Dreadnoughtus

Dreadnoughtus schrani

Resurrected on:

6 jan. 2020

Genus information

Dreadnoughtus was a giant titanosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous of South America. It is possibly the largest known terrestrial vertebrate that ever lived, growing up to 28 meters long in adulthood! Its name means “fears nothing”, pointing out that when fully grown, no predators would be able to take it down. Its neck alone would already be 11 meters long. The tail was extremely well muscled and was probably used as a weapon to deter any form of danger. Dreadnoughtus probably lived on large open plains adjacent to forests where it fed on trees and large bushes.

Family:

Distribution:

Epoch:

Titanosauridae

South America

Upper Cretaceous

Species information

Dreadnoughtus schrani was discovered in 2005 in Southern Patagonia. Due to its large size, it took the team of palaeontologists four austral summers to completely unearth the remains. D. schrani is the only species within its genus and is the most complete titanosaur that has ever been found (about 70%).

Species:

Paleontologist:

Distribution:

Epoch:

Dreadnoughtus schrani

Lacovara, 2014

South America

Upper Cretaceous

Length:

Height:

Weight:

28.0 m

8.0 m

40.000 kg

Reference:

Lacovara, K. J., Lamanna, M. C., Ibiricu, L. M., Poole, J. C., Schroeter, E. R., Ullmann, P. V., ... & Egerton, V. M. (2014). A gigantic, exceptionally complete titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur from southern Patagonia, Argentina. Scientific Reports, 4, 6196.