"Astoundingly huge" dinosaur skeleton unearthed

[Buster's Uncle]

"Astoundingly huge" dinosaur skeleton unearthed
CBS News
13 hours ago



Scientists have unearthed the skeleton of a previously unknown, massive dinosaur species that may be the largest land animal ever found.

The specimen named Dreadnoughtus schrani is exceptionally complete, with about 70 percent of its bones recovered. Scientists believe the creature, which lived about 77 million years ago, measured 85 feet (26 meters) long and weighed about 65 tons, heavier than a Boeing 737.

Previously discovered "super-massive" dinosaurs are known only from fragmentary fossils, and therefore the new skeleton provides researchers with a unique opportunity to learn about the anatomy and evolutionary history of one of the largest animals that ever lived.

The researchers excavated the fossil in southern Patagonia, Argentina, over four field seasons between 2005 and 2009. A smaller specimen of the same species with a less-complete skeleton was also discovered at the site.

"Dreadnoughtus schrani was astoundingly huge," said study author Kenneth Lacovara, an associate professor at Drexel University in Philadelphia, who discovered the Dreadnoughtus fossil skeleton and led the excavation and analysis. "It weighed as much as a dozen African elephants or more than seven T. rex."

Moreover, the researchers believe that when this 65-ton animal died, it was not even done growing.

"It is by far the best example we have of any of the most giant creatures to ever walk the planet," Lacovara said.



Kenneth Lacovara of Drexel University, surrounded by the skeleton of Dreadnoughtus schrani Kenneth Lacovara


Researchers have identified about 100 pieces of the gigantic skeleton, including most of the vertebrae from the animal's 30-foot-long tail, a neck vertebra with a diameter of over a yard, toes, a claw and even a single tooth.

The plant-eating dinosaur, with characteristic peg-like teeth, plank-like ribs and huge legs, belongs to a group called titanosaurs that were common in southern continents around 66 to 100 million years ago.

"Titanosaurs are a remarkable group of dinosaurs, with species ranging from the weight of a cow to the weight of a sperm whale or more," Matthew Lamanna of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, one of the researchers who unearthed the skeleton, said in a statement. "But the biggest titanosaurs have remained a mystery, because, in almost all cases, their fossils are very incomplete."



Kenneth Lacovara, PhD, with the 30-foot tail of Dreadnoughtus schrani, stretching along the length of the wall and around the corner. Drexel University


The researchers also prepared 3D laser scans of most of the fossil bones from the specimen to better visualize the skeletal structure of the animal.

"This has the advantage that it doesn't take physical space," Lacovara said. "These images can be ported around the world to other scientists and museums."

Inspired by the creature's invincible appearance, scientists named the specimen "Dreadnoughtus," which means "fears nothing."

"With a body the size of a house, the weight of a herd of elephants, and a weaponized tail, Dreadnoughtus would have feared nothing," Lacovara said. "That evokes to me a class of turn-of-the-last century battleships called the dreadnoughts, which were huge, thickly clad and virtually impervious."



The reconstructed skeleton and body silhouette of Dreadnoughtus, showing fossil bones that were found in white. Lacovara et al.


The latter part of the name, "schrani," was chosen in honor of American entrepreneur Adam Schran, who provided support for the research.

Considering the animal's huge size, the researchers estimated that the dinosaur must have fed constantly on massive quantities of plants.

"Imagine a life-long obsession with eating," Lacovara said.

The study describing the discovery was published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports.




Artist's rendering of two Dreadnoughtus schrani, shown here menacing a much smaller meat-eating dinosaur. Illustration: Mark A. Klingler, Carnegie Museum of Natural History


http://news.yahoo.com/astoundingly-huge-dinosaur-skeleton-unearthed-050002143.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Argentine dinosaur may shed light on huge beasts
Associated Press
By MALCOLM RITTER  10 hours ago



The four-legged beast was bigger than seven elephants, stretched about 85 feet long and weighed about 65 tons. Scientists published their findings on the titanosaur, named Dreadnoughtus schrani, in Thursday's Scientific Reports. (Sept. 4)



NEW YORK (AP) — Researchers studying the remains of an enormous dinosaur — a creature that was bigger than seven bull elephants — have given it an equally colossal name: Dreadnoughtus, or "fearing nothing."

Scientists hope its unusually well-preserved bones will help reveal secrets about some of the largest animals ever to walk the Earth.

