Name:
Futalognkosaurus (indigenous/Greek for "giant chief lizard"); pronounced FOO-tah-LONK-oh-SORE-us
Habitat:
Woodlands of South America
Historical Period:
Late Cretaceous (80 million years ago)
Size and Weight:
About 100 feet long; weight unknown
Diet:
Plants
Distinguishing Characteristics:
Extremely long neck and tail
About Futalognkosaurus:
You'd think it would be hard for a 100-foot-long dinosaur to keep a low profile, but the fact is, paleontologists are still digging up new genuses of enormous sauropods. One of the latest examples is the oddly named Futalognkosaurus, 70 percent of whose skeleton has been reassembled from three fossilized specimens found in Patagonia (a region of South America). Technically, Futalognkosaurus is classified as a titanosaur (a type of sauropod common in the late Cretaceous), and some experts have hailed it as "the most complete giant dinosaur known so far." (Other sauropods, such as Argentinosaurus, appear to have been even bigger, but are represented by less complete fossil remains.)
