Showing posts with label biggest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label biggest. Show all posts

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Biggest Dinosaur Found (as of September 2010)



Information and Picture from: http://dinosaurs.about.com/od/herbivorousdinosaurs/p/argentinosaurus.htm

Name:

Argentinosaurus (Greek for "Argentina lizard"); pronounced ARE-jen-teen-oh-SORE-us
Habitat:

Forests of South America
Historical Period:

Middle Cretaceous (100-90 million years ago)
Size and Weight:

Up to 130 feet long and 110 tons
Diet:

Plants
Distinguishing Characteristics:

Enormous size; long neck; relatively small head
About Argentinosaurus:

As you may have guessed from its name, the remains of Argentinosaurus were dug up in present-day Argentina, in South America. To date, researchers haven't found an entire skeleton, but what they have found--four-foot long vertebrae and five-foot-long tibiae--indicate that Argentinosaurus was a truly titanic sauropod (hence its classification in some circles as a titanosaur).

Interestingly, the remains of Argentinosaurus were dug up near the fossils of another huge dinosaur--the carnivorous theropod Giganotosaurus. This has led paleontologists (and TV producers) to speculate that packs of Giganotosaurus may have hunted down full-grown Argentinosaurus adults--a chase that would have been deadly for any smaller creatures that happened to get in the way! (By the way, paleontologists in India have uncovered the remains of a possible titanosaur, Bruhathkayosaurus, that may have been even bigger than Argentinosaurus; the trouble is, no one is exactly sure what type of dinosaur this was!)