A fossil from one of the largest dinosaurs to live in North America was discovered in a national park in Texas.

In March, students from Sul Ross State University went to Big Bend National Park for research and to collect a dinosaur bone belonging to Alamosaurus, according to an April 8 news release from the university.

The geology students were accompanied by Jesse Kelsch, an assistant professor at the university, and Thomas Shiller, an associate professor.

“The goals of the trip included conducting structural and stratigraphic analyses of Cretaceous — Eocene rocks and to retrieve a large vertebra belonging to Alamosaurus, a long-necked dinosaur that lived in North America during the Cretaceous Period,” the release said.

The Cretaceous Period ended 66 million years ago, according to Britannica. Alamosaurus is believed to have first appeared in North America about 69 million years ago, according to a 2024 publication from the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources.

The Alamosaurus was “the largest known land-dwelling animal to have lived in North America,” according to the university.

Fossils from the “giant” dinosaur have been found in the Big Bend before, but are usually poorly preserved, the release said. However, the fossil collected by the university “belongs to one of the most complete skeletons in the area, originally collected and described by researchers from the University of Texas in the 1970s.”

Students previously collected “associated vertebrae” from the area, and the specimens are being studied in the university’s paleontology lab, the university said.

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