Argentinosaurus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| iArgentinosaurus |
||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
||||||||||||||||||
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||
| Argentinosaurus huinculensis Bonaparte & Coria, 1993 |
Argentinosaurus (meaning "Argentina lizard") was a herbivorous sauropod dinosaur that was quite possibly the largest, heaviest land animal that ever lived. It developed on the island continent of South America during the middle of the Cretaceous Period (around 100 million years ago), after all of its more familiar Laurasian Jurassic kin — like Apatosaurus — had long disappeared.
Contents |
[edit] Description
Not much of Argentinosaurus has been recovered: just some back vertebrae, tibia, fragmentary ribs, and sacrum. One vertebra had a length of 1.3 metres and the tibia was about 155 centimetres (58 inches) However, the spectacular proportions of these bones and the familiarity of the species' sauropod relatives allows paleontologists to estimate that full-grown specimens reached some 35 metres (115 feet)in length. Weight was perhaps 80 to 100 tonnes. It is the largest dinosaur that we have good evidence for. However, it would be smaller than Bruhathkayosaurus, which may have reached 44 metres (145 feet) long and weighed 180 tons and the poorly known Amphicoelias fragilimus which may have been up to 60 meters (200 feet) long. However, these estimates cannot be validated due to lack of evidence.
Vast wings on the vertebrae suited the attachment of massive muscles.
[edit] Classification and history
The type species of Argentinosaurus, A. huinculensis, was described and published (by the Argentinian palaeontologists José F. Bonaparte and Rodolfo Coria) in 1993. Its more specific time-frame within the Cretaceous is the Albian to Cenomanian epochs, 112.2 to 93.5 million years ago.
The fossil discovery site is in the Río Limay Formation in Neuquén Province, Argentina. Due to the enormous size of each bone, Rodolfo Coria apparently told National Geographic Magazine, who were covering the event, "God forbid we ever find a complete one."[citation needed]
[edit] In popular culture
Argentinosaurus was featured in the Walking with Dinosaurs special "Land of Giants", where a herd of Argentinosaurus travelled to a riverside to lay their eggs, being preyed on during the journey by a pack of Giganotosaurus.
[edit] Museum Exhibits
Argentinosaurus is featured prominently in the permanent exhibition Giants of the Mesozoic at Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. This display depicts a hypothical encounter between Argentinosaurus and the carnivorous theropod dinosaur Giganotosaurus. Contemporary fossils of Cretaceous Period plants and animals are included in the exhibition, including two species of pterosaurs, providing a snapshot of a prehistoric ecosystem in what is now the modern Patagonia region of Argentina. At 123 feet long, this skeletal reconstruction represents the largest dinosaur mount ever to be assembled.
