Argentinosaurus
Argentinosaurus was a titanosaurid sauropod dinosaur. It was an enormous, long-necked, long-tailed, quadrupedal, plant-eater from Argentina, South America during the Cretaceous period.
| Argentinosaurus Temporal range: Upper Cretaceous
| |
|---|---|
| File:Argentinosaurus skeleton, PLoS ONE.png | |
| Reconstructed skeleton, Museo Municipal Carmen Funes, Plaza Huincul, Argentina. The original vertebrae are seen on the lower left | |
| Scientific classification e | |
| Unrecognized taxon (fix): | Argentinosaurus |
| Type species | |
| †Argentinosaurus huinculensis Bonaparte & Coria, 1993
| |
Argentinosaurus meaning "Argentina lizard", was named by paleontologists Coria & José Bonaparte in 1993. It is known from fossilized back vertebrae, tibia, ribs and sacrum, found in Neuquén Province. It may be the largest dinosaur,[1] but its remains are so incomplete that palaeontologists prefer to use Saltasaurus for their calculations. An accurate estimate was got for the much more complete sub-adult Dreadnoughtus.[2][3]
Rough estimates
The following shows the disagreement on estimates of size:
Argentinosaurus Media
- Argentinosaurus 9.svg
Skeletal reconstruction, holotype material in white, referred femoral shaft in green, referred femur in blue, unknown bones in grey
- Longest dinosaurs2.svg
Size comparison of selected giant sauropod dinosaurs, Argentinosaurus in red and second from the left
- Argentinosaurus BW.jpg
Hypothetical life restoration
- Argentinosaurus dorsal LA County Museum 3.jpg
Dorsal vertebra cast in left side view at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
- Argentinosaurus LACM.jpg
Dorsal vertebra cast in front view at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, with the palaeontologist Matthew Wedel for scale
- Museo de La Plata - Argentinosaurus (fémur).jpg
Assigned femur (upper thigh bone), Museo de La Plata
- Argentinosaurus.jpg
Skeletal reconstruction in dorsal view, at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History
- Argentinosaurus in Fernbank Museum of Natural History.jpg
Reconstructed skeleton in side view, Fernbank Museum of Natural History
- PLOS ONE Sauropod locomotion s010.ogv
A video showing Argentinosaurus walking as estimated by computer simulations from a 2013 study
- Huincul Formation Dinosauria Scale.svg
Silhouettes of dinosaurs from the Huincul Formation as size comparison
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Mortimer, Mickey ( Chi glucógeno fisyzt2001-09-12). "Titanosaurs too large?". Dinosaur Mailing List. [1] Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Utilities at line 38: bad argument #1 to 'ipairs' (table expected, got nil).
- ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Utilities at line 38: bad argument #1 to 'ipairs' (table expected, got nil).
- ↑ Holtz, Thomas R. Jr. 2012. Dinosaurs: the most complete, up-to-date encyclopedia for dinosaur lovers of all ages [2].