# World biggest dinoaur discovered



## Brian G Turner (May 17, 2014)

Another Argentine Titanosaur:

BBC News - 'Biggest dinosaur ever' discovered


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## Cat's Cradle (May 17, 2014)

Oh, that's wonderful...I say 'awesome' a lot, and too casually I think, but this creature truly was awesome!!


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## HareBrain (May 17, 2014)

It's funny how dinosaurs keep getting bigger -- and also cars. Compare the current versions  of the VW Golf, Fiat 500 and Mini with their original models.

One can't help but wonder if the same process is involved.


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## Boneman (May 17, 2014)

HareBrain said:


> It's funny how dinosaurs keep getting bigger -- and also cars. Compare the current versions of the VW Golf, Fiat 500 and Mini with their original models.
> 
> One can't help but wonder if the same process is involved.


 

And extinction follows?

That is a staggering size, though. Maybe it's a staggeringsaurus?


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## thaddeus6th (May 17, 2014)

To be fair, I do think car production and usage would decline if we got hit by a large meteorite.


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## Allegra (May 18, 2014)

I read the news earlier. Wow, just imagine seeing that thing walking on earth...


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## mosaix (May 19, 2014)

I know there must be a reason, but there must have been hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of them around at the time and yet this is the only one discovered so far. Fascinating stuff anyway - over two and half times taller than the average UK house!


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## Gramm838 (May 19, 2014)

I wonder how big the dinosaur dog was, that would like to chew on that bone...makes you wonder how big Fred's dog Dino should have been?

(And why, when Dino threw Fred out of the window, did Fred hammer on the door and not just climb back in through the window? These things should be explained.)


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## Overread (May 19, 2014)

Considering how many Ice Ages there have been since the time of the Dinosaurs its amazing that there is as much as we do find.


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## JoanDrake (May 21, 2014)

HareBrain said:


> It's funny how dinosaurs keep getting bigger -- and also cars. Compare the current versions  of the VW Golf, Fiat 500 and Mini with their original models.
> 
> One can't help but wonder if the same process is involved.







Speaking strictly biologically, getting bigger over time is one of the General Trends in all evolution. Being bigger isn't entirely advantageous but the pluses outweigh the minuses for almost any species. A very well-known exception to this rule, however, is if a very dominant predator is dominant because it can figure this out, and kills off the mega-fauna first. This may be why the biggest animals that ever lived are living now and why they live in an area where no predator dominates because they are intelligent


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## thaddeus6th (May 21, 2014)

That's only true in the sea though, isn't it? 

The largest land animals are much smaller than they were in the past. I wonder if that's due to the impact of humans.


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## Overread (May 21, 2014)

The island effect might have something to do with it. It's been noticed that when a species lives within a smaller and smaller land mass the size of the species reduces over time. Small woolly mammoths were the last surviving living on a small island. It could be as the single land mass continued to break up the island effect took its toll on all species. Or at least prevented the rise of mega fauna after the mass extinction of the dinosaurs. 

Also that this interglacial period we are in now is the only one without any mega fauna on the land its also suggested that human hunting was simply too widespread and too effective and we were responsible for the destruction of many mega fauna. And of course since then we've, in effect, created our own island effect by stripping ecosystems down further and further - as a result many larger animals simply don't have the room to survive within them.


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## HareBrain (May 21, 2014)

thaddeus6th said:


> The largest land animals are much smaller than they were in the past. I wonder if that's due to the impact of humans.



Humans have (probably) been responsible for the extinction of the largest members of certain families -- mammoths, Irish elk, elephant birds, giant sloths -- but these creatures were much smaller than many land mammals that lived long before humans existed (such as Paraceratherium, extinct 20m years ago).


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## David Evil Overlord (May 21, 2014)

Maybe we should call it a Plutosaurus, since it's as big as a dwarf planet...


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