The battle still rages on for the title of
the largest dinosaur to walk the Earth. As more time passes, we uncover more evidence
of these prehistoric giants. And we're not talking about just the plant
eaters, but the meat-eating dinosaurs too. Just how big were the mightiest sauropods,
and could these giants really have fallen prey to the ferocious meat-eaters during their
time? Could the mighty Giganotosaurus, or the huge
and scary Spinosaurus, defeat a Tyrannosaurus-rex in battle? And could the T-Rex have been 70% larger than
previously thought? If you love dinosaurs, then get ready to find
out the answers to this and more. Many of you probably learned that dinosaurs
such as Brontosaurus and Diplodocus were the biggest, and they were the standard image
of monstrous plant eaters to museumgoers for more than a century. But as time went on, we quickly learned that
even these enormous animals weren’t the largest of all. Lots of new dinosaur bones were uncovered
during the “great-dinosaur renaissance” which lasted from the 1970s through the 1990s. And these fossils had big names like Ultrasaurus,
Seismosaurus, and Supersaurus. The problem was that the announcements from
the field about these huge monsters didn’t hold up in the lab when the fossils were studied. Sadly, a lot of dinosaur bones that were discovered
back then were either lost, destroyed during WW2, or the fossils simply disintegrated,
and no other examples have since been discovered. The largest complete fossil skeleton for a
plant-eating dinosaur that has been found belongs to Brachiosaurus, which ranged in
size from 17 to 22 meters [55 to 72 feet] long and would have stood some 13 meters [42
feet] tall. The huge dinosaur probably weighed as much
as 70 tons. It had longer front limbs compared to its
hind limbs, which likely helped the Brachiosaurus reach higher vegetation without straining
its long neck. Some paleontologists say that this dinosaur
might have occasionally stood up on its hind legs to reach food. The huge Brachiosaurus was so big that it
likely had few predators, and it’s estimated they lived for about 100 years. One of the largest herbivores we have evidence
of, roamed around the Earth about 100 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous with
other giant sauropods. This huge beast is called Patagotitan mayorum,
or better known as Titanosaur. Many fossils of this dinosaur have been found,
including a thighbone that measured 2.4 meters [8 feet] long. With some of the pieces of the puzzle, it
had its skeleton completely cast, and was unveiled at the American Museum of Natural
History. The skeleton of the Titanosaur is so big that
its head and neck stick out in the hallway of the museum. The Titanosaur was estimated to weigh around
69 metric tons [76 tons]. That’s more than ten full grown African
elephants. These creatures were so big when they were
full grown, that it could have been very difficult for predators to take them down. That’s huge, but there was another plant-eating
dinosaur even bigger than Titanosaur! We’re talking about Argentinosaurus. It’s been known to science since 1993, but
evidence of this behemoth was originally found back in 1987. A rancher found a huge fossil the size of
a full grown human. But the rancher didn’t know it was an ancient
fossil, and thought it was a large chunk of petrified wood, but it turned out to be a
large single vertebra that belonged to a newly discovered sauropod. Like many dinosaur bone discoveries, no complete
skeletons have been found of Argentinosaurus. But what archaeologists have found gives us
a clear picture of how big this beast really was; growing to a length of 37-40 meters [121-131
feet] and it probably weighed somewhere between 90 and 100 metric tons [99 to 110 tons]! But there were not only herbivorous dinosaurs
that walked on all fours, there were some really big bipedal plant-eating dinosaurs
that were much bigger than even Tyrannosaurus Rex…and even Spinosaurus, both of which
we’ll get to in a few moments. For many decades, the only fossils that paleontologists
had of a beast called Deinocheirus, an omnivorous giant theropod, was a pair of eight foot long
arms that had 8 inch claws…which were the largest and longest arms of any bipedal dinosaur. Discovered back in the Gobi Desert in 19654,
scientists named it Deinocheirus mirificus; Greek for ‘terrible hands’. Fossils tell us this dinosaur reached lengths
of 10 meters [33 feet] long, and stood at least 4.5 meters [15 feet] tall. And with most adults weighing in at over 9
tons, it was no slouch in the size department either. You’re probably wondering what it used the
long arms and claws for. Paleontologists say that Deinocheirus likely
used its long arms and claws to dig up plants or even catch fish. However, Deinocheirus probably snatched up
any other small creature that was unlucky enough to cross paths with it. Other features of this big unique dinosaur
included a large, thick humped backbone. This dinosaur sounds big and scary, but there
was a bipedal herbivore even bigger! Around the same time, about 100 million years
ago, during the Late Cretaceous period, there was a huge hadrosaurid dinosaur that roamed
in what is now the Shandong Peninsula. Its scientific name is Shantungosaurus giganteus,
or Shandong Lizard, due to it being one of the largest ornithischian dinosaurs found
to date. A full grown Shantungosaurus could reach lengths
