By Ethan Percival
In the paleontology community, Patagonia is well known for its high yield of mesozoic fossils including dozens of fossils from many different species of dinosaurs. The most well-known of these species rank as some of, if not the largest dinosaurs of their kinds such as the meat eating Giganotosaurus or Meraxes Gigas which rivaled the great Tyrannosaurus-Rex in size. Patagonia was also home to the largest land animal of all time, the sauropod Argentinosaurus. Recently, the Argentine fossil beds have yielded another giant of a dinosaur, a sauropod titanosaur dubbed Chucarosaurus Diripienda.
The name “Chucarosaurus” meaning “indomitable reptile” pays homage to its truly massive size with the estimated size being about 100 feet in length and weighing in at over 50 tons. The family of sauropods this new dinosaur belonged to are called titanosaurs named after the Titans from Ancient Greek mythology. This family of dinosaurs were some of the largest land animals ever to exist. As previously stated, the titanosaur Argentinosaurus is widely regarded as the largest land animal ever to exist on Earth; however, other titanosaurs were of very comparable sizes such as Patagotitan, Dreadnoughtus, and the newly discovered Chucarosaurus.
Chucarosaurus would have likely lived alongside with other fellow titanosaurs such as Argentinosaurus. Despite its colossal size, Chucarosaurus may have still been subject to predation by carnivores like the Mapausaurus and Meraxes Gigas. In order to hunt such large prey, several individuals of these carnivores would likely hunt in unorganized mobs brought together at the possibility of taking down a large meal.
Interestingly, the size of the fossilized remains presented the greatest risk to its preservation. The remains proved to be so heavy, it caused the van transporting them to roll over. Luckily no one was injured and fossils sustained little to no damage. Hopefully the fossil beds in Patagonia continue to turn up such unique and incredible dinosaurs for us to learn more about.
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