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SACRAMENTO — The newly discovered Dreadnoughtus dinosaur only ate plants, but at 65 tons, researchers say it didn’t need to fear predators.
Researcher Ken Lacovara likened the humongous dinosaur to a turn-of-the-century battleship. He called the new species “Dreadnoughtus,” which means “fear nothing.” The discovery was unveiled by Drexel University Thursday.
“Dreadnoughtus schrani was astoundingly huge,” Lacovara said in a statement. “It weighed as much as a dozen African elephants or more than seven T. rex. Shockingly, skeletal evidence shows that when this 65-ton 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.”
The gigantic dinosaur is a member of the titanosaur family and was discovered in Argentina in 2005, according to researchers. It took four field seasons to uncover 100 elements of the skeleton.
The young dinosaur had a 30-foot weaponized tail and was 85 feet long in total. The first bone researchers located, a femur, is over 6 feet tall.
The Dreadnoughtus also had large muscles and would have needed to eat a lot to support its size, according to Lacovara.
“Every day is about taking in enough calories to nourish this house-sized body. I imagine their day consists largely of standing in one place,” he said. “You have this 37-foot-long neck balanced by a 30-foot-long tail in the back.”
“Without moving your legs, you have access to a giant feeding envelope of trees and fern leaves. You spend an hour or so clearing out this patch that has thousands of calories in it, and then you take three steps over to the right and spend the next hour clearing out that patch.”
The findings were published in the journal Scientific Reports.
