A team of paleontologists has discovered one of the earliest known large sauropods, and plant fossils in the rock layers surrounding the dinosaur fossil provide evidence of the climate and ecosystem in which the newly identified species of dinosaur lived.

The scientists named it Bagualia alba after Bagual Canyon, where the dinosaur fossil was found, and alba, which means "dawn" in Spanish, for its early age.

Bagualia alba would likely have been 10 tons -- around the size of two African elephants -- but later sauropods were up to 40 meters in length and weighed 70 tons.

Change in vegetation

In particular, it was the change in vegetation in a harsher climate that led to the extinction of most sauropods.

They would have enabled them to reach the tall conifers and allowed them to access different plants without moving their huge bodies, Pol said.

"Their large bodies required them to eat a large amount of food to meet their energetic requirements.