Demystifying Science: What is Patagotitan?

“Patagotitan” which means a “giant from Patagonia,” is a new contender to the title of world’s biggest dinosaur. Weighing nearly 70 tons — heavier than 10 adult African elephants — this dinosaur was the largest animal to ever walk on earth, according to some scientists.

This plant-eating beast first made headlines in 2014, after a rancher from Patagonia in Argentina discovered a fossil bone. Last year, the American Museum of Natural History added a cast of the 122-foot-long dinosaur to its exhibit. Its neck and head are so long that they extend outside the gallery.

More than 150 Patagotitan fossils have been unearthed there over the past few years. Patagotitan, which lived about 100 million years ago during the late Cretaceous Period, is considered a titanosaur, a diverse lineage of plant-eating, long-necked dinosaurs with long tails that walked on four legs. The research is published in the journal

Proceedings of the Royal Society B .