The four-legged beast, with a long neck and powerful 29-foot tail, stretched about 85 feet long and weighed about 65 tons. That's more than seven times the weight of even a plus-size male African elephant.

Kenneth Lacovara of Drexel University in Philadelphia, who found the specimen in Argentina's southern Patagonia in 2005, said he can't claim it was the most massive dinosaur known, because the remains of comparably sized beasts are too fragmentary to allow a direct comparison.

But it's the heaviest land animal whose weight during life can be calculated directly with a standard technique that analyzes bones of the upper limbs, he said. And its bones indicate it was still growing when it died.

Lacovara and colleagues describe the plant-eating behemoth in a study released Thursday by the journal Scientific Reports. He said the bones were probably around 75 million to 77 million years old.



In this Aug. 26, 2014 photo, Paleontologist Kenneth Lacovara works in a lab near vertebrae from a Dreadnaughtus schrani at Drexel University in Philadelphia. The immense dinosaur from Patagonia is slated to be introduced to the scientific community Thursday, Sept. 4, 2014. Scientists hope its unusually well-preserved bones will help reveal secrets about some of the largest animals ever to walk the Earth. The four-legged beast with a long neck and tail weighed an estimated 65 tons and stretched about 85 feet long. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Larma)


The creature got some media attention in 2009 when its excavated remains arrived in a large shipping container at a pier in Philadelphia. Since then, Lacorvara and colleagues have created computerized 3D reconstruction of the bones, and have started making miniaturized physical models of parts of the skeleton to investigate how the animal moved.

The bones will be returned next year to Argentina, where they will be housed permanently at a museum, researchers said.

In the new paper, the researchers named the beast Dreadnoughtus schrani; the second name refers to an American entrepreneur who supported the research. It belongs to a poorly understood group of dinosaurs called titanosaurs.

Experts not connected with the study said the remains were remarkably complete and well-preserved for a titanosaur. While no complete skull was found, the remains reveal more than 70 percent of the rest of the skeleton.

"We're getting a more complete picture of this giant animal than we have for any of the other big titanosaurs that are out there," said paleontologist Kristi Curry Rogers of Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. The bounty of anatomical data should help scientists learn about variation in titanosaurs and their evolution, she said.



In this Aug. 26, 2014 photo, Paleontologist Kenneth Lacovara works in a lab near vertebrae from a Dreadnaughtus schrani at Drexel University in Philadelphia. The immense dinosaur from Patagonia is slated to be introduced to the scientific community Thursday, Sept. 4, 2014. Scientists hope its unusually well-preserved bones will help reveal secrets about some of the largest animals ever to walk the Earth. The four-legged beast with a long neck and tail weighed an estimated 65 tons and stretched about 85 feet long. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Larma)


"This is pretty big news," Rogers said.

Jeff Wilson of the University of Michigan called the finding "a really great specimen."

Among the questions it can help scientists investigate, he said, is what kind of anatomical features were needed to let a dinosaur grow so huge.

Last May, other scientists announced that another huge dinosaur was being excavated in Patagonia. Wilson, who has seen some of its bones, said its size is comparable to Dreadnoughtus. He said he hopes scientists can determine whether the two beasts are closely related, or whether each came by its huge size independently.

Paul Upchurch of University College London said he thinks the recently announced dinosaur and another species, Argentinosaurus, were more massive than Dreadnoughtus. But he called Dreadnoughtus valuable for its combination of huge size and the completeness of its skeleton.



This Aug. 26, 2014, photo shows a humerus bone, right, and a tibia bone from a Dreadnaughtus schrani in a lab at Drexel University in Philadelphia. The immense dinosaur from Patagonia is slated to be introduced to the scientific community Thursday, Sept. 4, 2014. Scientists hope its unusually well-preserved bones will help reveal secrets about some of the largest animals ever to walk the Earth. The four-legged beast with a long neck and tail weighed an estimated 65 tons and stretched about 85 feet long. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Larma)


"If you're interested in super gigantic animals, this is probably the one you want to work on" to study how such beasts walked around, Upchurch said.

