongoing work assessing its potential links to other herbivorous long‑necked dinosaurs and its use as a benchmark for evolution research.