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Dinosaur Home A-Z Dinosaurs List Antarctosaurus Dinosaur
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.
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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.
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