The fossilised remains are believed to be from a new species of titanosaur, aptly named massive herbivores.
Like the brachiosaurus and apatosaurus, the titanosaurs roamed the forests of Patagonia 95 million years ago, according to officials from the Museo Paleontologico Egidio Feruglio.
“Given the size of these bones, which surpass any of the previously known giant animals, the new dinosaur is the largest animal known that walked on Earth,” the Argentinian researchers told reporters.
Based on the size of the largest thigh bone fossil, scientists have calculated that this particular group of titanosaurs would have measured 65 feet tall, 130 feet long and weighed a whopping 170,000 pounds.
“It’s like two trucks with a trailer each, one in front of the other, and the weight of,” Jose Luis Carballido, a dinosaur specialist at the museum, was reported as saying.
Just to put the dinosaurs magnitude into perspective, it would have weighed more than a Boeing 737 and stretched half a foot longer than the jumbo plane.
Interestingly the site where the titonsaur fossils were found also held the remains of several other species of dinosaur, with 150 bones in total. A farmer discovered the find in 2011 in a desert region near La Flecha not far from Trelew, Patagonia.
Now the researchers are on the hunt for a name befitting of this monumental creature.
“It will be named describing its magnificence and in honor to both the region and the farm owners who alerted us about the discovery,” said the group, whose work is ongoing in the hopes of discovering the titanosaur fossil’s head.
