It will be one of the largest exhibitions ever held in a British museum. in spring , natural History Museum In London, the skeleton of a titanosaur, a creature so large you had to walk barefoot, will be on display in the 9m-high Waterhouse Gallery.
One of the largest creatures to ever walk the Earth. Mayor of Patagotan It was a 57-ton behemoth that would shake the earth as it trod its homeland in what is now modern-day Patagonia. The skeleton measures 37 meters long and 5 meters high, much larger than the museum’s most famous dinosaur, the Diplodocus, which towers over its main exhibit.
‘The size of this creature is extraordinary,’ said the museum’s dinosaur expert, Professor Paul Barrett. “Even when you see them next to one of today’s giant animals, like elephants, it dwarfs them. He’s humble.”
what’s left of Mayor of Patagotan It came to light in 2010 when a rancher in Patagonia found a giant femur sticking out of the ground. Argentine paleontologists later unearthed more than 200 skeletal pieces, the remains of at least six individual animals.
The bone casts were made by the Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio in Trelew, Patagonia, and form the skeleton that will be exhibited in London in March.
“The amount of bones that have been found is a treasure trove of material,” said Sinead Maron, the principal curator. “This means that we now know more about this species than many other dinosaurs.”
Mayor of Patagotan It lived about 100 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous period, towards the end of the reign of the dinosaurs on Earth. It is one of the three or four largest species of titanosaurs now known to science. These creatures are built like a suspension bridge with a huge backbone, a broad neck for scavenging food from trees, and a tail for balance.
“They’re herbivores that gobble up plants and leaves and ferment them in their huge stomachs, producing large amounts of methane as a byproduct, so you don’t want to get behind one of these animals,” Barrett said. “Indeed, some argue that herbivorous dinosaurs like these spewed a lot of methane which contributed to the greenhouse effect then driving the planet.”
Maroun added that although these huge creatures weigh more than nine elephants, they look smaller than babies. She added, “As part of the exhibit, we are displaying a fossilized dinosaur egg with a diameter of about 15cm, which is smaller than a soccer ball.” “It has since grown to 37 meters.”
Many mysteries still surround Mayor of Patagotan, However. “You find large dinosaur remains everywhere, but in Patagonia you find very large dinosaurs, like a titanosaur,” Barrett said. “Was there something special about the environment in the area today, or are we just unlucky not to find titanosaur remains elsewhere?”
It’s also unclear why the six animals died so close together. “They all became almost completely dead and died in the same place,” Maroun said. “But why? What can do it? It’s not clear, although the mystery gives an added dimension to the story of this extraordinary animal.”
Titanosaurus: Life as the Greatest Dinosaur will be released on March 31 next year until January 7th 2024.
