New possibly largest titanosaur found.

[loveofourlord]

Too early to be 100% sure it's new, and will need to excavate more to tell it's actual size, but guestimates are it's 10-20% bigger then the Argentinosaurus wich was 110 tons. To give you a idea, our old friend the brontosaurus was only 33.6 tons, with apatosaurus only being 41 tons. I wonder what makes some of these titanosaurs so massive, must have been breathtakingly mindblowing if you could have seen one walking by.

Dinosaur Fossil of a Titanosaur Discovered in Argentina May Belong to the Largest Land Animal Ever

 

[Mayflower1]

Too early to be 100% sure it's new, and will need to excavate more to tell it's actual size, but guestimates are it's 10-20% bigger then the Argentinosaurus wich was 110 tons. To give you a idea, our old friend the brontosaurus was only 33.6 tons, with apatosaurus only being 41 tons. I wonder what makes some of these titanosaurs so massive, must have been breathtakingly mindblowing if you could have seen one walking by.

Dinosaur Fossil of a Titanosaur Discovered in Argentina May Belong to the Largest Land Animal Ever

Pretty cool

 

[Mark Quayle]

Too early to be 100% sure it's new, and will need to excavate more to tell it's actual size, but guestimates are it's 10-20% bigger then the Argentinosaurus wich was 110 tons. To give you a idea, our old friend the brontosaurus was only 33.6 tons, with apatosaurus only being 41 tons. I wonder what makes some of these titanosaurs so massive, must have been breathtakingly mindblowing if you could have seen one walking by.

Dinosaur Fossil of a Titanosaur Discovered in Argentina May Belong to the Largest Land Animal Ever

Oh NO!! So sad!!! How did it die??? (JK)

Wow. If I'm reading this right, the thing could have been like 150 ft long! By comparison, the Blue Whale maxes out around 100 ft. though it weighs quite a bit more 220 tons.

Or, maybe not so much more; depending on what they mean by "10 to 20 percent bigger" --if it is 20 percent longer than the biggest known, it could even double the body volume of the biggest known. Hmmm.

Can you see the water level change when it settles into a pond for a cool dip? No wonder they think fish developed legs!

 

[Petros2015]

TITANOSAURUS!!!

DR. MAFUNE WAS RIGHT!!!

 

[Mayflower1]

 

[Norbert L]

I wonder what makes some of these titanosaurs so massive

From what I learned about ancient insects, the reason they were so big was their environment. The earth at that time had a significantly higher oxygen content in proportion to what it is today. Such a thing would be necessary for the respiratory systems of gigantic bug like creatures. Perhaps something similar is at work with dinosaurs.

 

[loveofourlord]

From what I learned about ancient insects, the reason they were so big was their environment. The earth at that time had a significantly higher oxygen content in proportion to what it is today. Such a thing would be necessary for the respiratory systems of gigantic bug like creatures. Perhaps something similar is at work with dinosaurs.

maybe, but oxygen wasn't much different for dinosaurs then ours, insects are limited because they breath through their shell, so they get too big and they can't get enough oxygen. Another new theory I just read about has to do with larvae, too much oxygen is toxic to animals, and a way to deal with it is to grow bigger, so larvae which can't regulate oxygen as well grow bigger to handle it.

wonder if there was something special there in the past that allowed for such gigantism.

 

[loveofourlord]

Also funny thing is, this was round in Argentina where the previous record holder for sauropod and therapods were.

 

[Ophiolite]

Also funny thing is, this was round in Argentina where the previous record holder for sauropod and therapods were.

It's not too surprising. If the environmental conditions favoured the evolution of one giant dinosaur they could readily favour the evolution of another. I don't think the two are contemporaneous, are they? That would make it less likely.

 

[FrumiousBandersnatch]

wonder if there was something special there in the past that allowed for such gigantism.

ISTR that it can be a response to predators - you grow big enough that it's hard for a predator to grab a hold and big enough to shake them off. Then you get a size 'arms race' where the predators grow larger too, with both eventually reaching the maximum size their respective lifestyles can accommodate... OTOH, they may have been swamp waders allowing the water to support much of their weight.

Just speculatin'.

 

[loveofourlord]

ISTR that it can be a response to predators - you grow big enough that it's hard for a predator to grab a hold and big enough to shake them off. Then you get a size 'arms race' where the predators grow larger too, with both eventually reaching the maximum size their respective lifestyles can accommodate... OTOH, they may have been swamp waders allowing the water to support much of their weight.

Just speculatin'.

maybe, though there is debate about titanosaurs being warm blooded, or quasi warm-blooded and such, as they can't likely be full warm blooded even in the water due to they would overheat, and if not fully warm blooded the water would be too cold.

I remember it brought up as one of the issues with the Mokele-mbembe and among other reasons like chances of a sauropod lasting this long are low, as to why it wouldn't likely exist.

 

[FrumiousBandersnatch]

maybe, though there is debate about titanosaurs being warm blooded, or quasi warm-blooded and such, as they can't likely be full warm blooded even in the water due to they would overheat, and if not fully warm blooded the water would be too cold.

I expect that would depend on the water temperature. If you're not fully immersed, it wouldn't be such a problem, and you could regulate your temperature by varying the blood distribution under the skin. Although having said that, the whales are doing nicely fully immersed... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

With luck, we'll hear more about their habitat and lifestyle.

 

[loveofourlord]

I expect that would depend on the water temperature. If you're not fully immersed, it wouldn't be such a problem, and you could regulate your temperature by varying the blood distribution under the skin. Although having said that, the whales are doing nicely fully immersed...

True, but they also don't come out of the water, so you need them to be somewhere in the middle. The issue is that the surface area to body volume shrinks as a animal gets bigger, so for warm-blooded creatures the bigger they are they hit a point at where their body can't disipate all the heat they build up.

 

[FrumiousBandersnatch]

The issue is that the surface area to body volume shrinks as a animal gets bigger, so for warm-blooded creatures the bigger they are they hit a point at where their body can't disipate all the heat they build up.

Sure - that's where water could help, with its excellent thermal conductivity