___

Online:

Scientific Reports: http://www.nature.com/scientificreports


http://news.yahoo.com/argentine-dinosaur-may-shed-light-huge-beasts-130216871.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Behemoth Argentine dinosaur Dreadnoughtus made T. rex look puny
Reuters
By Will Dunham  9 hours ago



The four-legged beast was bigger than seven elephants, stretched about 85 feet long and weighed about 65 tons. Scientists published their findings on the titanosaur, named Dreadnoughtus schrani, in Thursday's Scientific Reports. (Sept. 4)



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The word big does not do justice to a massive, long-necked dinosaur that shook the Earth in Argentina about 77 million years ago.

Try colossal, enormous, gargantuan and stupendous - and you might come close to an accurate description of this behemoth, known to scientists as Dreadnoughtus schrani.

Scientists on Thursday announced the discovery in southern Patagonia of remarkably complete and well-preserved fossil remains of the dinosaur, which weighed 65 tons (59,300 kg) and measured 85 feet long (26 meters) with a neck 37 feet long (11.3 meters) and a tail 30 feet long (8.7 meters).

Paleontologist Kenneth Lacovara of Drexel University in Philadelphia, who discovered the dinosaur and led the effort for its excavation and analysis, said the scientists calculated its weight on the basis of the bones in its upper arm and thigh.

Dreadnoughtus weighed more than an adult sperm whale or a herd of African elephants. Tipping the scales at seven times as much as the dinosaur T. rex, it made the North American menace that also lived during the Cretaceous Period look puny.



Bones of Dreadnoughtus schrani are seen in Professor Kenneth Lacovara's fossil lab at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in this undated photo released on September 3, 2014. Scientists on Thursday announced the discovery in southern Patagonia of remarkably complete and well-preserved fossil remains of the dinosaur, which weighed 65 tons (59,300 kg) and measured 85 feet long (26 meters) with a neck 37 feet long (11.3 meters) and a tail 30 feet long (8.7 meters). REUTERS/Kenneth Lacovara/Drexel University/Handout via Reuters


Dreadnoughtus had "the largest reliably calculable weight" of any known land animal - dinosaur or otherwise, Lacovara said.

Another giant Argentine dinosaur, Argentinosaurus, might have been larger, he said, but its scant remains do not allow a reliable weight estimate. Another group of scientists in May had cited Argentinosaurus, with an estimated weight of 90 tons (82,107 kg), as the largest dinosaur.

While strictly a vegetarian, Dreadnoughtus was no pansy. With its size and a tail that could have clobbered any predator foolish enough to attack it, it probably had nothing to fear from even the largest meat-eating dinosaurs.

Its name reflects that.

"We decided on Dreadnoughtus - meaning 'fearer of nothing' - because when you're as big as this thing was, you're probably not afraid of too much," said one of the researchers, Matt Lamanna of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh.



The skeleton of Dreadnoughtus schrani is seen during an excavation in Argentina in this 2006 picture released on September 3, 2014. Scientists on Thursday announced the discovery in southern Patagonia of remarkably complete and well-preserved fossil remains of the dinosaur, which weighed 65 tons (59,300 kg) and measured 85 feet long (26 meters) with a neck 37 feet long (11.3 meters) and a tail 30 feet long (8.7 meters). REUTERS/Kenneth Lacovara/Drexel University/Handout via Reuters


"Not to mention we thought it was time a plant-eating dinosaur got a badass name. Those are usually reserved for the meat-eaters," said Lamanna, a paleontologist.

Lacovara said the name also was a nod to the powerful battleships called dreadnoughts, dating from the turn of the last century, that were designed to be impervious to attack.

Dreadnoughtus probably spent its days munching massive quantities of plants to fuel its enormous body. It was a member of a group of dinosaurs called titanosaurs that are thought to have been the largest dinosaurs that ever lived.

Argentinosaurus also was a titanosaur.

Most titanosaurs are known only from fragmentary remains, but the scientists found 45 percent of the skeleton of Dreadnoughtus, including most of the important bones. Lamanna called it "a treasure trove of information on one of the most successful, but least understood, dinosaur groups of all."

The researchers found two specimens of Dreadnoughtus side by side - one larger than the other, but the scary thought is that they believe the larger one was not even fully grown.

"It appears that both individuals died and were buried rapidly after a river flooded and broke through its natural levee, turning the ground into a soupy mixture of sand, mud and water," Lacovara said.

To attack a healthy adult Dreadnoughtus, a solitary predator "would have to have been suicidal," Lamanna said. "It's conceivable that a pack of these predators could take down a sick or old Dreadnoughtus, but a single carnivore versus a 'Dread' would be a drubbing."

