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New Dinosaur Discovery - Perhaps the Biggest Dinosaur of All Time (Advanced)
By:Mike Walley

Alamosaurus Rivals Largest Titanosaurs after Recent Fossil Discovery

For a long time, this Late Cretaceous Titanosaur called Alamosaurus sanjuanensis was the only known representative of the Titanosaur group in North America. Recent discoveries have revealed that other types of long-necked dinosaur may have migrated north from South America towards the end of the Age of Reptiles. At an estimated twenty-one metres in length, scientists already knew that this particular dinosaur was a giant, but they had suggested that it was relatively lightly built and when compared to the leviathans of the Titanosaur group such as Andesaurus, Antarctosaurus, Paralititan and Argentinosaurus it remained only a "middle-weight" amongst some super-heavy-weight dinosaurs.

However, the discovery of some more fossilised bones ascribed to A. sanjuanensis may lead scientists to re-think their estimates for the size of this particular beastie, putting the Alamosaurus up there with some of the biggest land animals of all time.

New research from Montana State University's Museum of the Rockies and the State Museum of Pennsylvania has unveiled enormous bones from North America's biggest dinosaur. Trust the Americans to find a dinosaur potentially as big as some of the gigantic Sauropods known from South America.

In a paper published in the scientific journal - "Acta Palaeontologica Polonica", Montana State University researcher Denver W. Fowler and co-author Robert M. Sullivan from Harrisburg, Pa., describe two enormous vertebrae and a femur (thigh bone) that the team collected in New Mexico during expeditions that ran sporadically from 2003 to 2006.

The fossilised bones have been assigned to the species A. sanjuanensis, a dinosaur that shared the Late Cretaceous habitat of the south-western United States with the formidable predator T. rex.

Commenting on the new fossil bones, Fowler stated that Alamosaurus had been known for some time; its remains were first described in 1922 from the Naashoibito beds of New Mexico. More bones have been discovered in New Mexico, Utah, some really nice material from Texas, including a few partial skeletons. So the story about big things coming from the state of Texas could be true after all.

The size and scale of the newly discovered specimens indicates that Alamosaurus may have to be put up there with some of the dinosaur super-heavy-weights, perhaps rivalling the South American giants for the title of the largest land-living animal known to science.

Montana State University researcher Dr. Holly Woodward, had shown in an earlier study that the femur thought to have come from an adult was still growing. Previous height and weight estimates based on the femur and the vertebrae are going to have to be revised and scaled upwards.

Just how big was Alamosaurus?

Just how big? That is the question, scientists can't really be sure, more fossilised bones are needed so that a more complete study can be carried out. Ontogeny in Dinosauria is not a precise science. Dinosaurs for example, may have been subject to indeterminant growth, that is they kept growing throughout their lives. The longer a Sauropod lived the bigger it got - this makes determining maximum size for such creatures rather difficult.

Over the past two decades or so, Argentinian and Brazilian palaeontologists have been unearthing bigger and bigger dinosaurs, putting the rest of the world in the shade. However, these new finds not only show that Alamosaurus is newly recognised as the biggest dinosaur from North America, but also that it was right up there with the biggest South American species: the US is back in the fight for the No.1 spot when it comes to the biggest dinosaurs.

Although comparison of the new Alamosaurus bones with the South American species gave the researchers an idea of size, giant specimens of Sauropods like Alamosaurus and Argentinosaurus are only known from very fragmentary remains offering only a tantalising glimpse of what a complete Alamosaurus might look like.

The scientists would be delighted to find a more complete, adult skeleton to study. Fortunately, Alamosaurus bones are quite common in the Naashoibito of New Mexico, so the researchers have a good chance of going back and finding more.

With the title of the "World's Largest Dinosaur" up for grabs perhaps some new sponsors will be happy to come forward to assist the scientists with their research - the race just might be on.

Tyrannosaur Fossils Found at the Same Dig Site

Large Titanosaur specimens are not the only fossils the scientists have found as they explore the Alamosaurus beds. For example, the team unearthed a broken Tyrannosaurus tooth, perhaps belonging to a T. rex that broke a tooth when feeding on the Alamosaurus carcase.

The discovery of the broken tooth indicates that large Tyrannosaurs (potentially T. rex) co-existed with large Titanosaurs. They shared the same ecosystem. Some scientists have suggested that in the north of its range T. rex specialised in hunting Hadrosaurs and Ceratopsians whilst in the south they were mainly predators of Titanosaurs such as Alamosaurus.

The Alamosaurus discovery goes beyond just "size" bragging-rights, and may have important implications for other dinosaurs. Recent discoveries by American palaeontologist Jack Horner's and his paleo lab at the Museum of the Rockies have highlighted the importance of understanding growth and ontogeny in interpreting dinosaur evolution.

It seems that there is a lot more to learn about these super-sized, prehistoric animals and with researchers keen to explore the Alamosaurus beds, it seems that new fossil material may be found in the near future, thus providing scientists with more evidence as to just how big some of these dinosaurs could be.

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