University of Texas paleontologists have discovered the remains of a humongous dinosaur dating from just a few million years before the dinosaurs died out. Most of the creature remains in the ground, but the paleontologists were able to excavate the two smallest vertebraes before winter weather forced them to abandon the dig. They plan to return next February.

"This thing is just bloody enormous," University of Texas at Dallas paleontologist Homer Montgomery, who along with students found the fossils in a wilderness area near Southern Texas' Big Bend National Park, told the Discovery Channel. The beast is so large that Montgomery believes that it is the largest dinosaur ever found in Texas. He predicts that it probably had a neck measuring more than 30 feet long and possibly a vertebra weighing 1,200 pounds.

Most of the bones were found near an established bone bed of juvenile Alamosaurus remains that date to the Late Cretaceous. Alamosaurus, a titanosaur, is believed to be one of the last sauropods to live in North America, but is known from only scattered and incomplete remains. According to Montgomery, the 23 foot section of his fossil's neck may represent the "largest intact section of the largest Alamosaurus ever found."

But, because of its unusual dimensions some paleontologists believe that the monster may represent an entirely new species, one that if the belief holds true is very closely related to Alamosaurus. Montgomery said that it "could be an entirely new species that exceeds the accepted 70-foot length of Alamosaurus adults by some 30 feet," but at least at the moment he is still unsure whether the new species theory is accurate.

To learn more about the fossil, Montgomery plans to return with his team in February to continue excavating more of the 10 vertebrae that have been located, plus isolated rib and bone fragments protruding from the ground. Following the next excavation a scientific paper should be published.

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