Argentinosaurus

Argentinosaurus

Argentinosaurus is a genus of giant sauropod dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous period in what is now Argentina. It is one of the largest known land animals of all time, if not the largest, with length estimates ranging from 30 to 40 metres and weight estimates from 50 to 100 tonnes. The bones are fragmentary, making interpretation difficult.

About Argentinosaurus in brief

Summary ArgentinosaurusArgentinosaurus is a genus of giant sauropod dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous period in what is now Argentina. It is one of the largest known land animals of all time, if not the largest, with length estimates ranging from 30 to 40 metres and weight estimates from 50 to 100 tonnes. The first Argentinosaurus bone was discovered in 1987 by a farmer on his farm near the city of Plaza Huincul. Additional specimens include a complete femur and the shaft of another. It was named by Bonaparte and the Argentine palaeontologist Rodolfo Coria in 1993; it contains a single species, A. huinculensis. The generic name means ‘Argentine lizard’ and the specific name refers to its place of discovery, PlazaHuincul, in Neuquén Province, Argentina. A computer model of the skeleton and muscles estimated this dinosaur had a maximum speed of 7 kmh with a pace, a gait where the fore and hind limb of the same side of the body move simultaneously. The fossils were recovered from the HuincUL Formation, which was deposited in the middle Cenomanian to early Turonian ages and contains a diverse dinosaur fauna including the giant theropod Mapusaurus. The bones are fragmentary, making interpretation difficult. Arguments revolve around the position of the recovered vertebrae within the vertebral column and the presence of accessory articulations between the vertebraes that would have strengthened the spine.

In 2004, an additional femur was deformed by front-to-back crushing during fossil crushing at the Museo Carmen Funes. As of 2019, however, it was still uncertain whether it belonged to any of these femora, although it is estimated to be the equivalent in size in size to the holotype individual of Argentosaurusus Argent Dinosaurus 46-VDP-III-21-3-21. To counter the incompleteness of its remains, the palaeobotanists at La Plata Museum in Uruguay have suggested that the femur is not as strongly deformed as the complete one, as it preserves only the shaft and lacks upper and lower ends of its lower ends. In their 2004 study, Mazzetta and colleagues. reidentified this bone as a left fibula in 2004, although the Uruguayan palaeonologist Gerardo Mazzeta and colleagues reidentified it as an eroded tibia. The individual, which would later become the holotypes of Argent dinosaurus hu inculensis, is catalogued under the specimen number MCF-PVPH 1. : 35 The additional material recovered included seven dorsal vertebraa, the underside of the sacrum including the first to fifth sacral vertebraE and some sacral ribs, and a part of a dorsal rib. These finds were also incorporated into the collection of the museum’s exhibition room. In early 1989, the ArgentinePalaeontologists of the Musee Argentino de Ciencias Naturales, yielded a number of additional elements from the same individual.