Holy cow! Or, maybe I should say Holy Brachiosaurus … or Holy Argentinasaurus…. or Holy Breviparopus….
These dudes got big!
In today’s dinosaur B-themed post, I’m going to share a little bit (and it’s already three days late and I haven’t much time, so not too much) on what, how, and why about these big-a@@ed creatures.
How Big Was Big?
Think almost half the length of a football field (American or European). The longest and largest dinosaur where much of the skeleton was discovered is either Argentinosaurus huinculensis or Patagotitan mayorum. Both of them were in a group labeled “Titanosaurs” and both were identified from bones discovered in — yep — Argentina. They ranged in length from 30 to 40 meters… about 45 yards and may have weighed around 80 tons.
As soon as you get measurements, of course, you start wondering, well, how much is that? Football fields are handy just because many people have seen them. For reference, a 757 aircraft weighs around 100 tons and is about 40 m, so visualize a living, stalking creature that looks like a giant airplane. Walking around on a football field, waving its intensely long neck around and wondering where all the veggies went. Forty meters is also the world record (officially Guinness WR) for flinging a Frisbee, so imagine throwing a Frisbee as long as a dinosaur!
Continue reading “B is for Big”