Who is the biggest dinosaur? Other ancient reptiles

Until the nineteenth century, no one even suspected that dinosaurs once lived on Earth. Their remains were first found in 1822, bones recovered from a quarry in Oxfordshire, England. The animal to which the remains belonged was called Megalosaurus, in other words “ big lizard" By the way, “dinosaur” means “terrible lizard.”

Since then, more than 800 fossil species of dinosaurs that have long been absent from Earth have been found and studied on the planet. Today it is already known for certain that some terrible lizards were ferocious predators, and some were completely harmless herbivores.

First find

In 1822, the discovery was made by Dr. Gideon Mantel and his wife. They found the remains of a herbivorous animal in England. The Mantels were traveling through Sussex and stopped near Cuckfield so that the doctor could examine a local patient. And Mrs. Mantel at that time wandered into a neighboring grove and found someone’s teeth there that were sticking out of the ground. The woman dug up her find and showed it to her husband.

The doctor himself was an avid collector of all kinds of fossils, but he had never seen such fossils before. Therefore, he sent the remains for examination to a French specialist he knew to find out who the jaw belonged to.

After examination, the expert concluded that the find was the upper front teeth of a rhinoceros. But Dr. Mantel did not believe his friend and gave the find to the London Museum at the Royal Surgical Society. There, the remains were matched with the teeth of a South American iguana, a species of lizard that still lives today. But the fossil was much larger than iguanas, however, the similarities were obvious. Therefore, Dr. Mantel decided to give the unknown creature the name Iguanodon, which means “iguana tooth.”

For five years, Dr. Mantel persistently searched for other remains of the unknown iguanodon. And in the end, he managed to find parts of the animal’s skeleton, on the basis of which a life-size model of the iguanodon was created. It was later put on public display. Only in 1878 did it become clear that the appearance of the huge animal had been reconstructed completely incorrectly. That year, miners found a large pit in one of the Belgian mines, where 31 iguanodons fell at once, millions of years ago. The skeletons found allowed scientists to create an almost exact model of the dinosaur.

Dinner inside a dinosaur

Even earlier, in 1851, an exhibition of life-size models of various dinosaurs opened in London. Appearance animals was created on the basis of fossil remains, including iguanodons, which were reconstructed from bones from the Mantel collection. But then the dinosaur was depicted on four legs, and the horn was on its nose. But in fact the bone turned out to be part of a paw.

Sea dinosaurs

By the way, before the opening of the exhibition, a dinner party was held inside the iguanodon. 21 scientists and several guests in the belly of the animal raised their glasses in honor of the new birth of the prehistoric monster.

Now there is not a single dinosaur on Earth. However, scientists are constantly finding the remains of the most ancient inhabitants of the planet. Until today, paleontologists have been able to describe more than five hundred genera and more than a thousand species of ancient animals.

Amphicelia

However, no one can say for sure which dinosaur is the largest. But some scientists believe that the largest may be Amphicelia from the genus of herbivores. This animal was described from a fragment of a vertebra, which later collapsed and has not survived to this day. According to experts, the amphicelia reached 60 meters in length, its mass was 155 tons. It turns out that the dinosaur was almost twice the size of the blue whale. But Amphicelia was not the most massive; according to some sources, Bruchaikaiosaurus weighed up to 200 tons. Part of the amphicelia vertebra was found by Oramen Lusas, who led excavations in the state of Colorado in the USA. The young man worked for the anatomist, paleontologist, ichthyologist and herpetologist Edward Cope, whom he called a genius. It was thanks to him that the world learned about thousands of different vertebrates that once lived on Earth. As for the discovery of a fragment of an amphicelia vertebra, it was about one and a half meters high. Cope decided that in life he was about 1.8 meters, according to

modern estimates

and even more - about 2.7 meters.

