Giant New Dinosaur Identified from Fossils in Thailand
Scientists have named Southeast Asia's largest-ever dinosaur — a 27-tonne, 27-metre long-necked giant that browsed treetops beside a river in Thailand 113 million years ago, and whose bones were first spotted by a local villager at the edge of a pond a decade ago.
Artist's reconstruction of Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis — the neck, body, tail and leg proportions are based on the ten bones recovered from Chaiyaphum Province · Patchanop Boonsai / Scientific Reports / NATFLIX
A colossal new species of dinosaur — the largest ever discovered in Southeast Asia — has been identified from bones unearthed beside a pond in northeastern Thailand a decade ago, scientists announced Thursday, giving the ancient giant a name drawn from the myths and landscapes of the region in which it once towered over the Cretaceous world: Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis.
The dinosaur weighed an estimated 27 metric tonnes — roughly the same as nine adult Asian elephants — and stretched approximately 27 metres from the tip of its long neck to the end of its sweeping tail, making it longer than a Diplodocus and twice the size of a Tyrannosaurus rex. Like those iconic sauropods, it belonged to the long-necked, long-tailed family of plant-eating giants that dominated the Cretaceous period, browsing on conifers and seed ferns in what is now the semi-arid plateau of northeastern Thailand without, its discoverers believe, much fear of predators — because at that size, there was very little to fear.
"I've always been a dinosaur kid. This study doesn't just establish a new species — it also fulfils a childhood promise of naming a dinosaur."
— Thitiwoot Sethapanichsakul, Thai PhD student, UCL Earth Sciences, lead author of the studyThe Discovery — Found by a Villager, Named by Science
The story of Nagatitan begins not in a laboratory but at the edge of a pond in Chaiyaphum Province, northeastern Thailand, in 2016. A local villager noticed unusual bones protruding from a rock formation in the embankment — bones that turned out to be the skeletal remains of a creature that last walked the Earth approximately 113 million years ago.
The region's Department of Mineral Resources was called in to excavate. Working from 2016 to 2020, when funding ran out, the team recovered ten bones: spinal vertebrae, ribs, a pelvis, leg bones, and most importantly, a front leg bone — a humerus — measuring 1.78 metres long. That single bone is as tall as a human being. When lead researcher Thitiwoot Sethapanichsakul, then a young PhD student at University College London, first saw it, the scale stopped him in his tracks.
"In fact, when I first saw the specimen, the front leg bone is actually taller than me, which is quite surprising."
— Thitiwoot Sethapanichsakul, lead author, UCL palaeontology doctoral student, speaking to ABC NewsAfter receiving a grant from the National Geographic Society in 2023, Sethapanichsakul assembled a research team spanning UCL, Mahasarakham University, Suranaree University of Technology, and the Sirindhorn Museum in Thailand. Together, they analysed the ten recovered bones in detail, cross-referencing the dimensions of the humerus and femur against known sauropod body mass models to estimate the creature's total size. Their findings — confirming not just the dinosaur's extraordinary scale but its identity as an entirely new species — were published Thursday in the peer-reviewed journal Scientific Reports.
What's in a Name? Naga, Titan, and Chaiyaphum
The dinosaur's full scientific name — Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis — is a deliberate and poetic fusion of the mythological and the geographical. Every syllable carries meaning.
🔤 Breaking Down the Name: Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis
- Naga: A serpent deity from Southeast Asian, Thai, Cambodian, and Hindu-Buddhist folklore — a great, powerful, and often benevolent creature associated with rivers, water, and protection. The long neck of the sauropod echoes the naga's serpentine form.
- Titan: One of the twelve primordial giants of Greek mythology — beings of colossal power who preceded the Olympian gods. The name references the dinosaur's extraordinary size and its identity as a titanosaur-related sauropod.
- Chaiyaphumensis: Latin suffix derived from Chaiyaphum — the province in northeastern Thailand where the fossils were found. A geographic anchor connecting the species forever to its place of discovery.
- The full meaning: The "great serpent titan of Chaiyaphum" — a name that is at once scientific record and cultural tribute to the land that held the creature's bones for 113 million years.
How Big Was It Really? A Size Comparison
Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis belongs to a group called the somphospondylans — a clade of titanosaur-related sauropods that flourished during the Early Cretaceous. The species is classified as the largest of its kind found anywhere in Southeast Asia, surpassing previous records held by other Thai sauropods including Phuwiangosaurus sirindhornae. Its head and teeth were not among the fossils recovered, but based on the feeding habits of related sauropods, the researchers are confident it was a bulk browser — consuming enormous quantities of vegetation with minimal chewing, focused on high-volume, low-effort food sources like conifers and possibly seed ferns.
Where It Lived — and What It Lived Alongside
One hundred and thirteen million years ago, the landscape that is now northeastern Thailand's Khorat Plateau looked remarkably similar to how it looks today — a semi-arid to arid environment of seasonal rivers, dry woodland, and open scrubland. The specific site where Nagatitan's bones were found is believed to have sat beside a meandering river system, an ancient watering hole not unlike the pond where the bones were eventually discovered by a villager in 2016.
