The size of Alamosaurus sanjuanensis

Carnosaur
MemberCompsognathusAugust 18, 201410189 Views40 RepliesThis sauropod really lives up to the family name. The titanosaurs were the last of the giants, and Alamosaurus was no exception
The scientifically accepted size for this creature is enormous enough - 15 meters long and a head that towers into the sky at 8.4 meters.
Case closed right?
erhm...not really
In 1999, a string of neck vertebrate were discovered in the Big Bend region of Texas. The hillside in which it was discovered yielded partial pelvic bones and ten articulated cervical vertebrae.
A cursory glance at the fossilized remains shows that they appear to be titanosaurine in nature
Don't quote me on that one, as i don't specialize in categorizing vertebrate based on a cursory glance. For all intensive purposes, they do resemble those of Alamosaurus and the likely hood of two titanosaur species inhabiting the same area at the same time is highly unlikely.
The vertebrae were found side by side, stretching for around 8 meters. From the pictures, those ten vertebrae look like the ten largest, which should account for almost all of the neck except for the first few cervicals behind the head. 23 feet, and we find that it is almost exactly 1.5 times bigger than the one listed above. If its proportions are like the other specimens of Alamosaurus found The numbers would be astoundingly large.
Confirmed Alamosaurus sizes: "Big bend sauropod"
Lenght: 15.6 meters Length: 24 meters
Height: 8.4 meters Height: 12.6 meters
Now, let's look at some other titanosaur species for weight calculations.
Basing off of Aegyptosaurus( which was in the same length and height class)
The 52-foot 'normal' animal probably had a mass around 15 tons. now, the 79 foot "big bend" specimen would be substantially larger then that. Titanosaurus were some of the heavier sauropods, and doing the basic calculations:
The 79-footer would have been about 50 tons (1.5^3 = 3.375)
There are vague rumors floating around the internet of a hundred foot specimen, which i believe to be just an internet rumor.
For now, i believe we have confirmation of this big bend sauropod belonging to Alamosaurus, and the already giant sauropod just got a bit bigger.
Nature doesn't deceive us; it is we who deceive ourselves.