The name of the animal comes from the words futa (or giant) and lognko (or chief) from the language of the Araucan Indians, who lived in Chile and Argentina. The length of the dinosaur was approximately 32-34 meters, the giant weighed about 80 tons. The first remains were found in 2000 on the shores of Lake Barreales, and over the next seven years, scientists extracted from the ground the bones of the back, neck, legs and tail of Futalognosaurus.

Sea monster

We found a huge monster under water. Researchers from the Spanish United Paleontological Society announced the discovery of the largest European dinosaur. The parameters of the finds turned out to be truly impressive, enough to shake the imagination of any person. Representatives of the new species, which were named Turiasaurus riodevensis, grew to 37 meters in length. And the mass of the monster could be, according to the most conservative estimates, 48 ​​tons. For comparison, that's seven modern elephants. Judging by the characteristics, this living creature can be called one of the largest dinosaurs in the world. But larger than it, however, may be the Argentinosaurus.

The largest dinosaurs

The creature lived during the Jurassic period approximately 150 million years ago in the territory of modern Europe. The remains were found in Spain. As experts say, Turiasaurus riodevensis belongs to a subclass of the saurian order, namely sauropods.

Experts noted that the dinosaur's limbs and skeletal structure are more primitive than those of other giant species. By studying the structure of the teeth, scientists concluded that the giants were herbivores. The remains turned out to be very similar to those found in Portugal, England and France. This suggests that Turiasaurus riodevensis themselves or their related species once lived in different territories.
European continent

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Animals of the Mesozoic What did the Earth look like during the Mesozoic period? Reptiles of huge and small sizes walked everywhere. Dinosaurs reigned for more than 165 million years, but mysteriously began to disappear. To gain knowledge about species, paleontologists study their fossils remaining on Earth. The remains of the smallest dinosaur were found in North America

. Fossils were discovered back in the 1970s. thanks to Elizabeth Nichols at the University of Alberta in Canada.

It is unclear how these small bones were stored in cabinets until they were found by Nick Longrich. So they were identified quite recently. The new species was given the name Hesperonychus elizabethae. Scientists studied the shape of the skeleton's pelvis and were able to prove that the ancient lizard was an adult representative of these individuals, just small by nature.

The bones of such a small dinosaur were the hardest to find, as they decomposed faster and fell into pieces. However, scientists were able to detect it in North America, in the Canadian province of Alberta. This previously unknown species of dinosaur weighed no more than 1 kg and was about 70 cm long. It was proven that the creature lived about 150 million years ago.

Dinosaur the size of a cat

Canadian paleontologists have announced that miniature dinosaurs occupied an important link in the food chain. Most small dinosaur was the size of a domestic cat, although it was dangerous predator. Its main sources of nutrition were insects and small mammals. In addition, when hunting in a pack, they could attack the young of other dinosaurs.

Such a miniature lizard ran briskly on its feet and defended itself very sharp teeth and sickle-shaped claws. Nick Longrich, who proved the existence of the species and named it in honor of Elizabeth Nichols, believes that they lived in large numbers in the forests Cretaceous period.

Anatomical structure

The anatomical structure makes Hesperonychus elizabethae similar to velociraptors found in Asia - two-legged predators, well known from the film "Park Jurassic period» Steven Spielberg. The small lizards were even more similar to the ancient four-winged microraptors. Paleontologists speculate that these populations may have shared a common land route between Alaska and Siberia.

By the way, quite recently Longrich found and described a second very small predator living in what is now North America. Albertonykus borealis did not exceed 60 cm in height and ate small insects: ants and termites.

Yulia Domakhina, Samogo.Net

I think many people have asked themselves this question since childhood: who is the most big dinosaur how long is it and how much does it weigh? In fact, this is a very controversial issue.

Patagotitan majorum is now officially considered the largest dinosaur. Its weight is estimated to be up to 77 tons. And this is not a fully grown individual yet!

