Futalognkosaurus dukei

Futalognkosaurus dukei has a suitably long name for such an enormous animal. Originally estimated to measure in at 34 metres in length (making it one of the largest dinosaurs — indeed, animals — of all time), more conservative estimates have ranged between ‘only’ 26–30 metres.

Like many of the other contenders for the title of ‘Largest Dino Ever’, Futalognkosaurus was discovered in South America. It was a member of the recently identified clade Lognkosauria, a taxonomic group of several giant titanosaurs that stomped about South America about 90MYA in the Upper Cretaceous period.

The scientific name is often spelled Futalo-ng-kosaurus, which may appear to be a more intuitive (or at least pronounceable) way of doing so. However, the name is actually derived from the Mapudungun language of the indigenous Mapuche people from the region in which Futalognkosaurus was discovered in 2000, and approximately translates as “Giant Chief Lizard”.

In case you’re still puzzling over how to pronounce it, imagine the ‘g’ is silent (like in the word ‘gnome’). The name then becomes ‘Futa-lonko-saurus’. If anyone knows of a better pronunciation, please leave a reply!

AMAZING FACT: Futalognkosaurus has been described as “the most complete fossil skeleton of any giant dinosaur ever found”. Three specimens are known, accounting for over 70% of the skeleton. For comparison, most other titanosaurs are known from perhaps 8% at most.

FURTHER READING: If you want to learn more about how researchers try to estimate the lengths of giant dinosaurs from fragmentary remains, then drop everything now and read this conference paper from 2008.