Dreadnaughtus schrani | Jennifer Hall
After four years of excavation and five years of study, Dreadnoughtus schrani debuted in September as a top contender for the largest land animal ever: 65 tons and 85 feet long, with a 37-foot neck and muscle-bound 30-foot tail.
Paleontologist Kenneth Lacovara first spotted just a small patch of exposed bone one morning in February 2005 in Argentine Patagonia. Lacovara and fellow Drexel University researchers quickly returned, and by nightfall they had uncovered a 6-foot-long femur. “We knew immediately that we were looking at one of the largest known dinosaurs,” says Lacovara.
Dreadnoughtus lumbered through fern-filled forests between 66 million and 85 million years ago, and it left an astonishingly complete fossil: Almost half of the bones, 145, were recovered. Argentinosaurus, presumed to be the largest titanosaur, is known based on just 13 bones.
“Until Dreadnoughtus, we could only guess at the body proportions of ...
