Patagotitan
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Patagotitan Temporal range: Albian, 101.62 Ma |
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| Reconstructed skeleton and fossils on display at the American Museum of Natural History, New York | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | Saurischia |
| Suborder: | †Sauropodomorpha |
| Clade: | †Sauropoda |
| Clade: | †Titanosauria |
| Clade: | †Lognkosauria |
| Genus: |
†Patagotitan Carballido et al., 2017 |
| Type species | |
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Patagotitan mayorum Carballido et al., 2017 |
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Patagotitan is a genus of titanosaurian sauropod from the Cerro Barcino Formation in Chubut Province, Patagonia, Argentina. It contains a single species, Patagotitan mayorum, first announced in 2014 and then validly named in 2017 by José Carballido, Diego Pol and colleagues.
P. mayorum has been estimated to have been 37 m (121 ft) long , with a weight of 69.1 tonnes (76.2 tons). Initial estimates placed it at 40 m (131 ft) long with a weight of 77 tonnes (85 tons). This makes it comparable to the next largest titanosaur, Argentinosaurus (which has been estimated at 73–96.4 tonnes (80.5–106.3 tons) by some studies), and thus one of the largest land animals in Earth's history.
The researchers who described the animal stated:
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.
Upon its initial discovery, science writer Brian Switek cautioned that it was too early to calculate the exact size of the dinosaur. Switek had said it may be revised to 33.5 m (110 ft) and 45.4 tonnes (50.0 tons).
The authors indicated nine distinguishing traits of Patagotitan. The first three back vertebra have a lamina prezygodiapophysealis, a ridge running between the front articular process and the side process, that is vertical because the former process is situated considerably higher than the latter process. With the first two back vertebrae, the ridge running to below from the side front of the neural spine has a bulge at the underside. Secondary articulating processes of the hyposphene-hypantrum complex type are limited to the articulation between the third and fourth back vertebra. The middle and rear back vertebrae have vertical neural spines. In the first tail vertebra, the centrum or main vertebral body has a flat articulation facet in front and a convex facet at the rear. The front tail vertebrae have neural spines of which the transverse width is four to six times larger than their length measured from the front to the rear. The front tail vertebrae have neural spines that show some bifurcation. The upper arm bone has a distinct bulge on the rear outer side. The lower thighbone has a straight edge on the outer side.
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