The femur of Patagotitan mayorum.
Artist impression of Patagotitan.
Posted on 08/09/2017 7:37:40 AM PDT by simpson96
(WASHINGTON) — A study proclaims a newly named species the heavyweight champion of all dinosaurs, making the scary Tyrannosaurus rex look like a munchkin.
At 76 tons (69 metric tons), the plant-eating behemoth was as heavy as a space shuttle.
The dinosaur’s fossils were found in southern Argentina in 2012. Researchers who examined and dated them said the long-necked creature was the biggest of a group of large dinosaurs called titanosaurs.
“There was one small part of the family that went crazy on size,” said Diego Pol of the Egidio Feruglio paleontology museum in Argentina, co-author of the study published Tuesday in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
The researchers named the dinosaur Patagotitan mayorum after the Patagonia region where it was found and the Greek word titan, which means large. The second name honors a ranch family that hosted the researchers.
Six fossils of the species were studied and dated to about 100 million years ago, based on ash found around them, Pol said. The dinosaur averaged 122 feet long (37 meters) and was nearly 20 feet high (6 meters) at the shoulder.(snip)
Scientists have known titanosaurs for a while, but this is a new species and even a new genus, which is a larger grouping, Pol said. Another titanosaur called Argentinosaurus was previously thought to be the largest.
“I don’t think they were scary at all,” Pol said. “They were probably massive big slow-moving animals.”
“Getting up. Walking around. Trying to run. It’s really challenging for large animals,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
Maybe all those ‘Brontosaurus’ fossils found over the years were just babies.................
My daughter collects the better made plastic dinosaurs. We have one titanosaur, the Argentinosaurus. Need this new one.
I understand completely.
Stupid premise. Many Plant eaters are bigger than T-Rex
Huh? T-rex was never anywhere near the top of the large dinos. Stupid journalist.
You’ll note there is no name attached to the byline....
When one of those died, of disease or old age, the neighborhood scavengers had a yuge party.
Dwarf is such a hateful term. Why don’t we just call it a “little” dinosaur?
“heavyweight champion of all dinosaurs, making the scary Tyrannosaurus”
Uh actually, basically just vegetarian sauropods are “heavyweights”.
Vertically Challenged?
Argentina seems to be a treasure-trove of dino deposits.
Gigantosaurus and Carnotaurus being the more popular carnisaurs.
Lots of cool stuff being found down there due to the exposed rock deposits.
Global warming probably did it in.
should be compared to other herbivores like Brontosaurus.
From the title it looked like they were talking about a new predator. Any 10 year old boy already knows that T-Rexes weren’t close to being large for a dinosaur.
There isn’t one AP “journalist” who knows about dinosaurs? Are they all women?
How about midgets?
The Blue Whale still the largest animal (on land or sea) that ever existed.
"The Largest Animal Ever: The Blue Whale. The blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is a marine mammal belonging to the suborder of baleen whales. At 98 ft in length and 180 metric tons (200 short tons) or more in weight, it is the largest known animal to have ever existed."
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