Patagotitan mayorum – 69 Tonnes of Titanosaur

This week has seen the long-awaited publication of a scientific paper on the super-sized titanosaur fossils that Everything Dinosaur blogged about in May 2014.  Writing in the “Proceedings of the Royal Society B (Biology)”, the researchers, which included José L. Carballido and Diego Pol (Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio, Trelew, Argentina), have described this new dinosaur and given it a formal scientific name.  Patagotitan mayorum translates as “the Mayo family Patagonian Titan”.

Patagotitan may already be familiar to readers, as this fossil discovery was documented in a BBC television programme narrated by Sir David Attenborough back in 2016.  Indeed, a life-size cast of this dinosaur has been on display at the American Museum of Natural History (New York) for nearly eighteen months.

The Life-size Mounted Exhibit of the Newly Named Titanosaur (Patagotitan mayorum)

Sue from Everything Dinosaur poses in front of the colossal Patagotitan skeleton which is being exhibited at the Natural History Museum (London). Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Patatotitan mayorum – Size is not Everything

Most of the media sources that have covered this announcement have focused on the estimated weight of Patagotitan.  When first studied, the body weight estimate of this beast, (represented by the fossilised remains of at least seven individuals) was put at 77 tonnes.  The researchers have down-sized Patagotitan somewhat in the scientific paper, but at a reported 69 tonnes, this is still an immensely heavy beast, potentially close to the theoretical limit for a body weight of a terrestrial animal.

Patagotitan mayorum – A Size Comparison

Patagotitan mayorum size comparison with an adult African elephant and a human for scale.

Picture credit: G. Lio/Everything Dinosaur

With an estimated body length of 37 metres and a weight of 69 tonnes, Patagotitan can lay claim to the title of the largest land living animal to be described to date based on substantially complete fossil remains.

To read an article on the initial excavation of the titanosaur fossil bones: Biggest Dinosaur of all – a New South American Contender.

For an article providing information on the BBC documentary: Attenborough and the Giant Dinosaur.

An Unprecedented Quantity of Titanosaur Fossil Material

The species’ scientific name was inspired by the region where this new species was discovered, Argentina’s Patagonia (Patago); by its strength and huge size (titan), and by the Mayo family, on whose ranch the fossils of this new sauropod species were discovered.  The substantial amount of fossil material including a celebrated 2.4-metre-long femur was discovered in three distinct layers, representing flood plain deposits.  The researchers have concluded that these large herbivores must have been regular visitors to this area, perhaps this was on a migration route.  The water flow was unable to dislodge most of the fossil bones, their sheer bulk allowing the remains to be preserved relatively “in situ”, although in a disarticulated state.

The Life-size Cast of Patagotitan mayorum at the American Museum of Natural History (New York)

A replica of the skull of Patagotitan on display. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

For models and replicas of titanosaurs and other other sauropods: CollectA Deluxe Scale Models.

Estimating the Body Weight of Giant Titanosaurs

The Titanosauria clade represents the most disparate group, in terms of body size of all known sauropods.  Some of the smallest members of the Sauropodmorpha are represented by titanosaurs such as the five-metre long Magyarosaurus from Romania, whilst this clade also contains giant animals like Argentinosaurus, Alamosaurus, Dreadnoughtus and the newly described Patagotitan.  Calculating the body weight of an extinct animal, even one with numerous fossil bones to study, is a challenging task, body weight has to be inferred using a variety of methods.

Dr José Luis Carballido (Museum of Paleontology Egidio Feruglio) explained:

“We compared the remains of Patagotitan mayorum with all the species that could be related to it, not only in terms of size, but also those that lived at the same time or had certain features in common.  Among them we included species such as Argentinosaurus, Puertasaurus and Futalognkosaurus, which are other giant species of dinosaurs from Argentina.”

A Phylogenetic Study

The researchers undertook a phylogenetic study and concluded that the majority of the giant titanosaurs of Patagonia belong to a single lineage.  This suggests that gigantism within the Titanosauria evolved only once and not multiple times.  The scientists conclude that all the truly huge dinosaurs were related to each other and form a natural group – the Lognkosauria.