Based on other fossils found nearby, Nagatitan almost certainly shared its world with iguanodontians and ceratopsians — plant-eating ornithischian dinosaurs — as well as several species of carcharodontosaurian and spinosaurid predators, which were the apex hunters of Early Cretaceous Asia. Whether those predators were capable of seriously threatening a 27-tonne giant is unclear. The researchers suggest Nagatitan's sheer size was its primary defence — a strategy that has worked for the largest land animals throughout evolutionary history.
"Nagatitan was probably a bulk browser that focused on consuming high volumes of vegetation that required little to no chewing such as conifers and possibly seed ferns."
— Thitiwoot Sethapanichsakul, lead author, Scientific Reports, May 14, 2026The Road from Bone to Name — A Decade in the Making
- 2016 — A Villager's Discovery A local resident in Chaiyaphum Province, northeastern Thailand, notices large bones eroding from a rock formation beside a pond. The Department of Mineral Resources is notified and begins excavation.
- 2016–2020 — Excavation Ten bones are recovered: spinal vertebrae, ribs, pelvis, leg bones, and a humerus measuring 1.78 metres. Excavation halts in 2020 when funding runs out. The fossils are transported to the Sirindhorn Museum in Kalasin Province for analysis and storage.
- 2023 — National Geographic Grant Thitiwoot Sethapanichsakul, a Thai PhD student at UCL, receives a National Geographic Society grant to complete the study. He assembles an international team from UCL, Mahasarakham University, Suranaree University of Technology, and Sirindhorn Museum.
- 2024 — Analysis Complete The team analyses the bones in detail, compares dimensions against known sauropod body mass models, and confirms the fossils represent a new species — the largest ever found in Southeast Asia. A life-size reconstruction is commissioned for the Thainosaur Museum at Asiatique in Bangkok.
- May 14, 2026 — Publication The findings are published in Scientific Reports under the title "'Last titan': Southeast Asia's biggest dinosaur discovered." The species is formally named Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis. The discovery is reported worldwide.
The "Last Titan" — A Window Closing on Deep Time
The title of the published paper — "Last titan" — carries a specific and poignant scientific meaning. Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis is not just the largest dinosaur ever found in Southeast Asia. It is, almost certainly, the last such giant that science will ever find from Thailand's geological record.
"We won't find any more dinosaur fossils in any younger rocks in Thailand, making this dinosaur kind of the last giant of its kind that we could possibly find in the region."
— Thitiwoot Sethapanichsakul, speaking to ABC News, May 14, 2026The geological formations in Thailand that contain dinosaur fossils do not extend into younger rock layers — meaning that whatever creatures existed in the region after the Early Cretaceous period are simply absent from the geological record available to researchers. Nagatitan represents the end of a line of inquiry as much as the beginning of a discovery. Its bones are the last word, in stone, from one of the most remarkable chapters of life on Earth.
Yet the researchers are quick to point out that Thailand's contribution to palaeontology is far from exhausted. Project leader Dr Sita Manitkoon of Mahasarakham University, a National Geographic Explorer, noted that Thailand may rank third in Asia for dinosaur fossil abundance despite having been studied for only about 40 years — since its first named dinosaur in 1986. Her team holds a large collection of sauropod fossils not yet formally described, which may contain additional new species waiting to be named.
For now, Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis stands as the crowning discovery of that 40-year journey — a 27-metre giant, named for a mythological serpent and the province that kept its bones safe for 113 million years, brought back to life through the curiosity of a local villager, the tenacity of a PhD student, and the quiet patience of science. A life-size reconstruction now stands at the Thainosaur Museum at Asiatique in Bangkok — where visitors can stand beside a creature that once made the Cretaceous earth tremble, and consider how much of our ancient world is still waiting to be found.
🦕 Species Profile — Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis
| Scientific Name | Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis |
| Common Name | "The Great Serpent Titan of Chaiyaphum" |
| Classification | Sauropoda; Somphospondyli (titanosaur-related) |
| Length | ~27 metres (88 feet) — longer than a Diplodocus |
| Weight | 25–28 metric tonnes (~27T estimated) — equal to 9 adult Asian elephants |
| Period | Early Cretaceous, approximately 100–120 million years ago (~113M yr estimated) |
| Diet | Herbivore; bulk browser — conifers, seed ferns |
| Location Found | Chaiyaphum Province, northeastern Thailand |
| Fossils Recovered | 10 bones: vertebrae, ribs, pelvis, humerus (1.78m), femur, leg bones |
| Head / Teeth | Not recovered — inferred from related species |
| Research Led By | University College London (UCL), Mahasarakham University, Suranaree University of Technology, Sirindhorn Museum |
| Published | Scientific Reports, May 14, 2026 |
| Record Held | Largest dinosaur ever found in Southeast Asia |
| On Display | Life-size reconstruction, Thainosaur Museum, Asiatique, Bangkok |
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