Earth’s biggest EVER dinosaur goes on display at London’s Natural History Museum
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Forget the terrifying T-Rex or Dippy the Diplodocus – there’s a new beast in town.
Weighing 57 tons and measuring 150 feet from head to tail, the Natural History Museum’s new dinosaur is the heaviest animal to ever walk the planet.
Called Patagotitan mayorum, the sheer size of this titanosaur makes other prehistoric life seem almost small.
And that meant careful planning by museum experts, who only just managed to fit the replica skeleton into their massive 30-foot-tall Waterhouse Gallery.
The species was first discovered in 2010 by an Argentinian farmer, who saw a giant dinosaur bone protruding from the dusty ground.
Weighing 65 tons and measuring 150 feet from head to tail, the Natural History Museum’s new dinosaur is the heaviest animal to ever walk the planet
The skeleton is 35 meters long, the equivalent of four biplanes or a British Airways Airbus A320. This also makes it 40 feet (12 m) longer than the blue whale, Hope, currently on display in the atrium of the Natural History Museum
It turned out to be a femur β a femur β that alone was nearly eight feet long and weighed about 1,000 pounds.
About 280 bones from six Patagotitan individuals were collected from the area and combined to create one nearly complete skeleton.
Experts in Argentina used 3D scanners to create a digital copy, before creating a life-size version from polyester resin and fiberglass.
It took 32 crates and two planes to transport the precious cargo to the Natural History Museum, where it will now make its European debut.
While a real Patagotitan would have weighed the equivalent of nine African elephants when it roamed the Earth 101 million years ago, its replica skeleton is only a fraction of its weight.
But at 2.67 tons, careful placement was still essential.
“It’s so big that we had to reinforce the floor,” says Professor Paul Barrett, the museum’s senior dinosaur specialist.
βPart of the discussion about how it fits into the space was really about where to put it relative to where the strongest parts of the floor were.
‘At an exhibition, the showpiece is usually the last thing that goes in, but we had to place that first and then build everything around it.
“But it’s just incredible, it’s absolutely stunning. I’m used to seeing big dinosaur bones, but to see this is really a breathtaking moment for me.
βIt’s the largest dinosaur ever seen here. And not just any dinosaur, but one of the contenders for the largest animal that ever lived.’
The exhibit also showcases the original Patagotitan femur, a petrified egg, and even petrified feces β all of which help visitors understand what the life of the largest dinosaur was like.
The species was first discovered in 2010 by an Argentine farmer, who saw a giant dinosaur bone sticking out of the dusty ground
Titanosaurs were the last major family of sauropod dinosaurs before the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event about 65 million years ago
Museum curators hope the exhibit will encourage people to protect the largest animals on our planet today
A close-up of one of the bones in the tail reveals a deep abrasion, where a sharp tooth cut through the flesh of the titanosaur and into the tailbone.
Scientists can’t say whether this gouge was made by a predator – most likely a large carnivorous beast called Tyrannotitan – during an attack, or by a scavenger after it died.
Being such a hulking animal meant an immense diet – and Patago titans digested 129 kg of raw, spiky plants every day – the equivalent of 516 rounds of lettuce.
Experts know that animals that chewed their food couldn’t have such long necks, so they believe this prehistoric beast filled its hollow mouth before swallowing the leaves whole.
Dr. Alex Burch, the museum’s director of public programs, said: “Throughout the exhibit, we are exploring how these relatively unknown dinosaurs could have existed at such an astonishing size and we hope that visitors will enjoy the childlike delight that comes with standing next to a creature like Patagotitan.
The exhibition is open to the public from Friday, March 31 to January 2024
“To see is to be humbled by the sheer majesty and dynamism of the natural world.”
Museum curators hope the exhibit will encourage people to protect the largest animals on our planet today.
Natural History Museum director Dr Doug Gurr said: ‘There is nothing that comes close to the Patagotitan walking the Earth today – so in this case, seeing is believing.
βThe large animals we share the planet with today continue to play vital ecosystem roles β from elephants and rhinoceroses to blue whales β but they are increasingly at risk of extinction from habitat loss and other devastating human impacts.
“We need to connect the next generation to nature to protect today’s big animals before it’s too late.”
The exhibition is open to the public from Friday, March 31 to January 2024.
WHAT IS DIPPY THE DINOSAUR, WHERE DID IT COME FROM AND WHERE DID IT TAKE ON TOUR?
Dippy the Dinosaur is a cast of the first Dipolodocus skeleton ever found and was made from the original in Pennsylvania, USA in the early 1900’s.
In the position shown, the skeleton is 26 meters long, 4.3 meters wide and 4.2 meters high.
When it was unveiled in London’s Natural History Museum in 1905, the cast became a star and has since been featured in newspaper cartoons, news reports and even starring roles in film and television.
When railroad workers unearthed the fossilized bones on which Dippy is based in Wyoming, USA, in 1898, newspapers called the discovery “the most colossal animal ever to appear on Earth.”
Dippy is one of 10 replicas of the original in museums around the world, including Paris, Berlin, Vienna and Moscow.
Dippy, the dinosaur is a cast of a Dipolodocus skeleton made in the early 1900s from an original in Pennsylvania, USA. When it was unveiled in London in 1905, the cast became a star and has since appeared in newspaper cartoons, news reports, and even starred in film and television. Pictured is the cast at the Natural History Museum in London in 1905
Dippy had been on display at the Natural History Museum since the early 1900s and was largely on display from 1979 to 2017 in Hintze Hall at the entrance to the museum.
In 2018, the dinosaur skeleton cast embarked on a two-year tour of the UK, visiting Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and five regions in England.
The tour was designed to connect the nation to nature and spark the imagination of a new generation of scientists, naturalists and environmentalists.
Diplodocus was a long, herbivorous genus first described as a new type of dinosaur in 1878 by Professor Othniel C Marsh at Yale University.
The species lived sometime between 156 and 145 million years ago and belongs to a group called sauropods, meaning “lizard feet.”