The study appears in the Nature journal Scientific Reports.

(Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)


http://news.yahoo.com/behemoth-argentine-dinosaur-dreadnoughtus-made-t-rex-look-142041824.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Enormous new dinosaur discovered and given name meaning 'fears nothing'
The Verge
By Jacob Kastrenakes on September 4, 2014 09:00 am

Dreadnoughtus: A New Dinosaur Discovery

Standing two-stories tall, weighing 65 tons, and measuring 85-feet long, the 77-million-year-old Dreadnoughtus schrani is easily one of the largest dinosaurs ever found. The Dreadnoughtus is being detailed today for the first time by a group of researchers led from Drexel University, and its finders say that it currently holds the title for largest dinosaur — at least, largest of any dinosaur that has been scientifically reported and can be properly measured.


“"'Dreadnoughtus schrani' was astoundingly huge."”


Those clarifications are important: two previously detailed dinosaurs — both large titanosaurs, like this one — may have been bigger, but Drexel's researchers say that between those finds' incomplete skeletons and the lack of published research on them, the specifics of the dinosaurs still can't be known for certain. Thus, for now, the Dreadnoughtus has the largest "calculable" weight of any dinosaur.

But even if the Dreadnoughtus isn't quite the biggest, the fact that it can be measured with so much confidence speaks to the size of this find. Since first discovering bones in Argentina back in 2005, researchers have unearthed a tooth and 145 bones in total, coming from two separate individuals: 115 bones and a tooth from one, and 30 bones from the other. That's out of what's thought to be a total of 256 bones total in each individual. And if you don't count skull bones, which Drexel says are often discounted when measuring completeness, 110 types of bones out of just 142 types are accounted for in this find. Altogether, Drexel says that this discovery represents the most complete skeleton that's ever been found of a supermassive animal, and its bones are said to be "exquisitely preserved."



(Mark A. Klingler, Carnegie Museum of Natural History)


Titantosaurs, a type of sauropod, are a group of plant-eating dinosaurs with long necks and tails that walked around on four legs. The Dreadnoughtus lived on the southern tip of South America, and these particular skeletons were located in Patagonia.

"Dreadnoughtus schrani was astoundingly huge," Kenneth Lacovara, the Drexel professor who first found the fossil and lead research on it, says in a statement. "It weighed as much as a dozen African elephants or more than seven T. rex. Shockingly, skeletal evidence shows that when this 65-ton specimen died, it was not yet full grown." The researchers don't make a guess as to just how large Dreadnoughtus could have grown to be, and it's not clear how old the animal was when it died.



(Photos credit of Drexel University & Kenneth Lacovara)


Though, like other sauropods, Dreadnoughtus was just an herbavore, Lacovara says that the enormous creature was still nothing to be trifled with. He wanted to give it a name that would signify just as much and landed on Dreadnoughtus, which is said to mean "fears nothing." "I think it’s time the herbivores get their due for being the toughest creatures in an environment," he says. Lacovara describes Dreadnoughtus' typical day as involving standing in one place for hours on end, turning its neck, and eating basically everything green in sight. And because of its huge size, it probably really didn't have anything to fear from predators.

If you want to get a closer look at Dreadnoughtus' bones, then you're in luck. Lacovara just happens to have an interest in scanning and 3D printing dinosaur bones — The Verge actually profiled the effort back in 2012 — and his lab has made scans of this latest find too. Alongside a paper that his research group is publishing today in the open-access journal Scientific Reports (which is run by Nature), the lab is publishing 3D scans of the skeleton for anyone to access as well. "These images can be ported around the world to other scientists and museums," Lacovara says. "The fidelity is perfect. It doesn’t decay over time like bones do in a collection." Plus, they're a whole lot easier to pass around than a several-hundred pound bone.


http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/4/6098679/enormous-plant-eating-dinosaur-discovered-argentina-dreadnoughtus

[Buster's Uncle]

Introducing Dreadnoughtus, the 65-Ton Dinosaur
The Atlantic Wire
By David Ludwig  5 hours ago



Meet Dreadnoughtus scrani, one of the largest creatures to ever walk the earth. 

The dinosaur, which belongs to a species of gigantic herbivores called Titanosauruses, was discovered by Dr. Kenneth Lacovara on an expeditionary trip to southern Patagonia in Argentina in 2005. 

