Dreadnoughtus

What it was like

Dreadnoughtus was an enormous, long-necked plant eater and one of the largest land animals known from reasonably complete fossils. It stretched about 26 meters (85 feet) from nose to tail, and the type specimen may not even have finished growing when it died.

Dreadnoughtus is known from an unusually complete skeleton for such a giant animal, giving scientists a clearer picture of a titanosaur's proportions and growth than is possible for most other giant sauropods.

Its world

Dreadnoughtus lived from about 84 to 72 million years ago, in the Late Cretaceous, in what is now Argentina. Its bones come from the Cerro Fortaleza Formation.

It shared its floodplain habitat with the even larger sauropod Puertasaurus, the predator Orkoraptor, and smaller plant eaters such as Talenkauen and Austrocheirus.

How it was found

Lacovara and colleagues named Dreadnoughtus in 2014, giving the type species the name Dreadnoughtus schrani. Only one fossil find is known, but the bones recovered make it one of the most completely known giant titanosaurs. Its name means fears nothing, chosen because a fully grown adult of its size would have had little to fear from predators. It is considered a relative of other titanosaurs, including Argentinosaurus and Patagotitan.