But the bones that were already found could belong to the larges titanosaur that ever existed on Earth, experts say, “with a probable body mass exceeding or comparable to that of a Patagotitan or Argentinosaurus.”
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Until now, Patagotitans were believed to be the largest creatures that ever walked the Earth, weighing more than 77 tons, while Argentinosaurus measured 131 feet and weighed more than 110 tons, which is 14 times more than an African elephant.
“Given the size of these bones, which surpass any of the previously known giant animals, the new dinosaur is the largest animal known that walked on Earth,” the researchers wrote in their paper.
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According to researchers, the remains of a very large species of titanosaur indicate the co-existence of larger, medium-sized, and small-sized dinosaur species at the beginning of the Late Cretaceous period, 101 million year ago, how they lived and evolved.
As experts have explained, “These size differences could indeed explain the existence of such sauropod diversity in the Neuquén Basin during the Late Cretaceous in terms of niche partitioning.”
Experts do not believe these remains belong to a new species, even though they haven’t been able to assign them to a species that has already been discovered. Additionally, the largest animal species that ever existed on Earth is still the blue whale, which weighs more than 173 tonnes and 33.5 meters long.
The study was conducted by a group of researchers from Argentina’s The Zapala Museum, Museo de La Plata, Museo Egidio Feruglio, and the universities of Río Negro and Zaragoza.
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