Dreadnoughtus long neck dinosaurs weigh only 40 tons

British scientists believe that Dreadnoughtus, the longest dinosaur in the neck, weighs only 40 tons. While the scientific world previously thought it weighed 60 tons.

Detection of long-necked Dreadnoughtus dinosaurs weighs only 40 tons

In 2014, the nearly intact fossil skeleton of the Dreadnoughtus dinosaur was discovered in southern Argentina . Paleontologists analyzed this extremely rare fossil and thought it weighed about 40 tons and was 26 meters long.

Illustration of Dreadnoughtus dinosaur - (Daily Mail screenshot)

This conclusion is considered quite surprising because the scientific world before still believe that Dreadnoughtus weight to 60 tons, weighs more than 20 tons compared to the newly published research. However, the dreadnoughtus dinosaur is still one of the largest creatures to ever walk on the ground.

The team of scientists from the University of Liverpool, University of Manchester (UK) and several other agencies used 3D space simulation technology to determine Dreadnoughtus body mass.

They found dinosaurs weighing between 30 and 40 tons, much less than the original judgment. " It is extremely difficult to estimate the mass of an extinct organism 77 million years ago from fossil bones , " said Dr. Karl Bates of the University of Liverpool.

A paleontologist beside the fossil bone of the Dreadnoughtus dinosaur - (Photo: AFP)

" The previous calculation method has been widely used and has been successful in determining the mass of many specimens. However, the results of this method are not suitable for Dreadnoughtus," Dr Bates added. .

The team calculated by new method. They use digital simulation technology and gather data from many species of organisms that once existed on the planet. The results show that Dreadnoughtus is not as big as the initial calculation.

Dreadnoughtus dinosaurs belong to the group of legal lizards (titanosaurs), living in the late Cretaceous period more than 70 million years ago. With its massive size, dinosaurs consume large amounts of plants and use their tails as weapons. Dreadnoughtus still has many secrets to paleontology because most of their fossils are incomplete.