Meet the patagotitan
Meet some of the largest dinosaurs to have ever roamed prehistoric Earth
The towering Titanosaur that could be one of the largest creatures ever to walk the Earth
In an era where humans dominate the land, it is rare for us to encounter animals bigger than ourselves in our daily lives. However, if we had existed during the Cretaceous period, Sauropods would have had us running for the hills. One particular giant has been hitting the headlines this year after finally getting a name. Discovered in 2012, the Patagotitan mayorum was a plant-eating, long-necked, stomping giant that weighed more than 11 African elephants: it is among the largest animals to have ever walked the Earth.
The unearthing of this giant began at the La Flecha farm in Patagonia, Argentina, when a ranch worker named Aurelio Hernández came across one of over 200 fossils of this gigantic Titanosaur. The specimens collected from the site are believed to have come from at least six individual patagotitans to form the most complete anatomical reconstruction of a Sauropod to date.
“stretching out from head to tail, this titan measures around 37 metres”
DISCOVERING A GIANT
As the heavyweight champion of the Titanosaurs, the patagotitan weighed in at around 69 tons, making the largest nine-ton Tyrannosaurus rex look minuscule. Stretching out from head to tail, this titan measures around 37 metres, the same length as around eight London taxis lined up next to each other.
Determining the weight of the patagotitan is difficult, with multiple methods being used among palaeontologists. Lead palaeontologist Dr Diego Pol and his team used two methods to calculate the patagotitan’s body mass. The first method used an equation requiring the circumferences of the main limbs that supported its body, the femur and humerus, to estimate the weight they could support. An alternative method was to 3D scan each of the fossils to form a complete reconstruction of the patagotitan and estimate the volume of the surrounding soft tissue. Researchers believe that these fossilised
remains are possibly from a specimen that is not fully grown, so maybe there are bigger dinosaurs to unearth.
However, it’s not just the size and mass of a patagotitan that the fossil specimen can show us: it also reveals some of its behaviours and movements. Examining the teeth of dinosaurs can indicate their diet; a mouth full of grinding molars indicates a vegetarian diet, like the patagotitan and other Sauropods.
In the case of the patagotitan, the archaeological team found three levels of specimens in the same location on a floodplain, where the dinosaur’s remains were covered over time by sediment brought over by the flooding water. This occurred at least three times at this site, indicating that the prehistoric giants had visited this site on at least three separate occasions. Much like we see in elephants, some of the fossil specimens of the patagotitan even had marks suggesting living patagotitans had stepped on them. It has been speculated that due to periods of drought, these beasts may have died from dehydration by becoming entrapped in the surrounding mud.
A GARGANTUAN GROUP
Dominating the land when the first examples of flowering plants began to bloom, these behemoths walked among giants. Patagotitan fossils have been dated back to around 100 million years ago, but they’re not the only example of giant dinosaurs; this class of the titans includes multiple examples of towering dinosaurs. Even the smallest of the Sauropods, the Saltasaurs, weighed in at around seven tons.
Previously believed to have been the largest of the group, the argentinosaurus is estimated to have weighed around 70 tons. There is a limited amount of fossil evidence to completely reconstruct a argentinosaurus, so the patagotitan is thought to be the largest animal ever due to the greater number of preserved anatomical fossils found.
“Patagotitan fossils have been dated back to around 100 million years ago”
THE FAMILY NAME
Placing species on the ‘tree of life’ takes time — four years in the case of the Patagotitan mayorum. Previously generalised simply as the Titanosaur, the dinosaur’s new name pays tribute to the location of its discovery (Patagonia) and the Greek work for large (‘titan’). The name ‘mayorum’, however, honours the name of the family that hosted the researchers during their long excavation.
To formally classify a new species with a new name, its lineage must first be identified. Often called the ‘tree of life’, every known species on Earth filters into different classifications. Using data collected from fossilised remains, palaeontologists can link a species to its prehistoric lineage and determine who’s related to whom. The Titanosauria is a diverse clade (group of evolutionary descendants of a common ancestor) of Sauropod dinosaurs that includes some of the largest known land animals to have ever graced the planet.