Supermassive dinosaur unearthed in Argentina

Fossilised remains of a supermassive dinosaur, measuring 85-feet-long and weighing about 60,000 kg - as much as dozen African elephants - have been discovered in Argentina.
At 85 feet (26 metres) long and weighing about 65 tonnes (59,300 kg) in life, Dreadnoughtus schrani is the largest land animal for which a body mass can be accurately calculated.
Its skeleton is exceptionally complete, with over 70 per cent of the bones, excluding the head, represented.
As all previously discovered supermassive dinosaurs are known only from relatively fragmentary remains, Dreadnoughtus offers an unprecedented window into the anatomy and biomechanics of the largest animals to ever walk the Earth.

"Dreadnoughtus schrani was astoundingly huge," said Kenneth Lacovara, an associate professor in Drexel University's College of Arts and Sciences, who discovered the Dreadnoughtus fossil skeleton in southern Patagonia in Argentina and led the excavation and analysis.
"It weighed as much as a dozen African elephants or more than seven T rex. Shockingly, skeletal evidence shows that when this 65-tonne specimen died, it was not yet full grown. It is by far the best example we have of any of the most giant creatures to ever walk the planet," said Lacovara.

The new dinosaur belongs to a group of large plant eaters known as titanosaurs. The fossil was unearthed over four field seasons from 2005 through 2009 by Lacovara and a team including Lucio M Ibiricu, of the Centro Nacional Patagonico in Chubut, Argentina.

Over 100 elements of the Dreadnoughtus skeleton are represented from the type specimen, including most of the vertebrae from the 30-foot-long tail, a neck vertebra with a diameter of over a yard, scapula, numerous ribs, toes, a claw, a small section of jaw and a single tooth, and, most notably for calculating the animal's mass, nearly all the bones from both forelimbs and hindlimbs including a femur over 6 feet tall and a humerus.
A smaller individual with a less-complete skeleton was also unearthed at the site.
The 'gold standard' for calculating the mass of quadrupeds (four-legged animals) is based on measurements taken from the femur (thigh bone) and humerus (upper arm bone).

Because the Dreadnoughtus type specimen includes both these bones, its weight can be estimated with confidence.
Prior to the description of the 65-tonne Dreadnoughtus schrani specimen, another Patagonian giant, Elaltitan, held the title of dinosaur with the greatest calculable weight at 47 tonnes.
Overall, the Dreadnoughtus schrani type specimen's bones represent approximately 45.3 per cent of the dinosaur's total skeleton, or up to 70.4 per cent of the types of bones in its body, excluding the skull bones. This is far more complete than all previously discovered giant titanosaurian dinosaurs.
The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports.