Patagotitan and the problem of body mass estimation

Image: A. Otero.

Since the discovery of dinosaur remains in the Neuquen basin in 1882, Argentina has gained the title of Land of the Giants. The tittle was reinforced by recent discoveries of more remains of giant titanosaurs like Argentinosaurus, Dreadnoughtus, Notocolossus, Puertasaurus.

Titanosaurus were a diverse group of sauropod dinosaurs represented by more than 30 genera, which included all descendants of the more recent common ancestor of Andesaurus and Saltasaurus. The group includes the smallest (e.g. Rinconsaurus, Saltasaurus; with estimated body masses of approximately 6 tonnes) and largest sauropods known to date. They had their major radiation during the middle Early Cretaceous. The evolution of body mass in this clade is key element to understand sauropod evolution.

Patagotitan reconstruction (Image: Diego Pol)

Patagotitan mayorum, originally discovered in 2010 by the rural farmer Aurelio Hernandez  is the largest and the most complete titanosaur taxa recovered to date. The generic name Patagotitan is derived from Patago (in reference to the geographic origin of the fossils, Patagonia), and titan (symbolic of its large size). The species name honours the Mayo family (owner of La Flecha Farm, the place where the fossils were found). The holotype (MPEF-PV 3400), includes an anterior and two middle cervical vertebrae, three anterior, two middle and two posterior dorsal vertebrae, six anterior caudal vertebrae, three chevrons, dorsal ribs, both sternal plates, right scapulocoracoid, both pubes and both femora. Six individuals were found in the same quarry, distributed in three distinct but closely spaced horizons, corresponding to  three different burial events. The first estimations of Patagotitan body mass suggest that it would weigh around 70 tons. The dorsal vertebrae preserved in Patagotitan, Argentinosaurus and Puertasaurus allows distinguishing the new taxon from previously known giant titanosaurs from the ‘mid-Cretaceous’ of Patagonia.

(a) Middle cervical vertebra in right lateral view; (b) anterior dorsal vertebra in anterior view (From Carballido et al., 2017)

During the last decades Argentinosaurus hiunculensis has been considered the largest dinosaur that ever walked the Earth. But because of the fragmentary nature of the type specimen, quantitative methods for body mass estimation cannot be directly applied. Two previous studies (Mazzetta et al., 2004; Benson et al., 2014) estimated the body mass of Argentinosaurus by applying scaling equations and measurements taken from two isolated femoral shafts found in deposits of the Huincul Formation. Calculations based in one of these fragmentary femora, housed at the Museo de La Plata collection and at the Museo Municipal “Carmen Funes”, estimates a body mass of 73 tons, but for the moment none of the femora can be confidentially referred to Argentinosaurus given the complete absence of femoral remains in the type material.

The team lead by Dr. José Luis Carballido from the Egidio Feruglio Paleontology Museum (Mef), used the anterior dorsal vertebrae (preserved in Argentinosaurus, Puertasaurus, Notocolossus) for a size comparison between Patagotitan and other giant titanosaurs from Patagonia. The direct comparison of these elements indicate that the dorsal vertebrae of Patagotitan are 8%–18% larger than that of Argentinosaurus and Puertasaurus, and even larger when compared to Notocolossus. Unfortunatelly, as the team remarks, this cannot be extrapolate to determine the body mass for Argentinosaurus and Puertasaurus and the only way to obtain a reliable body mass estimation is contingent on finding new associated material that can be referred to these taxa.

 

References:

Carballido JL, Pol D, Otero A, Cerda IA, Salgado L, Garrido AC, Ramezani J, Cúneo NR, Krause JM. 2017 A new giant titanosaur sheds light on body mass evolution among sauropod dinosaurs. Proc. R. Soc. B 284: 20171219.
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2017.1219

Mazzetta, G. V., Christiansen, P., & Fariña, R. a. (2004). Giants and Bizarres: Body Size of Some Southern South American Cretaceous Dinosaurs. Historical Biology: A Journal of Paleobiology, 16(2–4), 71–83. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08912960410001715132

Benson, R. B. J., Campione, N. E., Carrano, M. T., Mannion, P. D., Sullivan, C., Upchurch, P., & Evans, D. C. (2014). Rates of Dinosaur Body Mass Evolution Indicate 170 Million Years of Sustained Ecological Innovation on the Avian Stem Lineage. PLoS Biology, 12(5), http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001853.