Lacovara, an associate professor at Drexel University's College of Arts and Sciences told The Wire that his team discovered the six foot tall femur of the colossal animal on the first day of their exploratory dig. He published the results of his discovery in a comprehensive paper released in Scientific Reports on Thursday.

The dinosaur was named after 100-foot-long British battleships from the early 20th century called "Dreadnoughts," which means "fearing nothing" in Old English. 

The tailbones are gargantuan with huge muscle scars, that show us that it essentially had a weaponized tail that was 30 feet long... this incredibly large and muscled individual that would have feared nothing in its landscape.

The Dreadnoughtus, which lived over 77 million years ago during the Mesozoic era, weighed approximately 65-tons was 30 feet tall, and stretched 85 feet in length. That's the equivalent of seven Tyrannosaurus Rex, or 12 African Elephants, or 20 H2 Hummers.   



Dr. Kenneth Lacovara / Drexel University


What's more, Dreadnoughtus was likely still growing at the time of its death, according to "multiple lines" of skeletal evidence that are detailed in the paper.

After uncovering 145 bones on four separate trips to Patagonia, the 16 tons of fossils were shipped to Pennsylvania on an ocean trader provided by the Argentinian government. There was so much material it had to be divided between three labs in the state, where it was organized and studied.

The 145 bones account for over 45 percent of the Dreadnoughtus' skeletal remains, making it the most complete specimen of a Titanosaur to ever be discovered.

In the below video released by Drexel, Lacovara explains his historic discovery. 

Dreadnoughtus: A New Dinosaur Discovery

This article was originally published at http://www.thewire.com/global/2014/09/introducing-dreadnoughtus-the-65-ton-dinosaur/379632/

[Buster's Uncle]

Dreadnoughtus! Scientists Just Found A Seriously Massive Dino
The Daily Caller
5 hours ago






Scientists just found the remains of a massive new dinosaur they’ve named the dreadnoughtus.

The long-necked dinosaur had a huge weaponized tail and weighed 65 tons, making it the largest known dinosaur, reported The Washington Post. Dreadnoughtus stands for “fear nothing,” and this one was still growing when it died in Argentina.

“To put this in perspective, an African elephant is about five tons, T. rex is eight tons, Diplodocus is 18 tons, and a Boeing 737 is around 50 tons,” a paleontologist told the Washington Post. “And then you have Dreadnoughtus at 65 tons.”

The long neck meant the dino probably didn’t have to walk far for food, he added, but its massive body meant falling over would have been “catastrophic” and almost certainly fatal.


http://dailycaller.com/2014/09/04/dreadnoughtus-scientists-just-found-a-seriously-massive-dino/

[Buster's Uncle]

Supermassive dinosaur found in Argentina: Meet Dreadnoughtus
CNET CBS
By Michelle Starr  12 hours ago



Rendering of Dreadnoughtus schrani. Mark A. Klingler, Carnegie Museum of Natural History



Archaeologists find new dinosaurs fairly regularly, but not on this scale: a new supermassive dinosaur species has been discovered in Argentina that is calculated to have tipped the scales at a whopping 59.3 metric tonnes -- that is, 59,300kg or 130,734 pounds -- and measuring a massive 26m from nose to tail.

Moreover, the skeleton of the Titanosaur -- a Late Cretaceous herbivore given the name Dreadnoughtus schrani, excavated over a period from 2005 to 2009 -- is unusually complete, with over 70 percent of the bones represented. It is this that has allowed a team of researchers to accurately calculate the weight of the giant beast -- the biggest land animal for which this has been possible.

"Dreadnoughtus schrani was astoundingly huge," said Kenneth Lacovara, PhD, an associate professor in Drexel University's College of Arts and Sciences, who discovered the Dreadnoughtus fossil skeleton in southern Patagonia in Argentina and led the excavation and analysis.

"It weighed as much as a dozen African elephants or more than seven T. rex. Shockingly, skeletal evidence shows that when this 65-ton specimen died, it was not yet full grown. It is by far the best example we have of any of the most giant creatures to ever walk the planet."

Titanosauriansauropod dinosaurs, common during the Late Cretaceous (66-100 million years ago) are some of the largest animals ever to walk the Earth, but nearly all of them are only known from incomplete fossils. Their sizes are only estimated from a limited number of bones.



