Puertasaurus

Puertasaurus was a truly enormous titanosaurian sauropod that inhabited what is now southern Patagonia during the Late Cretaceous period. It is known from only four incomplete vertebrae, but these bones are remarkably massive. 68 metres across including the broad transverse processes, indicating a wide, barrel-chested animal with immense ribcage volume. Puertasaurus belongs to the Lognkosauria, a clade recognised for their deep necks and gigantic proportions. Because so little of the skeleton has been discovered, estimates of its total length and mass vary widely among researchers, but it was undoubtedly one of the largest land animals that ever lived. It relied on high-browsing or sweeping broad swaths of foliage with its extensive neck to sustain its huge body. Its fossils were recovered from the Cerro Fortaleza Formation alongside predatory theropods and other titanosaur species.

Its dorsal vertebra is one of the widest known among dinosaurs, measuring over one and a half metres across.

Where and when

Puertasaurus lived in the Late Cretaceous, from 76 to 70 million years ago (Campanian-Maastrichtian age). Its remains come from Argentina, in the Cerro Fortaleza Formation.

The numbers

Length 29 m (estimates run from 27 to 30 m). Mass about 47 t. Hip height about 5.5 m. That is 16.8 human-lengths, or 2.54 of a double-decker bus. These are estimates from fragmentary remains; fields marked estimated by the site are length, mass, first ma, last ma, hip height.

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