DREADNOUGHTUS
a plant-eating titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Argentina.
Pronunciation: dred-NOHR-tus
Meaning: Fearing nothing
Author/s: Lacovara
et al. (
2014)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Santa Cruz, Argentina
Discovery Chart Position: #875
Dreadnoughtus schrani
(Schrani's Dreadnought)Etymology
Dreadnoughtus is derived from the Old English "Dreadnought" (fearing nothing), alluding to its gigantic body size which, presumably, rendered healthy adult individuals nearly impervious to attack, and to the predominant battleships of the early 20th century (generically known as "dreadnoughts", after the English Navy's HMS
Dreadnought) two of which—ARA
Rivadavia and ARA
Moreno—were part of the Argentine navy. The
species epithet,
schrani, honours American entrepreneur Adam Schran for his financial support.
Discovery
The remains of
Dreadnoughtus were discovered at Cerro Fortaleza in the Cerro Fortaleza Formation, east bank of the Río La Leona, Santa Cruz Province, south-western Patagonia, Argentina, by Kenneth J. Lacovara in 2005.
The
holotype (MPM-PV 1156) is a 45% complete skeleton.
Estimations
Timeline:
Era: Mesozoic
Epoch: Late Cretaceous
Stage: Campanian-Maastrichtian
Age range: 84-66 mya
Stats:
Est. max. length: 28 meters
Est. max. hip height: ?
Est. max. weight: 48 tons
Diet: Herbivore
References
• Lacovara KJ, Lamanna MC, Ibiricu LM, Poole JC, Schroeter ER, Ullmann PV, Voegele KK, Boles ZM, Carter AM, Fowler EK, Egerton VM, Moyer AE, Coughenour CL, Schein JP, Harris JD, Martínez RD and Novas FE (2014) "
A Gigantic, Exceptionally Complete Titanosaurian Sauropod Dinosaur from Southern Patagonia, Argentina".
Scientific Reports, 4: 6196.
DOI: 10.1038/srep06196.
• Bates KT, Falkingham PL, Macaulay S, Brassey C and Maidment SCR (2015) "
Downsizing a giant: re-evaluating Dreadnoughtus body mass".
Biology Letters, 11(6). DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2015.0215.
• Campione NE and Evans DC (2020) "The accuracy and precision of body mass estimation in non-avian dinosaurs".
Biological Reviews, 95(6): 1759-1797. DOI: 10.1111/brv.12638.
• Schroeter ER, Ullmann PV, Macauley K, Ash RD, Zheng W, Schweitzer MH and Lacovara KJ (2022) "Soft-Tissue, Rare Earth Element, and Molecular Analyses of
Dreadnoughtus schrani, an Exceptionally Complete Titanosaur from Argentina".
Biology, 11(8): 1158. DOI: 10.3390/biology11081158.
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To cite this page:
Atkinson, L.
"
DREADNOUGHTUS :: from DinoChecker's dinosaur archive".
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http://www.dinochecker.com/dinosaurs/DREADNOUGHTUS›. Web access: 06th Mar 2026.
