Largest Dinosaur Named Dreadnoughtus

A few months ago, we told you about the largest dinosaur fossils ever found, discovered in La Flecha, Patagonia, Argentina. The bones unearthed have proved to be a treasure, comprising two dinos, the larger one with 115 bones and a tooth -a much more complete set of bones than most fossil finds.

Today an international team of paleontologists unveiled the newest Mesozoic badass: Dreadnoughtus schrani. Weighing in at an astonishing 65 tons, standing two stories high at the shoulder, and measuring 85 feet long, this titan is the heaviest dinosaur we've ever (accurately) measured. And its discovery represents the most fossil mass ever found for a single organism—a paleontologist's dream.

"For the [largest] dinosaurs, which we call titanosaurs, finding anything around 20 percent of the fossil is usually considered a home run," says Kenneth Lacovara, the lead Drexel University paleontologist behind the find. "Normally you only find a handful of bones, and the previous record was a 27 percent complete skeleton. With Dreadnoughtus we found 70 percent."   

Scientists studying the huge reconstructed Dreadnoughtus say it lived 77 million years ago, and was still growing when it died! Read more about the fossil reconstruction at Popular Mechanics. -via reddit