Australian scientists have established the weight of the largest dinosaur in history
Paleontologists from the Queensland Museum and the Eromangi Museum of Natural History have calculated how large the largest dinosaur known to science reached. The remains of the “Southern Titan” were found in Australia in 2007, according to PeerJ.
The dinosaur was given the scientific name Australotitan cooperensis. Its age was estimated at 96 million years. A new study showed that he reached 6.5 meters in height at the hip and 30 meters in length, and weighed 74 thousand kilograms.
“The Australian Titan has been added to a growing list of unique Australian dinosaur species found in hinterland Queensland,” the authors of the scientific paper noted.
To make sure that the dinosaur belongs to a previously unknown species, scientists compared its bones with those of other dinosaurs stored in museums around the world. This work took several years.
To make things easier for themselves, the team used new digital technologies to create 3D copies of each fossil. The analysis showed that Australotitan cooperensis was closely related to three other sauropods from Australia, which lived 92-96 million years ago.
“It looks like all of Australia's largest dinosaurs were part of one big, happy family,” the scientists concluded.
The largest member of the family was the Australotitan. It was followed by Wintonotitan. The other two species, Diamantinosaurus and Savannasaurus, were shorter and heavily built.
Over the past 17 years, many dinosaur skeletons have been found in Australia, including one with an almost full tail. Studying them will help scientists better understand what Australia looked like during the Cretaceous period.
Earlier it was reported that a “talkative” dinosaur was found in Mexico. He made various sounds using an unusual comb.