However, there are scattered remains that may belong to larger animals. Bruhatkaiosaurus from India, according to the most immodest estimates, could reach 240 tons; Amphicelia from North America - could be 62 meters long and weigh 122 tons. Scientists are skeptical about these estimates, since, for example, only one vertebra is known from Amphicelia.

It is very difficult to calculate the exact length and weight of an animal without knowing its proportions. But there is another thing: we know only a few individuals from many dinosaurs. Often there are not even adults among them. What is the probability that a person randomly selected from the crowd will be the largest? Therefore, dinosaurs were most likely larger than generally believed!
Were they the largest animals ever?

In truth, only blue whale can compete with the largest dinosaurs. If we take the largest estimate of the weight of dinosaurs - 240 tons, then the blue whale, as they say, is in flight. But I repeat, this assessment is very controversial. Surely dinosaurs reached approximately 80 tons. Well, and taking into account the fact that the individuals found are definitely not the largest, I think we can cautiously suggest a weight of up to 100 - 120 tons. Even if it’s not a “blue whale,” it’s still a lot. This is just an awful lot for a land creature! Never before or after dinosaurs have there been such huge land animals!

Compared to their closest competitors - mammals, the size of dinosaurs is simply insanely huge. According to recent estimates, the largest land mammals were proboscis. Some of these huge "elephants" of antiquity are estimated at a maximum of about 30 tons. These are not the largest individuals found, but the calculated maximum, taking into account the fact that the largest were not found. That is, dinosaurs are 3-4 times heavier than these elephants!

But it’s very difficult to reach such sizes. Scientists are already asking the question: how could dinosaurs maintain their weight? They didn't have any special adaptations for this. Everything that exists does not go beyond the same elephants. Perhaps, writes Gregory Paul, dinosaur bones were much stronger. But this also means that when equal weight a dinosaur will be stronger than a mammal!

Now imagine how strong they are considering their size... In various films, especially on Ren TV, they often say that dinosaurs maintained their monstrous weight due to the low gravity at that time. But in fact, such hypotheses have nothing to do with real science. Although yes, the conditions then were somewhat different from today: there was much less oxygen in the atmosphere, and where large quantity carbon dioxide. Well, the climate as a whole was warmer, and much less contrasting.

Another problem for such giants is nutrition. To date, science does not have a convincing answer to a simple question: how could the populations of all these giants feed themselves? They needed an unreal amount of food! Especially considering that, judging by the structure of the bones, dinosaurs were warm-blooded, and not cold-blooded, as previously thought. Special calculations have shown that the areas of the continents are not sufficient to feed the populations of giants. So this remains one of their secrets.

Well, now I suggest you ask yourself: which dinosaur would you consider the largest? The tallest, the longest, or the heaviest? But this will most likely be different types, and no one will take all the medals alone!
The largest dinosaurs belong to the Sauropod group. Of the sauropods, the longest are diplodocids (up to 62 m in length), the tallest are brachiosaurids (up to 18 m in height), and the heaviest are titanosaurids (up to 240 tons in weight). What would impress you more - a length of 62 meters or a height of 18 meters? Or maybe it weighs 240 tons? Hard to say.

This is all subjective and depends on the situation...
In general, people like to compare everything according to objective criteria. But if we go back to childhood, then surely we can more accurately rephrase the child’s question as follows: “Which dinosaur would make the greatest impression on me?”

A film with David Attenborough was recently released, in which approximately this question is raised. As a result, the authors come to the conclusion that the “coolest” is Patagotitan. But... When they show him in comparison with Attenborough, he doesn't make an impression. Why? A small head, behind it a long thin neck, and then - long body and tail. All this has no effect.

Try an experiment. I think everyone has seen the film “Jurassic Park”. So ask the kids: who is the biggest dinosaur in the frame? Most people will probably say T. rex. Although objectively it was a brachiosaurus. And why all? The T. rex is more impressive. It makes more impression than the Patagotitan from documentary film. Because a T. rex is not a small head on a long neck. This is a huge, scary “muzzle” on a short, powerful neck, armed with large teeth protruding outward. And that's all, not to mention the fact that he is a predator. Who will impress you more - a 300 kg cow, or a 300 kg tiger? The answer is obvious.

