A team of researchers has revealed that they have discovered remains of a new medium-sized dinosaur near the town of Morella in Spain's Castellon Province. The dinosaur has an unusual sail-like structure on its back, found researchers.

According to the team, Morelladon was a four-legged herbivore that measured around six meters long i.e. almost 20 feet. The team noted that a series of boney spines were protruding out from its back. These unusual bones formed a sail-like structure, which was about two feet (60 cm) tall.

Paleontologist Fernando Escaso of the National University of Distance Education's Evolutionary Biology Group in Spain said, “The sail could help in heat exchange — thermoregulation —focused on releasing excess body heat into the environment, like the ears of the modern-day elephants, or as a storage place for fat to be used during periods of low food supply”.

Mr. Escaso said this protruded structure might have served a major purpose like attracting mates. He further noted that the sail-like structures appeared periodically in the evolutionary history of vertebrates, often in animal groups not closely related to one another.

Researchers said that another plant-eating animal named Ouranosaurus also had several common qualities to Morelladon, and lived in Africa at the same time.

So far the biggest known sail-backed creature was Spinosaurus, which lived a semi-aquatic lifestyle 95 million years ago in Africa. It stood 50 feet long and weighed around seven tons. It was the biggest dinosaur predator on record and was even larger than T. rex.