GrrlScientist is an evolutionary biologist, ornithologist, aviculturist, birder and freelance science and nature writer. A native of the Pacific Northwest, she relocated from Seattle to NYC with her parrots after earning a BS in Microbiology (emphasis in Virology) and PhD in Zoology (Ornithology) from the University of Washington. In NYC, she was the Chapman Postdoctoral Fellow at the American Museum of Natural History for two years, pursuing part of her "dream" research project by reconstructing a molecular phylogeny of the parrots of the South Pacific islands. GrrlScientist and her five parrots are currently relocating to Germany, where she will continue writing her blog while also writing a book and learning German. (Meanwhile, her parrots will continue to nibble on her extensive personal library.) If you appreciate GrrlScientist's writing, you can help pay her living expenses by hiring her to "blog" your conference, speak at your club or write articles for your publication (or by clicking on the Paypal button below). If you read an essay on this blog that you especially enjoyed, please nominate it for inclusion in 
A giant sauropod, which is estimated to have weighed between 40 and 48 tons, was recently discovered in Spain. This animal, which is named Turiasaurus riodevensis, is estimated to have lived 150 million years ago.
In the past such large dinosaurs have primarily been found in Africa and the New World.
"The humerus -- the long bone in the foreleg that runs from the shoulder to the elbow -- was as large as an adult" human, Brooks Hanson, a Science deputy editor, said in a statement. The claw of the first digit of its pes, or hoof, is the size of an NFL football.
The researchers found several other bones as well and were able to group the new find with other remains from Portugal, France and Britain into a new clade, or branch, of dinosaurs that has more-primitive limb and bone structures than other giants.
Cited story.
