Paleontologists Discover Largest Dinosaur That Ever Existed: Creature Weighs 77 Tons, as Heavy as 14 Elephants
Paleontologists in Argentina have unearthed fossilized bones belonging to a creature they say to have been the largest to have ever walked the Earth.
A thigh bone they found was measured at 130 feet long and 65 feet tall -- 40m long and 20m tall, BBC News reported.
Dr. Jose Luis Carballido and Dr. Diego Pol led a group of paleontologists from the Museum of Paleontology Egidio Feruglio to excavate the fossils. They found about 150 bones belonging to the partial skeletons of seven individuals that were all in "remarkable condition."
After measuring the length and circumference of the femur, the paleontologists calculated the weight of the creature to be 77 tons, which is as heavy as 14 African elephants and seven tons heavier than Argentinosaurus, the previous record holder, according to BBC.
"Given the size of these bones, which surpass any of the previously known giant animals, the new dinosaur is the largest animal known that walked the Earth," researchers said. "Its length, from its head to the tip of its tail was 40 meters. Standing with its neck up, it was about 20 meters high -- equal to a seven story building."
The creature is believed to be part of new species of titansoar, which were enormous herbivores that existed during the Late Cretaceous period. Based on the age of the rocks surrounding the fossils, the sauropod would have lived in Patagonia's forests sometime between 95 and 100 millions years go.
"It will be named describing its magnificence and in honor to both the region and the farm owner who alerted us about the discovery," the researchers told BBC.
A local farm worker found the bone in the desert near La Flecha, roughly 135 miles west of Trelew, Patagonia, after stumbling over its remains.
The Argentinosaurus, which was also discovered in Patagonia and shares similar traits with its ancestral sauropod, weighed 70 tons. Upon the discovery of the Argentinosaurus, researchers only had a few bones to base their weight estimates off of.
However, many bones were found with the recent discovery that allowed the researchers to more confidently and accurately estimate the creature's size, deeming it the largest animal in history.
Dinosaur expert Dr. Paul Barrett, from the Natural History Museum in London, said the researching team certainly found one of the largest animals to have existed but warns that there are other large sauropods to be discovered.
The new species is "a genuinely big critter," Barrett said, adding, "but there are a number of similarly sized sauropod thigh bones out there. Without knowing more about this current find it's difficult to be sure. One problem with assessing the weight of both Argentinosaurus and this new discovery is that they're both based on very fragmentary specimens -- no complete skeleton is known, which means the animal's proportions and overall shape are conjectural."
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