Sauropods and Titanosaurs

Welcome Back!
This time we'll be looking at the Largest family of dinosaurs, the Sauropods.
These behemoths were not just the biggest dinosaurs, but also the largest land animals to have ever lived, absolutely dwarfing the largest land animals of today.
In basic terms they are very much like giraffes, in that the have elongated necks in order to reach the succulent leaves at the top of trees, and move in herds. But being dinosaurs, of course they are Much bigger.
The diplodocus is one of the most famous sauropods, probably due to the magnificent specimen kept in the main hall of the Natural History Museum in London. (below)

                                                     Diplodocus at the NHM, London. Image by Jasmin C
This amazing creature was, at over 100ft long, and weighing in at up to 40 tonnes, an incredibly large lizard. You may have noticed, the majority of it's length was made up by the incredibly long neck, and tail. (earning the species it's name - Diplodocus meaning "Double Beam" in latin).
As mentioned above, the long neck evolved in order to reach the fresh, nutrient-rich leaves at the top of
trees - As you can imagine, an animal this large needs a lot of nutrients in order to survive the harsh prehistoric conditions.
Diplodocus' would also use their necks in order to engage in battle with others of their species, whether conflict arose over mating rights, territory, or even position within the herd hierarchy.
But there was also another weapon, making the Diplodocus deadly from either end:- The incredibly long, thin tail. Used partially for balance, Diplodocus could also whip the tail at a great speed to attack any predator that came looking for a meal.Yes, even a lizard of this size would be vulnerable to a pack of hungry raptors or, worse yet, Allosaurs looking to pick off a youngster.

Another well known Sauropod Dinosaur was Camarasaurus, an ancestor of Diplodocus. It was smaller than Diplodocus, but you can see from the picture below how the Sauropods began to evolve into their massive sizes.

                                                      Camarasaurus at NHM, London. Image by Jasmin C
And yet, Diplodocus and Camarasaurus were far from being  record holders in terms of size. Later, during the Cretaceous period, a sub-group of Sauropods would evolve to truly dwarf any other creature that has ever set foot on land - The Titanosaurs.

The Titanosaurs were truly remarkable, for subtle differences in their anatomy enabled them to grow much larger than other sauropods. Their necks were more flexible than those of more primitive Sauropod species, instantly gaining more height over their brethren.

Combined with longer front legs, this also helped to make the neck (a vulnerable spot) harder to reach for 

predatory species, vital in a time when predatory dinosaurs were also becoming larger.

To put this size into perspective - the largest Titanosaur species would often weigh in at 90-100 tonnes, twice the weight of the Diplodocus, or to put in modern terms,TEN TIMES the weight of the largest recorded African Elephant. This makes these giants among the heaviest animals to have ever lived, comparable in weight to many large whales of today, and truly deserved the name "Titans".

                                                  Argentinosaurus. Image by Capt. Kodak

Among the best known Titanosaurs are Saltasaurus and Argentinosaurus but the Title of largest 

Dinosaur, and therefore largest land animal of all time, goes to....*drum roll*...

Amphicoelias!

Only known from one fossil, and notes of bones that have been lost, Palaeontologists have been 

able to determine that this species was possibly up to 200ft in length, and weighed over 130 tonnes.

 

Now that we've looked at the larger species, next time we will look at the smallest dinosaur species.