Dr Diego Pol added:

“This group of giants probably emerged by the end of the Lower Cretaceous (Patagotitan mayorum would be the oldest) and had survived until the middle Late Cretaceous between 100 and 85 million years ago.”

Patagonia – A Paradise for Titanosaurs such as Patagotitan mayorum

Titanosaurs diversified and radiated around Gondwana during the middle Early Cretaceous and as a group they survived right up to the end of the Cretaceous, but in Patagonia during the early Cenomanian faunal stage some species obtained enormous sizes the reasons for an evolutionary pressure to grow so big are unclear.

Dr Pol commented:

“About 100 million years ago, a subgroup of titanosaurs really went crazy in body size.  There must be something in the environment, in how much resources and food was available, in the climate, something must have allowed this fantastic size.  All these contenders for the heavyweight championship of dinosaurs, they all lived in same place, in the same time…understanding why and how these animals evolved into such a fantastic size is the million-dollar question.”

The Enormous Fossilised Femur of Patagotitan mayorum

The giant fossilised femur of Patagotitan mayorum on display. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Links to the Rinconsauria

In addition, the scientists consider this super-sized lineage of titanosaurs a sister group to the Rinconsauria, a clade of titanosaurs also known from Argentina which are regarded as basal to the group, or at least retaining primitive traits.  The Rinconsauria, which includes Rinconsaurus caudamirus and Aeolosaurus were not giants themselves, in fact, this clade includes some of the smallest South American titanosaurs described to date.

For the time being the moniker used to describe this huge dinosaur when it was being excavated – “enormosaurus” is redundant, that is until the next huge sauropod fossil find!

The scientific paper: “A New Giant Titanosaur Sheds Light on Body Mass Evolution Among Sauropod Dinosaurs” by José L. Carballido, Diego Pol, Alejandro Otero, Ignacio A. Cerda, Leonardo Salgado, Alberto C. Garrido, Jahandar Ramezani, Néstor R. Cúneo, Javier M. Krause published in “The Proceedings of the Royal Society B”.

Visit the award-winning website of Everything Dinosaur: The Everything Dinosaur Website.

Lemmysuchus obtusidens – Named after Lemmy from Motorhead

On December 28th 2015, the English heavy-metal musician, Lemmy, the founder of Motörhead and doyen of the metal-music genre passed away.  Since that day, many scientists who were fans of Lemmy’s music have sought out ways to honour him*.  It seems that tracks such as “Bomber”, “Overkill”, “Louie Louie” and the iconic “Ace of Spades” are very popular with academics and scientists from a number of disciplines and this week, hard-drinking, hard-living Lemmy, was honoured by having a particularly nasty Jurassic teleosaurid crocodile named after him.  Say hello to Lemmysuchus obtusidens, the newest member of the Teleosauridae, the name means “Lemmy’s blunt-toothed crocodile”.

Lemmysuchus obtusidens

Dorsal View of the Skull of Lemmysuchus obtusidens

Skull fossil and accompanying line drawing of Lemmysuchus.

Picture credit: Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London

From a Clay Pit Near Peterborough

The fossil material now assigned to this new genus was excavated in 1909 from a clay pit near the town of Peterborough (Cambridgeshire), several specimens were collected from the Middle Jurassic strata (Callovian faunal stage).  It was incorrectly catalogued and assigned to a different species, several cladistic and anatomical reviews later and the blunt-snouted, blunt-toothed teleosaurids have undergone a significant revision and fossil material formerly assigned to Steneosaurus obtusidens has ended up in need of a new taxa hence the establishment of Lemmysuchus within the academic literature.

One of the authors of the scientific paper, which has just been published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, Michela Johnson (University of Edinburgh), described Lemmysuchus:

“With a metre-long skull and a total length of 5.8 metres, it would have been one of the biggest coastal predators of its time.”

A Close View of the Jaw Showing the Robust Teeth

Part of the jaw of Lemmysuchus showing the robust teeth.

