Let’s imagine a Xinjiangtitan with a 2.4-meter femur, the size of Patagotitan or Argentinosaurus. Assuming isometric scaling, that individual would have a 2.4/1.65 = 1.45 x 13.36 = 19.4-meter neck. Do we really think such animals never existed? Food for thought: the holotype individual ...
In a world where the largest vertebra of Argentinosaurus is only 1cm bigger in diameter than the largest vertebra of Patagotitan, differences like I got with Dystylosaurus would be enough to scramble the order of giant vertebrae. So if you’re ever stuck measuring something from a cast, be ...
Some of these terms have entered the popular lexicon from medicine, particularly ‘meningitis’ and ‘epidural’. Meningitis is an inflammation of the meninges around the brain and spinal cord, which is exactly as horrible and life-threatening as it sounds. An epidural injection is used to deposi...
Here’s Mike with the cast dorsal vertebra ofArgentinosaurusthat’s on display at the LACM. I tried to get myself equidistant from both Mike and the vert when I took the photo, but even I couldn’t quite believe it when I looked at it on my laptop. Surely, I thought, there must be...
Sauropods. The longest complete femora ofPatagotitanare 238 cm (7 ft, 10 in; Carballido et al. 2017), and an incomplete femur ofArgentinosaurushas an estimated complete length of 250 cm (8 ft, 2 in; Mazzetta et al. 2004). So a four-foot femur would not be from a particularly large...
Here’s Mike with the cast dorsal vertebra ofArgentinosaurusthat’s on display at the LACM. I tried to get myself equidistant from both Mike and the vert when I took the photo, but even I couldn’t quite believe it when I looked at it on my laptop. Surely, I thought, there must be...
It doesn’t really address the second part of my question — e.g.Supersaurushas a good claim to be longer, but not heaviest; the converse is likely true forArgentinosaurus. Now here is the real problem: the LLM does well enough to fool people. If it was nonsense from start to end, ...
So please, if you’re interested,come do this work. Whether you’re a grad student at a major institution with an NSF pre-doc fellowship and several years of runway in which to do unfettered research, or just some person sitting on a couch thinking about dinosaur bones (er, like me rig...
Argentinosaurus: This is considered to be one of the largest known dinosaurs, with estimates of its length ranging from 110-130 feet (33-40 meters) and a weight of around 100-110 tons. Its size is based on a few fragmented bones, including vertebrae and limb bones, which were found in ...
Sauropods. The longest complete femora ofPatagotitanare 238 cm (7 ft, 10 in; Carballido et al. 2017), and an incomplete femur ofArgentinosaurushas an estimated complete length of 250 cm (8 ft, 2 in; Mazzetta et al. 2004). So a four-foot femur would not be from a particularly large...