Of course, predatory dinosaurs make more of an impression on people. And in this regard, it is logical to ask the question: which of them is the largest?

For a long time the largest predatory dinosaur considered a T. rex. But in Lately competitors appeared for him. A Giganotosaurus, a Carcharodontosaurus, and finally a Spinosaurus were found. All of them together are still trying to shake the throne under the T. rex. Yes, it's all to no avail.
The most notable attempt to rock the T-Rex throne for mass audiences appeared in the film “Jurassic Park 3.” The Spinosaurus kills the T. rex in this film. True, not only does the battle itself look very unrealistic, but the film was initially coldly received by the audience. And now I want to talk not about the fact that everyone understands how the thin neck of the Spinosaurus would have been simply cut off by these powerful jaws, and not even about the fact that there are a lot of “tyrannophans”. But rather about why there are so many of them.

If we compare the T. rex with absolutely any of its “competitors,” it doesn’t matter whether it’s a spinosaurus, a giganotosaurus, or a carcharodontosaurus, we will discover the following striking feature: compared to the T. rex, they’re all crap. And that's putting it mildly. The T. rex has solid volumes of head, neck, and body. He looks like a fighter. While the rest have a frontal view...

Ummm... Not really. Thin “muzzle”, thin neck. They all look like flounder flattened laterally. And another important point: The T. rex looks straight into your eyes. His eyes are positioned in such a way that they provide him with a stereoscopic effect. The rest don't have it! Well, the name itself is Tyrannosaurus rex. Tyrant, lizard, king. This is impossible to forget! What a spinosaurus! It's no surprise that the new Jurassic World reinstates the T. rex as a conquering predator! And it’s unlikely that he will be shown as a loser in “World 2.”

Already in the trailer, he reaps the laurels of the winner, killing the dangerous Carnotaurus (if you watched the 2001 cartoon “Dinosaur”, then he is there as the main villain).

I think the answer to the children's question: “which dinosaur would impress me more” is already obvious to you. But you need to add a few finishing touches to show off the T. rex in all its glory.

First of all, as already mentioned, he is stronger than you can imagine! This is obvious from the fact that he carries his carcass, weighing 10 - 20 tons, on two legs bent at the knees. The T. rex's bones, ligaments and muscles must be stronger than those of any modern animal. And even than other dinosaurs: no one else carried such a carcass on two legs.

Secondly, they are terrible fighters, and during fights with each other, they tore their opponents’ ribs, necks and jaws, and bit off their tails. In addition, they were incredibly tenacious creatures. They were literally terminators in this regard. As an illustration of this thesis, I advise you to watch the film “Tyrannosaurus: Champion of Survival.” That is, in addition to his enormous size and strength, he also has the incredibly reckless aggression of the Hulk and the vitality of Wolverine.

And finally, a quote from the famous Jack Horner: “... I think all T. rexes known today continued to grow.”
Even bigger, fiercer and more powerful! Which dinosaur would impress you the most? Definitely a Tyrannosaurus rex!

What is he - the largest dinosaur that once existed on our planet? For more than 160 million years, giant dinosaurs were the dominant animals that inhabited the entire Earth's ecosystem. Dinosaurs were both small and gigantic in size. But even among the giants there were individuals who stood out against their background for their greatness. Next, you will learn about which of the largest dinosaurs ever walked on our planet and what kind of brothers he had to get along with.

The largest dinosaurs known to science

10. Sarcosuchus

This species of dinosaur represents an extinct genus of giant crocodiles that lived in what is now Africa 112 million years ago. Sarcosuchus is considered to be ancient relatives of living crocodiles, as well as large reptile that ever lived on our planet. According to scientists, on average, Sarcosuchus reached 12 m in length and weighed about 7 tons. The food of this reptile-like dinosaur was herbivores small dinosaurs and sea fish.

