Biggest Dinosaur In The World Uncovered

By Joelle Renstrom | Updated

This article is more than 2 years old

DinoIt’s interesting that reports should hit the news about the discovery of the biggest dinosaur ever right around the same time Godzilla opens in theaters. I’ll admit that, since I saw the movie Friday night, I haven’t thought once about the size of dinosaurs, given how ginormous Gojira was in comparison to those MUTOs. But a recent paleontological find confirms that a new species of the aptly named titanosaur is now thought to be the biggest ever to roam the Earth.

dino fossil

After the fossils were found three years ago by an Argentinian farmer, the Museum of Paleontology Egidio Feruglio excavated the site and found about 200 fossilized bones of the herbivorous sauropods. Based on the fossil size, paleontologists believe titanosaurs were roughly 130 feet long and just shy of 200,000 pounds. That’s about 11 times the weight of a T-Rex, and bigger than the Argentinosaurus, which previously held the “world’s biggest dinosaur” title. A paleontologist at the museum describes it as “two trucks with a trailer each, one in front of the other, and the weight of 14 elephants together.” These sauropods had long necks and tails, and lived during the late Mesozoic Era, roughly 95 million years ago.

Argentina Giant Dinosaur

Back then, the area was pretty different than it is now: lush, and covered with flowers, trees, and watering holes. Scientists speculate that the titanosaur may have gathered near water but got stuck in the mud. The scientists found a bunch of teeth near the remains, suggesting that carnivorous dinosaurs tried to munch on them, but likely lost their chompers in a battle with the armored skin of the titanosaur, which grew big and strong only by eating its vegetables.

Only about 20% of the area of the discovery has thus far been excavated, so it’s likely that more remains will be uncovered. And now we have a worthy opponent for the Godzilla sequel.