In 2016, a resident named Thanom Luangnan was strolling near a drying pond in Chaiyaphum Province, located in the dry northeastern part of Thailand, when he observed something out of the ordinary.<\/p>\n
Bones were visible in the soil at the water’s edge. They were distinctly large. Not the remains of any living creatures in the vicinity. Not bones that anyone in his village had ever encountered.<\/p>\n
He alerted local authorities. The news reached Mahasarakham University, leading to a group of paleontologists who immediately recognized what they might be examining.<\/p>\n
A decade later, on May 14, 2026, the scientific community officially confirmed what those initially uncovered bones had revealed. They belonged to a new species of long-necked dinosaur that existed in what is now Thailand around 100 to 120 million years ago. It measured 27 meters in length and weighed 27 tonnes, approximately the weight of nine adult Asian elephants. Furthermore, it was, by a considerable margin, the largest dinosaur ever found in Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n
The dinosaur was named Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis. The genus name pays tribute to the Naga, the mythical water serpent from Southeast Asian folklore.<\/p>\n
## The process of confirmation<\/p>\n
The popular narrative of dinosaur discovery portrays a quick process \u2014 a fossil is found, and shortly after, a scientist appears on television holding a bone and announcing a new species. The reality is far more gradual.<\/p>\n
Fieldwork at the Chaiyaphum site persisted over several field seasons from 2016 to 2019, with further excavations occurring as recently as 2024. The bones collected by the team included vertebrae, ribs, pelvic sections, and leg bones. One of the foreleg bones alone measured 1.78 meters \u2014 nearly six feet.<\/p>\n
Once the bones were extracted from the earth, the meticulous work commenced. They had to be cleaned, stabilized, and cataloged. They needed measurement, photography, and scanning. Comparisons had to be made against the vast existing database of sauropod fossils worldwide to ascertain their familial ties and confirm whether the animal they originated from was indeed a new species.<\/p>\n
The research was spearheaded by Thitiwoot Sethapanichsakul, a PhD student at University College London, collaborating with colleagues at Mahasarakham University, Suranaree University of Technology, and the Sirindhorn Museum in Thailand.<\/p>\n
By the time the study was published in *Scientific Reports* in May 2026, a full decade had passed since Thanom Luangnan first spotted the unusual bones by the pond.<\/p>\n
## Understanding what Nagatitan was<\/p>\n
Nagatitan was part of a sauropod family known as Euhelopodidae \u2014 a cluster of long-necked, herbivorous dinosaurs whose relatives are exclusively found in Asia. Its close relatives, the titanosaurs, are distributed across all continents, including Antarctica. However, the euhelopodids represent Asia’s unique contribution to the lineage of dinosaur giants.<\/p>\n
In life, Nagatitan would have been distinctly similar to its more well-known relatives such as Diplodocus and Brontosaurus. It had a massive body, a long tail, a very elongated neck, and a small head, and it was constantly feeding.<\/p>\n
The scale is impressive. Twenty-seven meters is roughly the length of a blue whale \u2014 the largest animal ever known to have existed on Earth. Twenty-seven tonnes is heavier than most modern fully-loaded semi-trucks. This creature was, by any contemporary measure, an immense animal. It would have traversed the dry, semi-arid landscape of Cretaceous Thailand slowly, fording winding rivers and browsing high treetops similarly to how modern giraffes feed on acacias.<\/p>\n
Sethapanichsakul, the lead researcher, provided a delightful comparison regarding scale: *\u201cOur dinosaur is big by most people\u2019s standards \u2014 it likely weighed at least 10 tons more than Dippy the Diplodocus.\u201d* He also honestly noted that Nagatitan is still overshadowed by the true giants of the sauropod lineage \u2014 creatures like Patagotitan (60 tonnes) or Ruyangosaurus (50 tonnes). While Southeast Asian sauropods were massive, they were not the largest known.<\/p>\n
## The 14th and likely the final<\/p>\n
Nagatitan is the 14th dinosaur species to be officially named in Thailand. The first, Siamosaurus suteethorni, was identified in 1986. Since then, the northeastern region of the country has evolved into one of the most fossil-rich areas in Asia \u2014 a hotspot for Mesozoic fossils, owing in part to its dense sedimentary rock formations and its relatively dry, low-vegetation environment that aids in preserving exposed bones from erosion.<\/p>\n
Nagatitan originated from Thailand\u2019s youngest dinosaur-bearing rock formation, the Khok Kruat Formation. And<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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