Kenneth Lacovara with the right tibia of Dreadnoughtus schrani. Kenneth Lacovara


Typically, the size of a dinosaur can most accurately be gauged by using measurements taken from the femur (thigh bone) and humerus (upper forelimb). The skeleton discovered by Lacovara's team included over 100 elements, including all of the vertebrae from the 30ft (3.14m) tail, a neck vertebra with a diameter over 1 yard (91.44cm), scapula, ribs, toes, a claw, a section of jaw and a single tooth, and nearly all the bones from the animals limbs -- allowing for a "gold standard" weight estimate.

Prior to the discovery of Dreadnoughtus schrani, the largest confirmed dinosaur was the Elaltitan, also hailing from Patagonia, coming in at 47 tons. It is possible, the researchers said, that Argentinosaurus was bigger, but because the skeleton discovered was incomplete, lacking bones from its forelimbs, its size cannot be accurately gauged. Futalognkosaurus, also from Patagonia, may also be comparable, but the most complete specimen ever found was still lacking most limb bones.

"Titanosaurs are a remarkable group of dinosaurs, with species ranging from the weight of a cow to the weight of a sperm whale or more," said Carnegie Museum of Natural History's Matthew Lamanna, PhD, who also worked on the dig. "But the biggest titanosaurs have remained a mystery, because, in almost all cases, their fossils are very incomplete."



Lacovara et al


Dreadnoughtus schrani was named because Lacovara believed it would have had little to fear.

"With a body the size of a house, the weight of a herd of elephants, and a weaponised tail, Dreadnoughtus would have feared nothing. That evokes to me a class of turn-of-the-last century battleships called the dreadnoughts, which were huge, thickly clad and virtually impervious," he said. "I think it's time the herbivores get their due for being the toughest creatures in an environment."

Species name "schrani" was chosen to honour entrepreneur Adam Schran, who provided support for the research.

Overall, the find represents 45.3 percent of the dinosaur's skeleton, or 70.4 percent of the types of bones in its body, excluding the head bones. In order to better visualise the skeleton, the team 3D scanned all the bones from both Dreadnoughtus schrani and Futalognkosaurus -- previously the most complete titanosaur ever found -- and built a 3D reconstruction, publicly available for download in the paper's supplementary materials.

The full paper, "A Gigantic, Exceptionally Complete Titanosaurian Sauropod Dinosaur from Southern Patagonia, Argentina", can be read online in the journal Scientific Reports.


http://news.yahoo.com/supermassive-dinosaur-found-argentina-meet-130010259.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Supermassive dinosaur fossils found in Argentina
AFP
By Mariette Le Roux  11 hours ago



Paris (AFP) - A supermassive dinosaur that would have weighed as much as 60 small cars has been found in Argentina, where it likely perished in a bog some 77 million years ago, palaeontologists said Thursday.

Dubbed Dreadnoughtus (from "fear nothing" in old English), the long-necked lizard would have measured 26 metres (85 feet) from nose to tail and weighed some 60 tonnes -- about as much as seven Tyrannosaurus rex put together.

And the giant wasn't even fully grown when it got bogged down in a flooded plain, where it died next to a smaller companion, researchers reported in the journal Scientific Reports.

"With a body the size of a house, the weight of a herd of elephants, and a weaponised (nine-metre, muscled) tail, Dreadnoughtus would have feared nothing," study co-author Kenneth Lacovara of Drexel University in Philadelphia said of the mighty beast.

The dinosaur's strength evoked Europe's early 20th-century battleships, the dreadnoughts, "which were huge, thickly clad and virtually impervious," Lacovara said.

The fossilised skeleton is the most complete yet found in the category of super-sized, plant-eating dinosaurs called Titanosaurs -- which makes it the largest land animal for which a weight has been calculated with such a degree of accuracy.

The find comprised over 70 percent of the types of bones in the dinosaur's body -- 45 percent of its total skeleton. There were no skull bones.

Palaeontologists uncovered most of the vertebrae from the lizard's tail, a neck vertebra with a diameter of over one yard (0.9 metres), ribs, toes, a claw, a section of jaw and a tooth, and nearly all the bones from its four limbs, including a humerus (upper arm bone) and a femur (thigh bone) over six feet tall.

The femur and humerus are key to calculating the mass of extinct four-legged animals.

