Discover 1-2

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46 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM

TOP: JOSÉ L. CARBALLIDO ET AL./PROC. R. SOC. B 284: 20171219, AUGUST 9, 2017. BOTTOM: CHRISSTOCK PHOTO/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

A Titan for the

Record Books

❯

THIS PAST SUMMER, paleontologists

announced a new contender for largest

dinosaur: Patagotitan mayorum. The

100 million-year-old giant was a type of plant-eating,

long-necked sauropod called a titanosaur, and is

likely the largest creature known to have walked

the planet.

An international group of researchers described the

animal in August in the journal Biological Sciences,

after analyzing the partial skeletons of six individuals

unearthed in Argentina in 2014. They estimate

the animal grew up to 122 feet long and weighed

roughly 69 tons — about the same as 10 fully grown

male African elephants, today’s largest land animal.

Phil Mannion, a sauropod expert at Imperial

College London who was not involved with the

study, praises the find. “Whether or not Patagotitan

is the largest known dinosaur,” he says, “it fills an

important gap in our understanding of these gigantic

animals.”  JON TENNANT

Patagotitan mayorum,

reconstructed below, might be

the biggest known dinosaur.

This rendering, at left,

shows bones from different

individuals, with missing

bones shown in light blue.

16.5 ft.