9. Shonisaurs

This is the largest ichthyosaur known to science. This species existed more than 215 million years ago. Fossils of Shonisaurus were first found in 1920 in Nevada. Thirty years later, archaeologists unearthed the remains of 37 similar dinosaurs in Nevada. The length of Shonisaurus reached 14 meters, and this big guy weighed almost 40 tons. Shonisaurus ate small and medium-sized fish.

8. Shantungosaurus

This species is one of the largest among herbivorous dinosaurs, which lived already in the final stage of the Cretaceous period. The very first skeleton of Shantungosaurus was found not so long ago, in 1973, in the Shandong province, which is located in China. The dinosaur was approximately 15 meters long and weighed between 15 and 20 tons.

7. Liopleurodons

This dinosaur is a species of sea-dwelling predator that existed 160 million years ago in Europe and Central America. Some scientists claim that Liopleurodon is the largest predatory dinosaur that lived on our planet. The length of this sea ​​dinosaur could reach 20 meters.

6. Quetzalcoatli

The winged dinosaur species Quetzalcoatlus was named after the Aztec god. According to the research of modern scientists, these dinosaurs lived on the planet about 68 million years ago. This species is the largest winged animal that ever existed. For the first time, the remains of Quetzalcoatlus have been found in North America. This ancient flying fossil weighed approximately 250 kg and had a wingspan of 11 m.

5. Spinosaurus

The genus of these dinosaurs previously lived within the modern North Africa, more than about 100 million years, that is, at the height of the Cretaceous period. In 1912, the remains of the first representative of spinosaurs were found in Egypt by German archaeologists led by paleontologist Ernst Stromer von Reichenbach. Unfortunately, the remains of Spinosaurus were destroyed by British pilots during World War II. Later, based on other found remains of Spinosaurus, scientists suggested that the weight of an adult individual was 14 tons with a height of 18 m.

4. Sauroposeidons

This genus was named after greek god, and translated from Latin Sauroposeidon is translated as “lizard of Poseidon”. Sauroposeidons lived in the mid-Cretaceous period, approximately 112 million years ago. The remains of Sauroposeidon were first found in Oklahoma in 2000. The length of the dinosaur is 34 m, weight – 60 tons, height – 18 m.

3. Argentinosaurs

The genus Argentinosaurs lived in the territory of modern South America about 97 million years ago. Back in 1987, the first remains of this genus of dinosaurs were found near a ranch in Argentina. The first records of Argentinosaurs were made by paleontologist José F. Bonaparte in 1993. Even though many types of remains of this genus of dinosaurs have been found, their exact size is still almost impossible to determine. Some scientists, including José F. Bonaparte, suggest that Argentinosaurus was between 22 and 35 meters long and weighed between 60 and 108 tons.

2. Mamenchisaurs

This is a genus of amazingly beautiful dinosaurs, famous for their incredibly long necks, making up half the length of their entire body. Mamenchisaurs trampled the Earth more than 160 million years ago. The first fossil remains of this species were excavated in the Chinese province of Sichuan in 1952. According to scientific research, the largest adult among the mamenchisaurs reached at least 25 meters in length, with only the neck length being 15 meters.

1. Amphicelia

Amphicelias are the most large dinosaurs of our planet, belonging to the genus of herbivorous giants. This type of dinosaur was first described in 1870, helped in this only by a single fragment of vertebral remains found. From this piece, scientists were able to conclude that Amphicelia reached a length of 62 m and weighed more than 160 tons. Thus, Amphicelia is not only the largest representative of giant dinosaurs, but also, in general, the largest creature that has ever existed on planet.

