Dasosaurus tocantinensis: Giant New Sauropod from Brazil Reveals Ancient Land Bridges Linking South America, Africa, and Europe 120 Million Years Ago

In a Journal of Systematic Palaeontology study published in March 2026, Brazilian paleontologists led by Elver Luiz Mayer have described Dasosaurus tocantinensis, a colossal ~20-meter-long somphospondylan sauropod from the Aptian Itapecuru Formation of Maranhão, northeastern Brazil. The partial skeleton, uncovered during road-rail construction in Davinópolis, includes diagnostic tail vertebrae with a unique trio of elongated ridges and grooves, plus a femur sporting a pronounced lateral bulge—features that set it apart while linking it firmly to Europe.

Phylogenetic and biogeographic analyses place Dasosaurus as the sister taxon to Garumbaтιтan morellensis from Spain’s Barremian deposits. This relationship demonstrates that the lineage originated in Europe and dispersed into South America via northern Africa between ~137–113 million years ago, before the South Atlantic fully opened and severed these connections. “This find expands Early Cretaceous sauropod diversity in northern South America and highlights trans-Gondwanan and even trans-Atlantic biogeographic links,” the authors note.

At roughly 20 meters, Dasosaurus is the largest dinosaur scientifically described from Maranhão, dwarfing the region’s smaller diplodocid Amazonsaurus. Its osteohistology reveals a mosaic of early neosauropod and later тιтanosaur traits, underscoring rapid evolutionary experimentation in isolated Gondwanan ecosystems.

The discovery transforms our map of Early Cretaceous dinosaur migration: Europe, Africa, and South America were not isolated but connected by viable land corridors, allowing giant herbivores to roam across what are now separate continents. Dasosaurus—named for the “forest” (dasos) of Maranhão and the Tocantins River—proves the Atlantic’s birth was a gradual process, not an instant barrier. The giant “forest lizard” has rewritten the paleobiogeography of the southern continents.