Newest! Oldest! Biggest!

The new dinosaur Dreadnoughtus

Scientists have discovered the fossilized remains of a new long-necked, long-tailed dinosaur that has taken the crown for largest terrestrial animal with a body mass that can be accurately determined.

Measurements of bones from its hind leg and foreleg revealed that the animal was 65 tons, and still growing when it died in the Patagonian hills of Argentina about 77 million years ago.

“To put this in perspective, an African elephant is about five tons, T. rex is eight tons, Diplodocus is 18 tons, and a Boeing 737 is around 50 tons,” said study author and paleontologist Kenneth Lacovara at Drexel University. “And then you have Dreadnoughtus at 65 tons.”

Dreadnoughtus, meaning “fears nothing,” is named after the impervious early 20th century battleships.

What, it wasn't named after big acoustic guitars?

Although it was a plant-eater, a healthy Dreadnoughtus likely had no real issues with predators due to its intimidating size and muscular, weaponized tail. 

Except, of course, when it was a baby. Then it was at the bottom of the food chain like any old chicken. Curiously the specimen, already the largest land animal known, was still growing rapidly when it died:

To look for hints of age, Lacovara and his colleagues looked for any traces of bone growth. As the animal gets older, parts of the skeleton will fuse together, and its bone growing cells will morph from fluffy to flat.

“With Dreadnoughtus, there's no indication that there was any cessation or slowing of growth [in the bones],” he said. “When it died at 65 tons, it was growing fast, which is kind of scary.”

And what good is a giant dinosaur without a dinobabe to ride it?

Wombat-socho must have skipped the Redskins's game to post "Rule 5 Sunday: The Man Who Saved Britain" at The Other McCain.