New study shows sauropods are the largest creatures to ever walk the Earth

The largest creatures to ever walk the Earth were the sauropodsthe herbivorous dinosaurs with long necks that reached a height of 30-36 meters. A new study shed light on lineage evolution by looking at 36 different species they cover a period of almost 100 million years, bridging the Jurassic with the Cretaceous.

“Sauropods aren’t just the largest creatures to ever walk the Earth. They have won this title more than 30 times in their evolutionary history”emphasizes paleontologist Mike Demick from Adelphi University in New York, author of the study published in the journal Current Biology.

THE heavyweight champion was Argentinosaurus, who lived 95 million years ago in Argentina and weighed about 76 tons. Next came Brachiosaurus (weighing up to 63 tons) and Varosaurus (60 tons), which lived 150 million years ago in North America, and various species of titanosaurs (weighing up to 48 tons) from Argentina, China and Australia.

Only some whales exceeded sauropods in size, which appeared about 200 million years ago. The last species of sauropod was Alamosaurus which lived in North America shortly before a huge asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs, 66 million years ago.

Pointing out differences in their anatomy, Demick explains that the necks of some sauropods were thin (such as the giraffe), while others were thick and hard (such as the rhinoceros).

The size gave them competitive advantages against other herbivorous dinosaurs and gave them a sense of security against carnivorous predators.

“I think it’s amazing that we’re still learning so much about these animals… About 10 new species of sauropods are discovered every year,” says Demick and according to the Athens News Agency, he adds: “We are living in the golden age of discovery for paleontology.”