a colossal plant eating lognkosaurian titanosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Argentina.
Pronunciation: PAT-a-go-TIE-tuhn
Meaning: Patagonia giant
Author/s: Carballido
et al. (
2017)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Chubut, Argentina
Discovery Chart Position: #963
Patagotitan mayorum
(Mayo's Patagonian giant)Etymology
Patagotitan is derived from "Patagonia" (for the southern portion of South America) and "titan" (for the giant, primordial deities from Greek mythology).
The
species epithet,
mayorum, honours the Mayo family, on whose ranch the discovery was made.
Patagotitan represents not only one of the three largest known sauropods that are very close in size but also one
of the most complete titanosaurs recovered to date, and was a precious find indeed. So it's a shame that ranch worker Aurelio Hernandez—who went looking for a lost sheep and found this critter's first colossal fossil (a lump of thigh) instead, but sadly passed before its official description—wasn't honoured in some way, because Aurelio means "gold" in Spanish.
Discovery
The remains of
Patagotitan were discovered in the Cerro Barcino Formation at "La Flecha" Ranch, Chubut Province, Patagonia, Argentina, by the late Aurelio Hernandez in 2012.
The
holotype (MPEF-PV 3400) is the best preserved of at least six individuals from the same quarry, and includes three neck vertebrae, seven back vertebrae, six
tail vertebrae, three chevrons, ribs, both sternal plates, the right shoulder girdle, both pubes (hip bones) and both thighs. The paratypes include much of the skeleton that is missing from the holotype but, one tooth aside, no skull material is known.
• Mazzetta GV, Christiansen P, Farina RA (2004) "
Giants and bizarres: body size of some southern South American Cretaceous dinosaurs".
Historical Biology, (2-4): 1-13. DOI: 10.1080/08912960410001715132
• Sellers WI, Margetts L, Coria RAB and Manning PL (2013) "March of the Titans: The Locomotor Capabilities of Sauropod Dinosaurs".
PLOS ONE, 8(10): e78733. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0078733.
• González Riga BJ, Lamanna MC, Ortiz David, LD, Calvo JO and Coria JP (2016) "
A gigantic new dinosaur from Argentina and the evolution of the sauropod hind foot".
Scientific Reports, 6: 19165. DOI: 10.1038/srep19165
• Carballido JL, Pol D, Otero A, Cerda IA, Salgado L, Garrido AC, Ramezani J, Cúneo NR and Krause JM (2017) "
A new giant titanosaur sheds light on body mass evolution among sauropod dinosaurs".
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 284(1860): 20171219. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2017.1219
• Paul GS (2019) "
Determining the largest known land animal: A critical comparison of differing methods for restoring the volume and mass of extinct animals"
Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 85(4): 335-358. DOI: 10.2992/007.085.0403
• Otero A, Carballido JL and Pérez Moreno A (2020) "The appendicular osteology of
Patagotitan mayorum (Dinosauria, Sauropoda)".
Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 40(4): e1793158
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To cite this page:
Atkinson, L.
"
PATAGOTITAN :: from DinoChecker's dinosaur archive".
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http://www.dinochecker.com/dinosaurs/PATAGOTITAN›. Web access: 06th Mar 2026.