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Antarctosaurus

Antarctosaurus (southern lizard) was an herbivorous titanosaur, which existed, in the late Cretaceous, around 75mya. This quadruped would have reached a length of around 18m, a height of 6m, and a weight of 40 to 70 tons, making it one of the largest South American sauropods and amongst the largest dinosaurs ever - it is related to the similarly gigantic Argentinosaurus.

The first fossils were established in 1916, and others have since been found in India, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Brazil, Kazakhstan and Africa, and it is probable that it really did live in Antarctica. Parts recovered include two femora, two incomplete pelvises and numerous other fragments. One of the femora was 2.20m in length, and it is primarily from this that the astonishing size of the dinosaur is extrapolated. The post crania, however, suggest that its head was barely 60cm long.

The taxonomic classification of Antarctosaurus is, like that of a lot of dinosaurs, highly disputed. The type specimen may in fact be a small Antarctosaurus, as another specimen has recently been recovered that is double the size of the type specimen.

Originally this dinosaur was located in a separate species, but they are now both thought to be A. wichmannianus. There are other problems with the type specimen, counting that its lower jaw is now thought to belong to a rebbachisaurid. Whether Antarctosaurus is even a titanosaur at all is now uncertain; it was located into Diplodocidae in 1993, but returned to Titanosauridae in 1997. Also, Jainosaurus was originally consideration to be a species of Antarctosaurus, A. septentrionalis, but it is now recognized as a distinct genus.