A colossal 122-foot, 70-ton Titanosaur with thigh bones the size of couches is so big that it it needs not one, but two cavernous rooms in it’s new home, the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The cast goes on display Jan. 15.
A herbivore, the beast is likely one of the biggest land-walking creatures ever discovered. And it was most likely not even fully grown when it died 100 million years ago.
“Certain bones in these animals fuse when growth stops, which didn’t happen here. The researchers on hand said that they’d be able to count features on certain bones and eventually estimate its actual age,” John Timmer wrote in ArsTechnica.
Discovered in Patagonia, Argentina by a farmer in 2012, paleontologists spent a year and a half excavating several hundred bones. They then spent another half year creating 84 replicas out of fiberglass. The skull was made based on what related skulls look like.
Roughly 20 feet tall at the shoulder, the Titanosaurus would have been eye-level to a five-story building.
It’s #FossilFriday: Titanosaur Edition.The Museum’s newest resident, the Titanosaur, goes on display to the public…
Posted by American Museum of Natural History on Friday, January 15, 2016
“Titanosaur fossils have been unearthed on every continent, and an abundance of discoveries in recent years has helped us appreciate the deep diversity of this group,” Michael Novacek, the Museum’s Senior Vice President and Provost for Science, said in a statement.