This is the first discovery of its kind in the United States

Nov 22, 2013 15:59 GMT  ·  By

A collaboration of archaeologists and paleontologists in the United States recently identified a new species of large dinosaur. Their work was based on fossils recovered from the Cedar Mountain Formation, in Utah, which has already produced a significant number of findings.

The newly identified creature is estimated to have been a little less than 10 meters (30 feet) long. Experts from The Field Museum, the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences (NCMNS), and the North Carolina State University (NCSU) say that creature probably weighed around 4 tons.

According to measurements conducted on the fossilized remains, the new species, called Siats meekerorum, lived around 100 million years ago, and was only just a little bit smaller than large predator dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurs Rex and Acrocanthosarus, Science Blog reports.

Researchers say that they will continue excavations at this site, primarily because it appears to contain an inexhaustible amount of fossils. Two new dinosaurs were discovered immediately after Siats meekerorum, and will be described in upcoming papers soon.