"Because the Dreadnoughtus type specimen includes both these bones, its weight can be estimated with confidence," said a Drexel University statement.

"It is by far the best example we have of any of the most giant creatures to ever walk the planet," added Lacovara, who discovered the skeleton in southern Patagonia in 2005 and oversaw its four-year excavation.


- Dino misfortune, science's luck -

To sustain its massive bulk, Dreadnoughtus would have had to eat vast quantities of plants growing in the temperate forest on the continent's southern tip.

"I imagine their day consists largely of standing in one place," said Lacovara.

"You have this 37-foot-long (11-metre) neck balanced by a 30-foot-long (nine-metre) tail in the back. Without moving your legs, you have access to a giant feeding envelope of trees and green ferns. You spend an hour or so clearing out this patch that has had thousands of calories in it, and then you take three steps over to the right and spend the next hour clearing out that patch."

The dimensions of all previously discovered supermassive dinosaurs had been pieced together from relatively fragmentary fossil remains.

Prior to Dreadnoughtus, another Patagonian giant, Elaltitan, held the title for the dinosaur with the greatest calculable weight, at 43 tonnes.

Argentinosaurus, also from Argentina, was thought to be of a comparable or even greater mass than Dreadnoughtus, and longer, at about 37m.

But Argentinosaurus is known only from a half-dozen vertebrae in its mid-back, a shinbone and a few other fragments but no upper limb bones, said the researchers.

An adult Dreadnoughtus would likely have been too large to fear any predators, but would have made a great feast for scavengers after their death, the team added.

They discovered several teeth of small predatory and scavenging dinosaurs at the excavation site, which also included a second Dreadnoughtus skeleton, though smaller and much less complete.

From the preservation of the skeletons, the team concluded the Dreadnoughtus pair was buried soon after death, but not before their carnivore cousins took a few bites.

"These two animals were buried quickly after a river flooded and broke through its natural levee, turning the ground into something like quicksand," said Lacovara.

"The rapid and deep burial of the Dreadnoughtus type specimen accounts for its extraordinary completeness.

"It's misfortune was our luck."


http://news.yahoo.com/supermassive-dinosaur-fossils-found-argentina-145818680.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Dreadnoughtus Dinosaur Weighed Whopping 65 Tons, Feared Nothing
LiveScience.com
By Laura Geggel, Staff Writer  12 hours ago


An artist's representation of Dreadnoughtus schrani, a dinosaur researchers discovered in Patagonia …

An artist's representation of Dreadnoughtus schrani, a dinosaur researchers discovered in Patagonia in 2005.



A gargantuan, long-necked dinosaur as big as a two-story house and weighing as much as 12 elephants once stalked a flower-dotted earth some 77 million years ago in what is now Argentina.

That's where paleontologists discovered the beast's bones, naming it Dreadnoughtus schrani after steel warships. The dinosaur is a sauropod, a type of long-necked, four-legged dinosaur that only ate plants.

"I think the big herbivores don't get their due for being" intimidating, said study lead author Ken Lacovara, an associate professor of paleontology and geology at Drexel University in Philadelphia. "I thought it should have a fearsome name."

Lacovara named the dinosaur after dreadnaughts, warships that were created in the early 20th century. "For a time, they were basically impervious to attack," Lacovara told Live Science. "I thought that Dreadnoughtus would be a good name for these dinosaurs, which does two things: It means 'fears nothing,' and this dinosaur would have had nothing to fear. It also connotes something big like a battleship."

The species name, schrani, honors Adam Schran, an Internet entrepreneur and financial supporter of the project.


The big dig

Lacovara stumbled across Dreadnoughtus in February 2005, when he unearthed a small patch of bones in Patagonia, which is in southern Argentina.

"It turned into a 6-foot-plus-long [1.8 meters] femur, which was nice, but I kind of figured that this was going to be an isolated bone," Lacovara told Live Science. "And then we uncovered the tibia, and then we uncovered the fibula. By the end of the day, we had 10 bones exposed. And four years later, we had 145 bones exposed."



Dreadnoughtus schrani is larger than any other super-massive dinosaur for which mass can be accurately calculated.


In fact, they had found two dinosaurs. The remains of the large Dreadnoughtus, the one the researchers examined in their new study, included 115 bones, and the smaller dinosaur's remains included 30 bones.