Recently, scientists found the remains of the largest creature that has ever walked on our planet. They were discovered by accident - an Argentine farmer came across dinosaur fossils in the desert. And he addressed the news of the find to the Paleontological University of Buenos Aires. Further excavations were carried out by paleontologists José Luis Carballido and Diego Paul.

Not afraid of anyone

According to rough estimates, Dreadnoughtus schrani, which is what the largest dinosaur was called, lived about one hundred million years ago. In size it is ahead of itself big predator- Spinosaurus, and the largest sauropod - Argentinosaurus. Its size can be judged by the femurs giant size– presumably, Dreadnoughtus schrani was 20 meters tall and 40 meters long. The weight of the dinosaur is comparable to the weight of 14 elephants combined, and this is neither more nor less - 77 tons.

Paleontologists agree that this “newcomer” belongs to the titanosaurs, distinctive features which are a long neck, and the same tail, and a small head. In the area where the remains of the dinosaur were found, millions of years ago there was a forest of trees 15 meters high. It was these trees that served as a source of food for animals.

During the excavations, scientists found the bones of almost the entire skeleton - the torso, tail, part of the neck, and all the limbs. We even managed to find a dinosaur tooth. All these finds make it possible to recreate the appearance of the largest dinosaur. In total, about 70% of the skeleton was found, which in itself is a rare success; usually no more than a third of all the bones of the skeleton can be found.

Scientists believe that the reason for their luck was several floods that occurred one after another. As a result natural disaster The dreadnought was buried quickly and entirely, where it has been preserved to this day. Jason Poole, a member of the excavation team, shared his delight at the fact that one after another the bones continued to be found.

Looking at this creation of nature, scientists were puzzled by the question - how could Dreadnoughtus schrani walk on such thin legs? Let's leave paleontologists to solve this mystery, especially since the dinosaur skeleton threw up another interesting detail. It turned out that, despite its impressive size, the largest dinosaur continued to grow until last day life. Therefore, Dreadnoughtus schrani did not die of old age.

While scientists argue about size, walking methods, feeding methods, place in the ecosystem and try to create a three-dimensional model of an animal that lived millions of years before us, let's remember the dinosaurs mentioned above.

Argentinosaurus

This herbivorous dinosaur lived in the south of modern America. He walked on four legs, had a long neck and the same tail. They usually lived in small herds of up to 20 individuals. This made it possible to protect themselves from attacks by predators.

New individuals of Argentinosaurs hatched from eggs. They had a small head and an underdeveloped jaw. Days were spent eating tree leaves. Most likely, in order to digest food better, Argentinosaurs were forced to swallow stones.

Sedentary dinosaurs had a tail endowed with deadly power. One blow and the enemy is literally broken in half. Just look at his skeleton!

Spinosaurus

The largest predator known in the world this moment who have ever lived on our planet. The dinosaur got its name because of its dorsal spine, formed from high vertebral processes - in appearance it resembles a sail. Presumably, the largest dinosaur among predators was an excellent swimmer, and at the same time, was lazy - this lizard most likely spent most of its time lying on its side on the shore of a reservoir. The huge body required the same amount of energy.

He ate mainly fish, and did not disdain turtles, mollusks and amphibians. It was unlikely to be a worthy competitor to comparable dinosaurs - it lacked the necessary arsenal and skills, and for crocodiles it should have been dangerous.

He lived more than a hundred million years ago in northern Africa, where Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco are now located.

Where did the dinosaurs go?

Scientists have still not come to a consensus on the question of where the dinosaurs went. Some argue that dinosaurs did not become extinct, but evolved into birds; others blame the death of dinosaurs on harmless butterflies, which, due to their large numbers, left the dinosaurs to starve to death.

But the most popular version is the death of dinosaurs from the great activity of ancient volcanoes. During eruptions, volcanoes released enormous amounts of ash into the atmosphere, and this, in turn, led to climate change. The Yucatan meteorite that arrived on our planet put an end to the life of dinosaurs on Earth.