Meet the Titanosaur, one of the world's biggest dinosaur discovered so far, and currently in display in the United States. The 122-foot-long and 140,000-pound dinosaur was unearthed in Patagonia. Its size is equal to almost 10 African elephants.
The American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, New York unveiled what may be the world's biggest dinosaur in an advanced viewing on Thursday. Simply dubbed Titanosaur, the paleontologists who unearthed the giant have not yet found a scientific name for it.
Its full unveiling and launch will be held today. Instead of occupying one room, it is housed in a two rooms that have 19-foot-high ceilings. But the Titanosaur is so big, its 39-foot-long neck still sticks out of the exhibition space, with its head craning beyond the entrance, as if to stare or perhaps greet museum visitors.
"At 122-foot, is just a bit too long for its new home. Instead, its neck and head extend out towards the elevator banks, welcoming visitors to the "dinosaur" floor," the museum said.
"One femur found at the excavation site will be among five original fossils on temporary view with The Titanosaur," it added. The other fossils found at the site are the dinosaur's humerus, ulna, radius and scapula, which are all on temporary display.
The species lived in the forests of what people know today as Patagonia in Argentina about 100 to 95 million years ago. The Titanosaur was known to have lived during the Late Cretaceous period.
A team from the Museo Paleontologico Egidio Feruglio, led by José Luis Carballido and Diego Pol, unearthed the fossils of the gigantic dinosaur in Argentina in 2014. Scientists have long been exploring Argentina to track down Titanosaurs, which is a large sauropod among the last dinosaurs to walk the Earth.
Much of the scientific evidence shows that the Titanosaur is one of the large herbivores that have roamed Earth millions of years ago. At present, an exploration of possible resting places of this species is still ongoing. Will they find another Titanosaur bigger than the one on display in the museum?