To the researchers' delight, much of the skeletons had stayed in place, revealing how the bones connected with one another. In many cases, dinosaur bones are found splayed apart, leaving much guesswork for paleontologists trying to piece the remains together, Lacovara said.

The researchers uncovered about 45 percent of the Dreadnoughtus' total skeleton and about 70 percent of the bones in its body, providing a rare glimpse of the anatomy and biomechanics of one of the largest dinosaurs to ever live.

"To finally get to see what a really big sauropod looks like is fantastic," Steve Salisbury, a paleontologist from the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, who was not involved in the study, told Live Science in an email. "Although we've known that there are a few really big sauropods out there, particularly among the titanosaurs [a group within sauropod dinosaurs], most have been known from fairly incomplete fossils."

These partial skeletons lead to speculative estimates about the animals' overall size and body proportions, Salisbury added. Before this new discovery, the most complete super-massive titanosaur fossil came from the Futalognkosaurus dukei, which was also discovered in Pategonia. These remains included about 15 percent of the animal's total skeleton and approximately 27 percent of the types of bones in its body, Lacovara said.

The new fossils, including a single, 2-inch-long (5 centimeters) tooth, are now in Lacovara's lab at Drexel University, on research loan from the Province of Santa Cruz, Argentina, which owns the dinosaur. The excavation team never found the dino's head, which would have been small and lightweight because it sat at the end of a 37-foot (11 m) neck.

"It's kind of a joke that sauropods don't have heads, because you almost never find a head," Lacovara said. "When they die, their heads pop off and you don't find them."



Lead researcher Kenneth Lacovara, an associate professor of paleontology and geology at Drexel University in Philadelphia, at the Dreadnoughtus site.


When the dinosaurs roamed

Dreadnoughtus lived about 77 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous. The planet was likely warm and ice free, meaning that ocean levels were about 200 feet (61 m) above what they are today, Lacovara said. Flowering plants blossomed everywhere.

Australia, Antarctica and South America were still connected during this period. In fact, fossils can help researchers piece together how the continents were joined together in the past. It's too difficult to dig for dinosaurs in the Antarctic ice, but Lacovara said he wonders if Dreadnoughtus fossils could be found in Australia — a project for another time, he said.

Still, complete skeletons of super-massive dinosaurs — those weighing 40 tons or more — are rarely found. At 65 tons, Dreadnoughtus is 85 feet (26 m) long, and two stories high at its shoulder. Estimates of the weight and length of other super-massive dinosaurs are typically based on only a handful of bones, the researchers said.

For example, estimates for the size of the Argentinosaurus, one of the largest dinosaurs on record, are based on just 13 of about 250 bones from its skeleton, Lacovara said.

He speculates that the two Dreadnoughtus dinosaurs found in Argentina died when a river flooded after suddenly breaking through a natural levee. This would have turned the ground into a soupy mess of sand and water, and led to the rapid burial of the dinosaurs.

"This needs to happen before the bones are heavily scavenged and/or break down naturally," Salisbury said. "I suspect that in most instances, the carcasses of some of the larger sauropods were just so big that unless they were in the right place at the right time, their carcasses were probably heavily scavenged, and in most instances, large parts of the skeleton probably never got preserved,"

The large Dreadnoughtus dinosaur has a few tooth marks on its vertebra, likely from a meat-eating scavenger that chewed on the dinosaur around the time of its death, the researchers said.

"If you put 65 tons of meat on the table, some scavengers are going to show up," Lacovara said. "We have some teeth of the meat[-eating] dinosaurs. They typically lose teeth as they feed."

"But," he added, "it's not the kind of injury that would kill Dreadnoughtus. It looks like something you would put a Band-Aid on."

Further analysis of the bones suggests that the large Dreadnoughtus was not yet fully grown. The shoulder bones are not fused together as they would be in a mature adult, and a section of the fossils show that the animal's bone-growing cells look like that of a youthful individual, Lacovara said.

The team did a "great" job examining the bones — which they scanned into 3D PDF files that are available to the public — and fitting them into the dinosaur family tree, said Patrick O'Connor, professor of anatomy at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio

"Many people are going to be very excited to see a dinosaur this complete coming out," O'Connor said. "A lot of times, we'll have a dinosaur based on a humerus or a couple parts of a vertebrae. This is a great because it's a lot of material to work with."

The study was published today (Sept. 4) in the journal Scientific Reports.


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