It was as heavy as 10 elephants, as long as a jumbo jet – and even T. rex wouldn’t have dared attack it… This is the biggest land animal ever discovered – BBC Wildlife Magazine
Patagotitan mayorum is likely the biggest dinosaur to have ever lived. Here’s how it lived its supersized life
Millions of years ago, Earth was ruled by giants. Pterosaurs with 12m wingspans darkened the skies, dragonflies the size of widescreen televisions buzzed among the undergrowth and sauropods the length of a jumbo jet browsed the treetops.
And there was one that was probably bigger than them all: the Cretaceous colossus that was the dinosaur Patagotitan mayorum.
How big was Patagotitan?
Clocking up some 57 tonnes in weight and measuring 37m from nose to tail, Patagotitan is the largest, most complete dinosaur currently known.
What dinosaur family did Patagotitan belong to?
Patagotitan was a member of the titanosaur family, in turn part of the wider sauropod group known for their immensely long necks and thick, squat limbs. Diplodocus was a sauropod, as was Brachiosaurus – the gentle creature we see feeding from the canopy in that captivating scene in Jurassic Park.
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When was Patagotitan discovered?
But while we’ve known about ‘Dippy’ and Brachiosaurus for more than a century, Patagotitan was only discovered in 2010, hot on the hefty heels of many other new titans, such as Puertasaurus (2001), Dreadnoughtus (2005) and Argentinosaurus (1987).
