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Day 4 of Dinovember 2020

From the very small to the very large.

Argentinosaurus over here is a candidate for the largest land animal that ever existed. Its length is estimated between 30 and 40 meter, and its weight anywhere between 60 and 100 metric tons. Very wide estimates I'm afraid, but there's not much left of this behemoth: a few vertebrae, a sacrum and some femurs. This is often the case with these giant sauropods, and their size often needs to be determined by "sizing up" smaller, better-known closely related animals. In this case that animal is Patagotitan mayorum, a slightly smaller but still huge titanosaur which is known from better remains.

Having said all that, there is at least one dinosaur which might be longer, the diplodocid Barosaurus lentus, which reportedly could reach upto 48 m. Argentinosaurus is for sure the heaviest. Wikipedia also mentions Maraapunisaurus (formerly Amphicoelias) fragilimus, which is controversial for many reasons and can be discarded.

I've decided to focus on the body and limbs. Imagine this giant having a long neck, which is held up high in the air, more like Brachiosaurus than like Diplodocus. The head is small, but its shape is unknown. Titanosaur skulls, or sauropod skulls in general, are very rare, and those that are found show a wide variety in form. So I'm not even going to speculate.

Description

Day 4 of Dinovember 2020

From the very small to the very large.

Argentinosaurus over here is a candidate for the largest land animal that ever existed. Its length is estimated between 30 and 40 meter, and its weight anywhere between 60 and 100 metric tons. Very wide estimates I'm afraid, but there's not much left of this behemoth: a few vertebrae, a sacrum and some femurs. This is often the case with these giant sauropods, and their size often needs to be determined by "sizing up" smaller, better-known closely related animals. In this case that animal is Patagotitan mayorum, a slightly smaller but still huge titanosaur which is known from better remains.

Having said all that, there is at least one dinosaur which might be longer, the diplodocid Barosaurus lentus, which reportedly could reach upto 48 m. Argentinosaurus is for sure the heaviest. Wikipedia also mentions Maraapunisaurus (formerly Amphicoelias) fragilimus, which is controversial for many reasons and can be discarded.

I've decided to focus on the body and limbs. Imagine this giant having a long neck, which is held up high in the air, more like Brachiosaurus than like Diplodocus. The head is small, but its shape is unknown. Titanosaur skulls, or sauropod skulls in general, are very rare, and those that are found show a wide variety in form. So I'm not even going to speculate.