Picture credit: Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London

Lemmysuchus – Durophagous or Macrophagous Diet

In contrast to several other Middle Jurassic teleosaurids, Lemmysuchus had a broad snout and large, robust teeth, this suggests that this substantial crocodylomorph had a different diet to its relatives.  Most teleosaurids were fish-eaters and their jaws, teeth and skulls show adaptations to a piscivorous diet.  The jaws of Lemmysuchus indicate that this reptile might have dined on turtles or other hard-shelled creatures such as ammonites.

It could have made short work of any small marine reptile carcass that it found, it could even have been an active predator of other marine reptiles.

A Nasty Crocodile from the Middle Jurassic of England

Lemmysuchus obtusidens illustration.

Picture credit: Mark Witton

Paleoartist Dr Mark Witton has recreated the terrifying world of Lemmysuchus obtusidens.  The beautiful reconstruction shows a large Lemmysuchus feeding on a plesiosaur, whilst rhamphorhynchoid pterosaurs scavenge the remains of an ichthyosaur that has been washed ashore.

Subtle Nods to Lemmy and to John Martin

The atmospheric image created by Mark Witton, includes a subtle hint towards one of the pieces of artwork associated with Motörhead.  The pattern on top of the crocodylomorph’s skull is a homage to the “snaggletooth” logo that adorned a number of album covers.  In addition, this stunning artwork, depicting a European shoreline some 164 million years ago, pays tribute to one of the earliest depictions of ancient marine reptiles, an illustration by John Martin for the seminal publication “Great Sea Dragons”, by Thomas Hawkins, which was first printed back in 1840.

John Martin depicted a savage, violent seascape dominated by great serpent-like creatures.  Having noted the serpentine archway in Dr Witton’s illustration, Everything Dinosaur contacted Mark and enquired how this archway came to be included.

Mark explained:

“The archway in the background is a nod to the serpentine creature in the background of John Martin’s classic 1840 illustration “The Sea-Dragons as They Lived”.  Much of the right side of the image is a tribute to this work, as is the fact that virtually all the animals in my painting are savage and predatory.  We know that the Jurassic didn’t have any serpentine creatures like those imagined by Martin, so I had to improvise a little by changing his animal to a rock feature and landmass (the adjacent island is where the second ‘hump’ of his creature would be).”

Mark added:

“I decided to homage his work because, in a lot of ways, 19th century palaeoart is not dissimilar to iconography associated with the harder side of rock music, to which Lemmysuchus has an obvious connection.  Both are a bit silly in how dark and aggressive they are so, though stemming from very different cultures, they’re actually artistic bedfellows.”

“Great Sea Dragons” Illustration by John Martin circa 1840

The 1840 illustration of marine reptiles and pterosaurs by John Martin.

Talented paleoartist Mark has recently published a new work, highlighting his illustrations and providing an insight into the process or imagining and then recreating prehistoric scenes.  The book is entitled “Recreating an Age of Reptiles”, it is highly recommended.

To read a review of “Recreating an Age of Reptiles”: A Review of “Recreating the Age of Reptiles”.

Dr Witton added:

“It was quite fun bringing three very different influences together for this painting: the science of the animal itself; the aggressive, dark imagery associated with Motörhead and the influence of old school palaeoart.”

Lemmy from Motörhead (Ian Fraser Kilmister)

Co-author Lorna Steel, (Dept. of Earth Sciences, Natural History Museum), proposed that the fearsome crocodylomorph should be named after her late musical hero.

Dr Steel stated:

“Although Lemmy passed away at the end of 2015, we’d like to think that he would have raised a glass to Lemmysuchus, one of the nastiest sea creatures to have ever inhabited the Earth.”

*In early 2016, a petition was organised to get the discoverers of the recently named, super-heavy element 115 Ununpentium, to change its name to Lemmium.  Despite attracting a reported 100,000 signatures the bid to place the heavy metal music pioneer onto the Periodic Table failed.  Still it’s not every day that you get a bone-crushing, Jurassic marine crocodile named after you.

Visit the award-winning Everything Dinosaur website: Everything Dinosaur.