The Museum of Natural History of the United States exhibits the newly discovered "Titan Dragon" for the first time (Image source network)
Reference News Network reported on January 15 that in addition to Tyrannosaurus rex and blue whale, the American Museum of Natural History in New York has another must-see exhibition: the 37.2-meter-long "Titan Dragon". This is the first time the museum has exhibited this newly discovered behemoth.
According to Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao reported on January 15, the "Titan Dragon" exhibition was officially opened to tourists on the 15th. Due to its sheer size, the nearly 6-meter-high fourth-floor exhibition hall could not fully accommodate it, and the huge head of the "Titan Dragon" had to protrude out of the exhibition hall, as if to greet visitors.
Scientists deduce that the "Titan Dragon" stands up with a shoulder height of about 6.1 meters, and if its neck is about 11.9 meters long and lifted at a 45-degree angle, it will be about 14 meters high.
Paleontologists say the giant herbivorous dinosaur weighed about 70 tons, the equivalent of ten African elephants. According to reports, because the real skeleton is too heavy to install, the skeleton of the "Titan Dragon" presented in the exhibition hall is not a real dinosaur fossil, but is composed of 3D printed glass fibers.
Biologists deduced that the dinosaur belonged to Titanosaurus, but since it was only discovered in 2014 in the desert of The Patagonia region of Argentina, paleontologists have not had time to name it. A total of 223 fossils were allegedly found at the excavation site at the time, including a huge leg bone of about 2.44 meters, whose unique shape and size led paleontologists to believe they had found a new species, one of the largest known dinosaur fossils.
According to reports, paleontologists found six dinosaur fossils at the scene at that time, all of which were herbivorous dinosaurs that had just reached adulthood. According to the inference, these dinosaurs lived 100 million years ago, belonging to the Cretaceous period.
【Extended reading】Argentina found the largest dinosaur in history: 37 meters long (Photos)
Recently, paleontologists excavated and found a fossil skeleton of a thunderosaurus (right model), which is 37 meters long and dates back to 102 million years ago, and it is believed to be the world's largest dinosaur. The excavation site is located in Argentina and was led by archaeologist David Attenborough.
As shown in the picture, this is the documentary film crew filming at the excavation site.
Compared with the huge Lianglong, the body of the Thunder Dragon is 11 meters longer than the Liang Dragon, which means that the body of the Thunder Dragon is the length of 4 double-decker buses, and the picture shows the archaeologist Aiden-Fort comparing the bodies of the Thunder Dragon. Archaeologists believe that the heart weight of this thunderosaurus is equivalent to 3 times the weight of the human body.
The first fossil skeleton found by the staff was the 2.4-meter-long femur, the largest femur ever found, and in later excavations, they found more than 220 bone fossils and more than 80 tooth fossils.
Through the analysis of femur fossils, the staff found that this huge thunderstorm was in its young age and its body was still growing, so the mature thunderosaur would be larger. This fossil skeleton of Thunderosaurus has important archaeological value, confirming its precise body length, and its accuracy far exceeds that of the previously discovered Argentinosaurus (pictured), and archaeologists have found only a few dozen Argentinosaurus skeleton fossils.
As shown in the picture, Attenborough lies underground, in stark contrast to the fossilized femur of Thunderosaurus.
As shown, the fossil skeleton of the dragon was found at la Flecha farm in the desert region of Chubut province in Argentina.
This new species of vegan Thunderosaurus is one of the largest land animals on Earth, weighing up to 70 tons.
（2016-01-14 10:10:00）
【Further reading】Argentina found prehistoric carapace fossils: shaped like dinosaur eggs (photo)
According to foreign media reports, the carapace fossils of the prehistoric giant carcass have been found on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina.
On Christmas Day, Nevas, a local man, found the 1-meter-long carapace by a stream, and he thought it was a dinosaur egg.
Argentine paleontologist Clamartre said the carapace was most likely the carapace of an eagle tooth. Glyptodont is the ancestor of armadillos, who lived in South America 2.5 million years ago.
