Argentinosaurus huinculensis – Dinosaur Model Available Spring 2012

For dinosaur fans and model collectors with a huge appetite for dinosaurs they can shortly get their hands on a dinosaur that had the biggest appetite of all.  CollectA are releasing a model of the huge Late Cretaceous titanosaur known as Argentinosaurus (A. huinculensis).  In 1988, a sheep farmer stumbled upon what he thought at the time was a petrified (fossilised) tree trunk on his Patagonian farm (southern Argentina).  A team of palaeontologists from the Carmen Funes Municipal Museum came to look at the huge object, this was no fossilised tree, but the 1.5-metre-long tibia (shin bone) of a huge dinosaur. New for 2012, CollectA have added an Argentinosaurus dinosaur model to their range.

Argentinosaurus huinculensis

After an extensive investigation, a number of enormous dinosaur bones were unearthed, including a vertebra (backbone) so large that it was almost as tall as a man.  The fragmentary fossils were not much – broken ribs, the sacrum, the single tibia and the backbone, however, this was enough to permit scientists to formally name and describe what is currently known as the largest dinosaur of them all – Argentinosaurus.

The Argentinosaurus Model due out in the Spring (CollectA – Age of Dinosaurs)

A model of the biggest dinosaur known to science.

Argentinosaurus Dinosaur Model

The pose is very interesting, the animal is depicted with having much larger front limbs than hind limbs a sort of brachiosaurid/Giraffatitan stance.  The colouration is intriguing, most sauropods are depicted in an elephantine-grey colour scheme.  The patterns on the skin would have helped to break up the animal’s outline as it moved with others in a herd, perhaps an adaptation to help prevent individuals being singled out by marauding Mapusaurus and to help protect Argentinosaurus from attacks by Giganotosaurus.  Looks like the CollectA Argentinosaurus is going to be a fascinating model and it is bound to become a favourite amongst model collectors and dinosaur fans.

To view the CollectA Prehistoric Life model range: CollectA Prehistoric Life Models (Age of Dinosaurs).