Approximately 70 tons in weight, a length of 40 meters and a height of up to 7 floors, the Patagotitan mayorum is the largest dinosaur found until 2013. Its discovery superseded the Tyrannosaurus Rex, which until then was considered the largest.
Discovery of the largest dinosaur in the world
Like many paleontological finds or archaeological discoveries, it all happened by chance. In 2011, a man riding a horse through Argentina discovered a bone emerging on the ground. A bone that was nothing like the ones he could know and less from a desert area. This is the beginning of a history of excavation campaigns and a great discovery.
Months later the discovery reached the ears of paleontologists who put their brushes to work. After a long time of patience and expectation, they were able to find many bones together in the same place. A huge amount of bones, like never seen before. But what was interesting was not only the number of them, but how well they were preserved. The site came to reveal more than 200 fossils of herbivorous dinosaurs with an excellent degree of conservation, in addition to 60 teeth of large carnivorous dinosaurs such as Tyrannotitan chubutensis.
Over time and continuing with the excavation campaigns, it was possible to see that all those bones they belonged to the same species. The vast majority were young adult specimens. Among the different levels of strata among which they were found, it could be seen that they had died within months and even years of each other.
What is the Patagotitan mayorum like?
The Patagotitan mayorum, as experts have called it, is a dinosaur found in Argentine Patagonia in 2013, hence the name that would end up being given to it. This finding has not only aroused the interest of many, but also has superseded the so far known as the largest dinosaur that was the T-Rex. Since 2016, a full-scale replica can be seen at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, but what is it like? It weighed approximately 69 and 70 tons, it was 40 meters long, like two trucks, and had a height equivalent to seven stories.
This species, lived 101 million years ago and from the fossils found of six different specimens, it has been possible to know a little more in detail what they were like. Was without a doubt the largest animal that has walked the earth that we know to date. It is not possible to say that another larger one cannot be found, but without a doubt, locating this set of bones has been something that has brought people and paleontology closer again.
New discoveries
Specialists in the field of paleontology affirm that the belief of long-necked dinosaurs that go with their necks raised all day, in a similar way to our giraffes, is not very true to what it had to be. dinosaurs most likely keep the neck parallel to the ground because in this way they covered a greater space when feeding and without the need to move the body.
This thought fits with the fact that they had the forelimbs shorter than the hindquarters. Being very big implies the challenge of having to eat a lot of food to survive and have energy. Short limbs in front would aid in the process of eating around, while longer limbs in front would have helped if they had used their long necks to eat from the treetops.
unknowns to solve
what happened in that place so that there were so many fossils of the same age but with different years as to the time of death? Was it a cemetery? Perhaps the place where a predator lived and therefore dragged its prey there?
That area at the time of the dinosaurs, it was an easily flooded plain, where lagoons were formed and therefore with a lot of vegetation.
The remains that were found were at different levels, three in particular and that between them are separated by a distance of a few centimeters. It is interesting that each of these levels has a different degree of conservation of the fossils, some were even trodden on by other dinosaurs. This indicates that the bodies were exposed for at least some time on the surface.
However, there is no evidence of what caused them to die there at intervals. There is no sign of drifting or getting stuck in muddy ground. Perhaps they were simply animals that came to drink and eat after times of drought and some did not survive due to the weak state in which they managed to arrive.
Now all that remains is to wait and see if these questions can be discovered little by little while we continue to learn about the fascinating world of dinosaurs.
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