Computer generated 3D image with the Argentinosaurus dinosaur.
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Fossil bone fragments found in the Neuquén Region in northwestern Patagonia may belong to a new species of Titanosaur, a sauropod family of dinosaurs including some of the largest terrestrial animals to walk on the Land never.
Titanosaurian sauropods were the most diverse and abundant terrestrial herbivore in the land areas of the Southern Hemisphere during the Cretaceous, a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago. Their fossils have been found on every continent and titanosaur species make up about a third of the known sauropods. Some taxa are seen as the best known terrestrial animals to science, but others do not appear to have been heavier than modern cattle.
The remains are not complete skeletons, and consist mainly of pelvic bones and vertebrae, and may be of previously unknown sex. Some things are like related fossils Andesaurus, a type of “giant titanosaur” that existed in the middle of the Cretaceous period in South America. These large sauropods grew to 18 meters (or 60 feet) in length. Given the size of what remains, the authors suggest that this species was much larger, easier to cross. Andesaurus in size, perhaps even larger than the best known Titanosaurian sauropods, the Patagotitan and Argentinosaurus. Patagotitan, described in 2014, is believed to have weighed nearly 60 tons, reaching more than 31 meters (102 feet). Argentinosaurus one of the largest land animals ever known, with estimates of length between 30 and 40 meters (100 to 130 feet) and estimates of weight from 50 to 100 tons.
Body size and a large estimate of the sauropod dinosaurs are generally difficult, as many species are known only from what remains. Based on the recovered fossils, the new species appears to have been well above the 40 tonne mass, however, it is only with further fossil discovery that a more accurate estimate of size is possible. The research was published in the journal Cretaceous Research.
The largest blue whale ever on Earth is still the blue whale of today. Living in the sea and not constrained by gravity as large as animals living on land, it can reach a maximum of 33.5 meters and weigh 173 tonnes.