10 Gargantuan Details Surrounding Patagotitan Mayorum, The Dinosaur That Is 10 Times Larger Than A T-Rex

6 /10 Largest Ever Discovered

The discovery of Patagotitan Mayorum was overwhelmingly exhilarating that a display cast of its skeleton had been put on display at the American Museum of National History before the giant was even given a name.

Patagotitan Mayorum is now the giant dinosaur displayed at the AMNH. At 122 feet long, the reconstructed individual is outstandingly huge. It couldn’t fit into one room.

The museum curators ended up positioning its small head and upper part of its neck out into the hallway as if it is there to welcome visitors.

5 /10 Fragile Skull

It took researchers six months – after excavating the fossils – to reconstruct the bones into fiberglass replicas.

The scientist had to fill in some missing gaps, including the skull, by studying related dinosaurs’ remains. The result is a complete 3D lightweight skeletal figure of Patagotitan Mayorum.

The skull of sauropod dinosaurs is indeed rare. They are small and fragile in comparison to other parts. It might not be what the head looked like when Patagotitan Mayorum was alive.

Still, researchers did their best by modeling it after well-preserved skulls of smaller animals related to Titanosaurus then scaling it up.

4 /10 Tallest, Not Heaviest

The skeletal figure reveals how massive the animal was. It also was quite tall at 50 feet high when the neck is pointing straight up. Once again, it is a replica of a young dinosaur, not an adult one.

Bear in mind, Patagotitan Mayorum is now the most significant animal by weight. The record holder for the heaviest animal is the blue whale.

A fully grown blue whale can weigh up to 150 tons. Even better, blue whales are still around yet listed as endangered species.

3 /10 Dwarfing The T-Rex

The legendary T-Rex and other big carnivores look like dwarfs in the presence of Patagotitan Mayorum. It is like putting a lion and an elephant side by side.

Scientists have known Titanosaurus for quite a while. That said, P. Mayorum appears to be a new species or perhaps even a new genus.

Previously a titanosaur called Argentinosaurus was considered the largest. These Titanosaurus were probably slow-moving. Fast movements were just physically impossible. Otherwise, their bones would have shattered.

2 /10 Died Of Thirst

The remains of six individuals were excavated from three different layers or periods. The first time a concept is known as “site fidelity” has ever been documented for Titanosaurus.

Scientists assume there was a lake in the region. Titanosaurus would often return to drink from its waters. When the lake was dry during drought, the six individuals died, in part, from thirst.

At this point, the assessment is still preliminary thought, however. They could die from other causes too.

1 /10 Almost Aliens

Another lingering question is how Patagotitan Mayorum grew so big to begin with. Let us not forget that these dinosaurs are somewhat strange all across the body. 

Researchers are still studying the matter, but they say the exponential growth was probably due to an explosion of flowering plants during the period.

The Earth for them was like an all-you-can-eat buffet. Since no modern animals are pretty like the sauropods, their research is akin to studying aliens.