Very very big dinosaur found

Vivian on 16/10/2007 at 13:28

(http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0001-37652007000300013&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en) Some brazillians have found the most complete titanosaur yet

Yeah, they've found other titanosaur material in Argentina, but all it's been is the odd vertebra. This has most of the pelvis, a lot of the ribs and a good sample of the whole vertebral series - damn thing has a pubis a metre and a half long! Conservatively, that makes it around 6m (20 feet) tall at the hip, maybe 25 tonnes? How the hell does something like that move, let alone find enough vegetation to live on?

Fringe on 16/10/2007 at 14:06

Quote Posted by Vivian

How the hell does something like that move

Rocket engines.

Rogue Keeper on 16/10/2007 at 14:33

Quote Posted by Vivian

How the hell does something like that move, let alone find enough vegetation to live on?

Why, it's extinct, isn't it.

Brian T on 16/10/2007 at 14:41

Quote Posted by Fringe

Rocket engines.

A digestive system enough to sustain a 25 tonne animal does raise possible theories of flatulence based jet propulsion.

Vivian on 16/10/2007 at 14:51

Quote Posted by BR796164

Why, it's extinct, isn't it.

Hur hur yes, but it was alive at some point and really screws with current ideas about what limits an animals size.

SD on 16/10/2007 at 15:42

Quote Posted by Vivian

How the hell does something like that move

More like how the hell does something like that fit on Noah's Ark!

Thief13x on 16/10/2007 at 15:51

Way to go SD, now the next 4 pages of this thread will be a religion debate:mad:

Fingernail on 16/10/2007 at 16:27

my, grandma, what a large dinosaur you have!!??!!

:confused:

Hewer on 16/10/2007 at 16:28

Quote Posted by Vivian

tonnes? How the hell does something like that move, let alone find enough vegetation to live on?

One theory is that they didn't move- much. Their long neck would swing about giving them a huge grazing area without having to move at all. They would walk very slowly swinging their little, easily moveable head back and forth grazing.

Another interesting theory is that sauropods, with a little flick, could crack the tip of their tail like a giant whip. Possibly as a defence mechanism. Their main defence mechanism, however, would simply be their enormous size.

Vivian on 16/10/2007 at 17:00

Ah yes. (http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0094-8373(199723)23%3A4%3C393%3ASSTDIT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-1) 'supersonic' sauropods. Well... maybe? What else can you say about a theory like that?

The neck thing. It's an idea, yes. Seems energetically inefficient to grow a massive neck instead of walking a few steps forward, but netherless they did evolve a massive neck and that is a reasonably good explanation ((http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1469-7998.2006.00197.x) sexual selection, that old bugbear, is another idea, which I personally like even less). However the animal still has to move at some point, and with something like 6-7 tonnes of force going through each leg when it's standing still it would have had to be VERY careful about how it moved. Obviously it worked, but I'd love to see how.