Re -Train Your Brain To Happiness: Researchers Say They've Found The Biggest Dinosaur Ever

Three years ago, a family of rural farmers stumbled across an incredible archaeological site on their land in the Patagonia region of Argentina. The family notified nearby Museum of Paleontology Egidio Feruglio (MEF), and now researchers at the site have unearthed what they believe is the largest dinosaur ever. It's estimated that the massive beast weighed almost 80 tons (80,000 kg) and stood 65 feet tall (20 meters) when it walked the earth some 95 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous period. Measurements suggest it was over 130 feet (40 meters) from its head to the tip of its tail. That means it was roughly as long as a 13-story building.

But this truly gigantic dinosaur was a herbivore. The specimens found in Argentina's Chubut province (which is part of the Patagonia region) belong to the sauropod group of dinosaurs, which are noted by their small heads, thick, pillar-like legs, and long necks and tails. Perhaps the most well-known sauropod is the Apatosaurus, which often goes by the name "Brontosaurus" in pop culture. But this latest sauropod is twice as long and up to four times as heavy, and researchers are classifying it as a new species of Titanosaur, which is a group of extremely large sauropods.

Paleontologists led by Dr. José Luis Carballido and Dr. Diego Pol of MEF found seven adult specimens in the same spot, and the roughly 200 fossils discovered so far are in wonderful condition. Among the cache of fossils they've found significant pieces of the neck, back, and legs, as well as "most of the vertebrae of the tail," according to a press release from MEF. "It's a real paleontological treasure," says Dr. Carballido.

He suggests that the adult individuals likely died in the same spot, perhaps huddling around a dwindling water source.

By measuring the diameter of load-bearing bones like the femur and humerus, the team was able to estimate the size and weight of the dinosaurs. Their findings just beat out another very similar Titanosaur, Argentinosaurus (pictured above), which has long been considered the largest dinosaur ever. Argentinosaurus is estimated to have weighed roughly 73 tons. It, too, was discovered in the Patagonia region of Argentina, which is a hot spot for dinosaur fossils.

If initial estimates hold up, this latest find will not only take the title of largest dinosaur ever — it will be the biggest animal ever known to have walked the earth. But it doesn't have a name yet. Researchers tell BBC News that "it will be named describing its magnificence and in honor to both the region and the farm owners who alerted us about the discovery."

Another discovery at a different site in Argentina this week proved that a much smaller member of the sarupod family, a group known as the diplodocids, lived not just in North America, but also in South America. Numerous media reports have conflated the two finds, but this second discovery is of a herbivore just 30 feet (9 meters) in length.

Nevertheless, there may be much more to find at the site in Chubut province. Dr. Carballido says that they are "still working on this extraordinary site." He adds: "We estimate that one fifth of excavation process [is complete], so there is still much work to do and probably much to discover."

By Dante D'Orazio

Photographs and video of the dig site are available at BBC News.

With thanks to The Verge

More here, and the You Tube clip sounds like it was narrated by a robot or some language software!

Fossilised bones of dinosaur believed to be the largest creature ever to walk the Earth has been unearthed in Argentina, palaeontologists say.

Based on its huge thigh bones, it was 40m (130ft) long and 20m (65ft) tall.

Weighing in at 77 tonnes, it was as heavy as 14 African elephants, and seven tonnes heavier than the previous record holder, Argentinosaurus.

Scientists believe it is a new species of titanosaur - an enormous herbivore dating from the Late Cretaceous period.

A local farm worker first stumbled on the remains in the desert near La Flecha, about 250km (135 miles) west of Trelew, Patagonia. The fossils were then excavated by a team of palaeontologists from the Museum of Palaeontology Egidio Feruglio, led by Dr Jose Luis Carballido and Dr Diego Pol.

They unearthed the partial skeletons of seven individuals - about 150 bones in total - all in "remarkable condition". A film crew from the BBC Natural History Unit was there to capture the moment the scientists realised exactly how big their discovery was.

By measuring the length and circumference of the largest femur (thigh bone), they calculated the animal weighed 77 tonnes.

"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 told BBC News.

"Its length, from its head to the tip of its tail, was 40m.

"Standing with its neck up, it was about 20m high - equal to a seven-storey building." This giant herbivore lived in the forests of Patagonia between 95 and 100 million years ago, based on the age of the rocks in which its bones were found.

But despite its magnitude, it does not yet have a name.

"It will be named describing its magnificence and in honour to both the region and the farm owners who alerted us about the discovery," the researchers said. There have been many previous contenders for the title "world's biggest dinosaur".

The most recent pretender to the throne was Argentinosaurus, a similar type of sauropod, also discovered in Patagonia.

Originally thought to weigh in at 100 tonnes, it was later revised down to about 70 tonnes - just under the 77 tonnes that this new sauropod is thought to have weighed.

The picture is muddied by the various complicated methods for estimating size and weight, based on skeletons that are usually incomplete.

Argentinosaurus was estimated from only a few bones. But the researchers here had dozens to work with, making them more confident that they really have found "the big one".

Dr Paul Barrett, a dinosaur expert from London's Natural History Museum, agreed the new species is "a genuinely big critter. But there are a number of similarly sized big sauropod thigh bones out there," he cautioned.

"Without knowing more about this current find it's difficult to be sure. One problem with assessing the weight of both Argentinosaurus and this new discovery is that they're both based on very fragmentary specimens - no complete skeleton is known, which means the animal's proportions and overall shape are conjectural.

"Moreover, several different methods exist for calculating dinosaur weight (some based on overall volume, some on various limb bone measurements) and these don't always agree with each other, with large measures of uncertainty.

"So it's interesting to hear another really huge sauropod has been discovered, but ideally we'd need much more material of these supersized animals to determine just how big they really got."

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