Long-necked dinosaur "missing link" found

A new fossil found in Argentina is completing the evolutionary history of long-necked dinosaurs.

(PHYSORG)- Fossils of a recently discovered dinosaur species in Argentina is a "missing link" in the evolution of the long-necked giants that roamed the earth millions of years ago, paleontologists said.

Long-neck, long-tail plant-eaters like Diplodocus, Brachiosaurus and Brontomerus -- the largest land creatures ever to walk on earth -- are dinosaurs known as sauropods. They lived some 170 million years ago.

Paleontologists see the recently discovered Leonerasaurus Taquetransis as the connection between the smaller prosauropods -- also known as near-sauropods -- like Sellosaurus and Plateosaurus from the Triassic period (248-205 million years ago) to their much larger descendants, the sauropods.