Dinosaurs / Cretaceous / Paralititan
Paralititan
Cretaceous pah-ral-ih-TY-tan, “tidal giant”
Paralititan was an enormous titanosaurian sauropod that inhabited the mangrove coastlines of northern Africa during the mid-Cretaceous period. Its fossilised bones were discovered in the Bahariya Oasis of Egypt in 2000. 69 metres in length, indicating an enormous animal between twenty-four and twenty-eight metres long with a mass exceeding thirty tonnes. Paralititan lived in a swampy tidal flat environment rich in vegetation, sharing its lush habitat with top predators including Spinosaurus and Carcharodontosaurus. Its name honours German palaeontologist Ernst Stromer, whose earlier fossil collections from the Bahariya Oasis were tragically destroyed during the Second World War.
It was discovered in coastal mangrove swamp deposits alongside the remains of predatory giants like Spinosaurus.
Where and when
Paralititan lived in the Late Cretaceous, from 98 to 94 million years ago (Cenomanian age). Its remains come from Egypt, in the Bahariya Formation.
The numbers
Length 26 m (estimates run from 24 to 28 m). Mass about 37 t. Hip height about 4.5 m. That is 15.3 human-lengths, or 2.32 of a double-decker bus. These are estimates from partial skeleton; fields marked estimated by the site are length, mass, hip height.