A seven dinosaur times bigger than Tyrannosaurus rex! Highlights -

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This is an exceptional fossil more than one way. In southern Argentina, Patagonia, paleontologists have discovered an absolutely gigantic dinosaur. Her measurements? Twenty-six meters long and weighing nearly sixty

tonnes. Imagine the equivalent of twelve African elephants or more than seven tyrannosaurs rex! So although it is a peaceful herbivore, the discoverers named it dreadnoughtus schrani , that is to say, “He who fears no one.” Described in a recent article in the journal Scientific Reports , this sauropod titanosaur family, having lived there 77 million years, would be to date the largest animal that ever walked the soil of our planet, at least among those whose weight could be measured reliably. For this is another specificity of this fossil, it is extremely complete and well preserved.

Paleontologists have been exhumed more than 45% of its skeleton and 70% of the types of bones that except her skull was not found it was filled,. Among these bones include those used his legs, a

humerus and femur 1.80 meter long. Yet it is precisely these bones then that estimate precisely the template of a given specimen. So far, all other titanosaurs found and described were much less complete. In addition, bone dreadnoughtus schrani still bear the mark of the muscle attachments of the animal. They provide well enough to get a true idea of ​​the biomechanics of the prehistoric giants of his kind. The researchers patiently reconstructed his remains in 3D and have open access to allow other paleontologists easy reference.

Not quite adult

As for the lifestyle of the newcomer, scientists estimate that it would spend most of his time in search of food, because with as a template, he had to survive swallow daily amounts

astronomical plants. Especially since, according to them, the dreadnoughtus schrani studied was relatively young and had not yet finished growing. This means that adults should be even bigger! Kenneth J. Lacovara, senior author of the study, imagine that these giants had little to travel or do just treading water in the temperate forest that was his habitat. “If you are provided with a neck over 11 meters long offset by a tail of about 9 meters, you have, without taking a step, access to a huge pool of tree bark and leaves, explains it t. then you spend about an hour to clean the area that provides thousands of calories and you make three steps to the right and you go back one hour to clean it. ” <- end tag inRead ->