The glyptodont is about the size of a Föswegen beetle cart, weighs 1 ton, and is a herbivorous mammal. Their carapace resembles a turtle shell, but they cannot retract their heads into their shells.
They went extinct along with other large animals 10,000 years ago, while their close relatives, armadillos, survived and branched out.
（2015-12-31 10:28:01）
【Extended reading】Scotland has found a large number of dinosaur footprints: messy like dancing disco
Sina Science and Technology News On December 10, Beijing time, the footprints of these large herbivorous sauropods are located on Scotland's Sky Island, with hundreds of them, and the time goes back to 17 million years ago. The picture shows one of the footprints, on which a lens cap is placed to compare the size of the footprint.
Because of the large number of messy dinosaur footprints here, the site is called a "dinosaur dance ground" by researchers, and some of the footprints are as wide as 2.3 feet (about 70 centimeters) wide. It is also the largest dinosaur remains ever found in the world. Paleontologists have long deduced the presence of sauropods on Sky Island based on tiny pieces of bone and teeth, and now they can be sure of that.
Scientists could not determine the specific identities of the dinosaurs on Sky Island, but after analyzing the structure of these footprints, the researchers found that the dinosaurs were early distant relatives of Thunderosaurus and Lepidocus. Sauropods had long necks and tails, small heads, and four stout legs, leaving footprints that were nearly round.
The location of these footprints has not been made public. The researchers say fossils from the middle Jurassic period are "extremely rare," and Sky Island is one of the few sites in the world where fossils from this period have been found.
After analyzing the structure of these footprints, the researchers found that these dinosaurs were distant relatives of Thundersaurus and Diplodocus, and the names of these two dinosaurs are much more familiar to us.
Some of these footprints are up to 2.3 feet wide in diameter. Researchers Dr. Tom Charantz (left) and Dr. Steve Brussart (right) are pictured.
These footprints found on Sky Island, combined with similar footprints recently found elsewhere in the world, suggest that sauropods lived for a long time along the seashore and in shallow waters. It was previously believed that the largest dinosaurs were terrestrial.
The footprints were discovered by researchers at the University of Edinburgh on a field trip with the Staffin Museum and other Scottish research institutes on Sky Island. (leaf)
（2015-12-10 09:26:15）
【Extended reading】Yunnan found 180 million years ago dinosaur fossils: the earliest dinosaurs in the Jurassic
Reference News Network reported on December 8 that Taiwan media said that Yunnan recently found two dinosaur fossils from 180 million years ago. According to the preliminary identification of experts from the Institute of Paleocryphaliology and Paleoanthropology of the Continental Academy of Sciences, it is inferred that these two fossils are "Giant Lufeng Dragon" and "Xu Lufeng Dragon", which are one of the earliest dinosaurs in the Jurassic period.
Taiwan's ETtoday Eastern Sen News Cloud website quoted Xinhua news on December 8, said that Wang Tao, director of the Geological Relics Conservation and Management Institute of Lufeng County, Yunnan Province, said that the excavated "giant Lufeng Dragon" preservation part is 13 dorsal vertebrae, 3 recommended vertebrae; there are 22 left and right iliac bones, tail vertebrae and other parts. The fossil of "Xu's Lufeng Dragon" was discovered during a scientific expedition to the Lufeng County Dinosaur Museum in November, on a hillside about 500 meters away from the fossil of "Giant Lufeng Dragon".
It is understood that Lufeng dragon is one of the earliest prosauropod dinosaurs found in the mainland, and belongs to the paleopod family in classification, with a light body, a strong tail, and a much longer hind limb than the forelimbs, living in lakeside or swampy areas.
The "Xu's Lufeng Dragon" is the first dinosaur to form a continental shelf and named species, its current excavated fossil body is about 4.5 meters long, and the skeleton of the "Giant Lufeng Dragon" is about 6 meters long, from the physical analysis point of view, there is no obvious difference between the two except for the difference in body size.
180 million-year-old dinosaur fossils have been found in Yunnan. (Xinhua News Agency photo)
（2015-12-08 17:27:48）