SCIENTISTS claim to have discovered a new species of dinosaur that was one of the largest that ever roamed the planet.

    Experts from Russia who have been working on mystery fossils found on the banks of a Siberian river seven years ago have sensationally reached the verdict that the dinosaur is a completely new discovery.

    They said the giant beast lived 100 million years ago and is related to the Titanosaur, which was estimated to have weighed up to 100 tons and was up to 40 meters long — the same as nine double-decker buses.

    At first, experts at Tomsk State University in Russia thought the bones belonged to a “very large herbivore” but further analysis revealed it was a creature which had never before been discovered.

    Alongside its enormous length, the dinosaur — nicknamed Sibirosaurus — could have been as much as 20 meters tall, the Siberian Times reports.

    Fossils buried in rocks were taken to the university for examination where they were ruled to belong to the Titanosauriformes group, which included some of the largest monsters that ever roamed Earth.

    Stepan Ivantsov, a research fellow in the department of palaeontology and historical geology at Tomsk State University, said: “When we discovered the remains it was clear they belonged to a very large herbivorous dinosaur from the sauropods group.

    “Now that our extraction and restoration work is almost complete, we can confidently say we have found a new species, and maybe even genus. This adult dinosaur lived in the Late Cretaceous period, so about 100 million years ago.”

    Large pieces of fossil were found in 2008 during an expedition on the banks of the River Kiya, near the village of Shestakovo in the Kemerovo region of southwestern Siberia.

    It is thought a dinosaur foot found in the same location in 1995 could also belong to the newly discovered giant, named Sibirosaurus after Sibir, the Russian name for Siberia.

    Titanosaurs were a diverse group of sauropod dinosaurs that included the likes of the Saltasaurus, Diplodocus and Brachiosaurus.

    Typically they had very long necks, long tails, but small heads and thick legs and are known for their enormous size. It is believed some used their long tails to crack like a whip to deter or injure predators, or to make sonic booms.

    (SD-Agencies)