Friday 22 January 2016

Reconstructing the 'world's biggest dinosaur'


By Paul Rincon
Science editor, BBC News website

"Seeing the reaction of the people is fantastic. It all makes sense - we do this because we're interested in the science, but it all goes back to society."

Palaeontologist Diego Pol is talking about the giant dinosaur he spent years excavating in southern Argentina. This titan of the Cretaceous Period, or at least a fibreglass replica of its skeleton, has now taken up residence as an exhibit in New York's American Museum of Natural History (AMNH).

The cast is 122ft long and respresents a giant plant-eating titanosaur that lived in the forests of Patagonia between 100 and 95 million years ago. It may well be the biggest dinosaur yet discovered, but is so new it doesn't have a formal scientific name.

The dinosaur cast was unveiled before a packed crowd of media on 14 January. The skeleton grazes the 19ft-high ceilings of the museum's Wallach Orientation Center and its head and neck stick out of the room, gazing towards the lifts.

The story behind the exhibit is told in a new BBC One documentary presented by Sir David Attenborough.


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