Biggest Dinosaur Ever?
May 19, 2014
Fossils from a massive dinosaur that was longer than two tractor-trailer trucks parked end-to-end and weighed more than 14 African elephants have been unearthed in the Patagonia region of Argentina. The 95-million-year-old fossils were found near La Fletcha, about 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) south of Buenos Aires, the capital. The yet-unnamed dinosaur may have been the biggest of the big–a new species of titanosaurus, the largest of the gigantic, long-necked dinosaurs called sauropods.
Sauropods walked on four stout, strong legs, much like those of an elephant. Nearly all sauropods had a long neck, a small head, a long tail, and a huge, deep chest and stomach region. Sauropods were the largest plant-eaters, feeding on the leaves of tall shrubs and of such trees as conifers. During the Cretaceous Period, they declined in importance in the Northern Hemisphere. But they remained the dominant plant-eaters in what are now South America, India, and Africa. Other supersized saurpods include Seismosaurus and Supersaurus.
A new sauropod discovered in Argentina may have been larger than Supersaurus (above), one of the largest dinosaurs to ever walk on Earth. (World Book illustration by John Francis, Bernard Thornton Artists)
The newly discovered sauropod was an estimated 130 feet (40 meters) long, weighed 88 short tons (80 metric tons), and stood 65 feet (20 meters) tall at the hips. (By way of comparison, Tyrannosaurus rex was about 40 feet (12 meters) long, weighed about 7 short tons (6.3 metric tons), and stood about 12 feet (3.7 meters) high at the hips.)
The Argentine and Spanish paleontologists who excavated the fossils based their estimates of its gargantuan size on the largest of the thigh bones found. About 150 bones from at least seven individual dinosaurs have been found at the site. They include 10 vertebrae (bones of the spine) from the torso, 40 vertebrae from the tail, parts of the neck, and complete legs. Scientists cannot yet say with certainty that the newly discovered sauropod is the largest dinosaur–and, therefore, the largest animal–to ever walk Earth. Fossil skeletons from sauropods are generally incomplete. In addition, sauropod tails, which accounted for much of the dinosaurs’ length, are particularly rare.
Additional World Book articles:
- Prehistoric animal
- Tyrannosaurus Rex: The Tyrant Still Reigns (a Special Report)
- Paleontology (2003) (a Back in Time article)
- Paleontology (2006) (a Back in Time article)
- Paleontology (2008) (a Back in Time article)
- Paleontology (2013) (a Back in Time article)