up to 16.5 meters [54 feet] and some of the largest of these dinosaurs could have weighed
around 16 tonnes [18 short tons] The skull alone from one of these beasts measured 1.63
meters [5.3] feet long And like all hadrosaurs, it had a giant toothless beak, but its jaws
were packed with around 1,500 tiny chewing teeth. It was a strange dinosaur in that fossil remains
show a large hole near its nostrils that paleontologists say could have been covered by a flap of skin
that could be inflated to make sounds. If this dinosaur was full grown, it might
have been too intimidating for predators to attack it. But all of these dinosaurs had one thing in
common, they were all on the menu of some predatory meat-eating dinosaur. The last two dinosaurs we talked about were
likely hunted by Tarbosaurus. This dinosaur was also discovered in the Gobi
Desert and could reach 10 to 12 meters [40 feet] in length, and as an adult, weighed
in at 4.5 metric tons [5.0 short tons]. Like all other meat eating predators of the
time, this dinosaur hunted and ate anything it could bring down. It had thick and long legs that allowed it
to move with speed and agility. The interesting thing about this terrifying
predator is that it had a unique locking mechanism in its 1.2 meter [4.2 feet] long jaw, which
had between 58 and 64 large, sharp, knife-shaped teeth about 8.3 centimeters [3.3 inches] long. This meant that when it attacked its unlucky
prey, its jaw would lock down on the victim, leaving it with no way to escape. This dinosaur was the king of dinosaurs in
ancient Asia. But in North America, a much more menacing
‘king of the dinosaurs’ was found. The Tyrannosaurus-Rex is probably everyone’s
favorite dinosaur, even though it would have been a terrifying monster for any human to
encounter. The T-Rex was definitely one of the biggest
carnivorous dinosaurs measuring up to 12.3 meters long [40 feet], and could weigh up
to 8.8 metric tons [9.78 short tons]. And for their size, they were quick. Some scientists say the ‘Tyrant Lizard King’
could sprint between 20 and 32 kilometers per hour [12.2 to 20 mph]. And if something wasn’t fast enough to escape
Tyrannosaurus Rex, it would have to contend with a 1.2 meter [4 feet] long jaw full of
50-60 banana-sized teeth that could exert up to 12,814 pounds of force [57,000 Newton]. Recently, scientists have done a study that
concludes this dinosaur could be 70% bigger than fossils suggest. That means the largest T-Rex could have weighed
a whopping 15 metric tons [16.5 US tons], that’s heavier than the average bus. T-Rex was almost certainly an apex predator
and could probably bring down anything with that incredibly powerful bite and those 30
centimeter [12 inches] long teeth. While the T-Rex definitely sounds big and
impressive, he wasn’t the biggest meat eater. And even though the skeletons of the next
big carnivorous dinosaur are incomplete, we have somewhat an idea of how big it was. Giganotosaurus was thought to stand 6-meters
[20 feet] high, and was around 13.7 meters [45 feet] long. However, paleontologists have argued that
the skull of Giganotosaurus was the same size as Tyrannosaurus rex, and probably had less
bite force. But their jaws could open and close faster,
and they brought down their prey by delivering quick powerful bites, whereas T-Rex’s bite
was so powerful that it could crush the bones of its prey. But Giganotosaurus was thought to have one
big advantage over T-Rex as it could run as fast as 50 kilometers per hour [31 mph] thanks
to its larger and more powerful leg muscles. Even though this dinosaur might be bigger
than T-Rex, if these two got into a battle, it might be better for Giganotosaurus to run. But there is another dinosaur that is just
as terrifyingly scary, if not more so. The legendary Spinosaurus was first discovered
back in 1912 by German paleontologist Ernst Stromer in Egypt. Unfortunately, the original fossils were destroyed
during WW2. But drawings with notes of the fossils were
detailed enough for paleontologists to come up with enough ideas of what it looked like. Spinosaurus had jaws like a crocodile, with
conical teeth and large hooked claws for catching slippery prey like the 25-foot long sawfish,
or giant lungfish. This makes sense because Egypt, during the
Late Cretaceous period, was a tropical oasis of mangrove-lined rivers full of sharks and
other giant fish. Since then, Paleontologists in the Moroccan
Sahara have found a mostly complete tail of Spinosaurus. With its huge sail on its back, the dinosaur
stood at 6.5 meters [20 feet] tall, and its skull was 1.75 meters [6 feet] long. Spinosaurus could grow between 14-18 meters
[46-59 feet] long, and weighed an astonishing 12,000-20,000 kilograms [13-22 tons]. And just because this dinosaur was more adapted
to the water, it was a hybrid, and could also hunt on land if it had to. Were it to run into Giganotosaurus, it could
probably win the battle. But Tyrannosaurus rex, on the other hand,
with its massive bite force and 30 centimeter [12 inch] long teeth, just might give the
Spinosaurus a run for its money. Now that you’ve seen and heard about these
incredible dinosaurs, we want to hear from you, our viewers, which one is your favorite. Make sure to give us a like, because it really
helps us out. And if you want to see more videos on dinosaurs,
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