Around the same time the new Godzilla film was hitting theaters in the U.S., paleontologists in Argentina say that they have unearthed the fossils of the biggest dinosaur to ever walk the earth.
“Given the size of these bones, which surpass any of the previously known giant animals, the new dinosaur is the largest animal known that walked on Earth,” researchers told BBC News.
Based on the size of the bones, paleontologists calculated that the dinosaur, found in the desert in Patagonia, weighed approximately 170,000 pounds and measured 130 feet long and 65 feet high. That is the weight of 14 elephants, more than the length of a professional basketball court, and the height of a seven-story building.
This new species, named Titanosaur, is a large herbivore that is said to have roamed the area 95 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous period.
“T-Rex was at most 40ft long,” said Dr. Steve Brusatte, a paleontology expert from Edinburgh University. “If these scientists are correct, you are talking about something that is maybe double the length of T-Rex. Something of this size – at least the adults – would probably have been almost incapable of being taken down by even the biggest carnivorous dinosaurs.”
However, Dr. Paul Barrett of London’s Natural History Museum said that further research would be needed before this giant could indeed be classified as the “world’s biggest.”
“Ideally we’d need much more material of these supersized animals to determine just how big they really got,” he said.
The size of the previous record holder, Argentinosaurus, was calculated from just a few bones that were found in the same area in 1987.
“Originally thought to weigh in at 100 tonnes, [Argentinosaurus] was later revised down to about 70 tons – just under the 77 tons that this new sauropod is thought to have weighed,” the BBC reported.
Diego Pol, one of the scientists to find the new dinosaur, was astonished to find the remains of the new titanosaur so intact.
“We are extremely excited,” he said. “This is one of these findings that happen once in a lifetime. We couldn’t be happier.”
Just to compare, Godzilla 2014 is said to be 350 feet tall, the tallest incarnation of Godzilla to date. However, in reality, 65 feet high is still most impressive in the dinosaur world.
Image via YouTube