'Biggest dinosaur ever' discovered

BBC ^ | 16 May 2014 | James Morgan

[Izzy Dunne]

Based on its huge thigh bones, it was 40m (130ft) long and 20m (65ft) tall.

Weighing in at 77 tonnes, it was as heavy as 14 African elephants, and seven tonnes heavier than the previous record holder, Argentinosaurus.

Scientists believe it is a new species of titanosaur - an enormous herbivore dating from the Late Cretaceous period.

A local farm worker first stumbled on the remains in the desert near La Flecha, about 250km (135 miles) west of Trelew, Patagonia.

[raybbr]

Old stuff ping

[publius911]

For you trivia buffs, La Flecha means "the arrow" n Spanish.
What amuses me about this sort of discovery, is that in a few months, some unconfirmed insane "expert" will on the basis of that single bone announce...

What the animals diet was.
What he had for dinner.
The social structure.
The adoption of socialist hierarchy in their society.

How they nurtured their offspring.
How the females were granted equal rights.
How all dinosaurs were equal, and none were more equal than others.
How often they trimmed their nails...

In short, another comical example of Mark Twain's,

Such large returns of conjecture from such small investment in fact.

Some delusional "scientists" believe, absolutely, that their flights of whimsy have equal weight with verifiable fact.

Sort of like what started off as "global cooling" 40 years ago... whatever it's called this week.

[rktman]

Michellasaurous? ;-)

[TigersEye]

Plants and animals must have been doing very well with CO2
levels at 2,300 ppm compared to about 400 ppm we have today.

[rhubarbk]

Perfect!

[rhubarbk]

Perfect!

[runfree]

Yeah, but could it swim?

[GeronL]

So very true!

[Hot Tabasco]

Since it was an herbivore, just think what the plant life must have been like back then........

I'd sure love to take a time machine trip back into that era.......

[DakotaGator]

You’re right. My bad ;-)

[al baby]

Or my monster in law

[RandallFlagg]

"You know, you know that when you're in the water, chief? You tell by lookin' from the dorsal to the tail."

[DanielRedfoot]

Now that’s freaking funny right there!!!

[TheOldLady]

“...herbivore...” Probably didn’t eat mice. Probably thought they were fleas.

[digger48]

So it can be Hillarysaurus.

From the Crustaceous Period

[minnesota_bound]

It also left behind lots of fertilizer.

[Uncle Chip]

So — did they find any other bones or just that one??

And based upon that one bone how are they going to guess what it looked like???

[tbpiper]

Cankleasaurous?

[SWAMPSNIPER]

[ransomnote]

bump for later