London: Palaeontologists claim to have discovered the newest member of the dinosaurs – Brontomerus Mcintoshi, also known as "thunder thighs" because of its huge legs and the translation of its name.
An international team which spotted the remains of the creature in the American state of Utah says it has generated a computer image of the species.
The remains date from the early Cretaceous period, which began around 145 million years ago and ended 65 million years ago.
The remains included a juvenile's left ilium bone, which forms part of the pelvis, and also a near complete left scapula, or shoulder blade, of a larger, presumably adult, animal, the 'Daily Mail' reported.
The team also found well preserved vertebrae from the creature as well as a complete rib bone. They then used the bones they discovered to match certain known criteria to determine what species of dinosaur they came from.
Using five variables, and particularly focused on the size and other factors within the ilium bone, they confirmed it was from the Sauropod family.
It was the eighth discovery of remains from a member of that species in North America and there are expected to be more in the future.
The team believes it will find more as the number of dinosaurs within the land mass did not decline significantly at the end of the Jurassic period.
The findings have been published in the latest edition of the 'Acta Palaeontologica Polonica' journal.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, February 23, 2011, 08:41