Top 8 largest dinosaurs on prehistoric Earth

The enormous size of these dinosaurs will amaze you.

The biggest dinosaurs that ever lived

In terms of mass, the largest mammal on Earth is the blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) - weighing about 136 tons and measuring up to 30 meters in length. However, living conditions in the ocean are very different from those on land. Today, the animal holding the title of largest on land is the elephant, but if we go back to prehistoric times, there were still animals much larger than elephants, those were the dinosaurs of the Mesozoic era (about 252 million to 66 million years ago).

1. Dreadnoughtus

This is the largest dinosaur with a total length of about 26 meters. (Photo: Britannica).

Dreadnoughtus is believed to be the largest dinosaur to have ever lived, with a total length of about 26 meters (85 feet) and an estimated mass of up to 59 tons. Dreadnoughtus was found in quarries in southern Patagonia, Argentina, and dates back to about 77 million years ago. It was the size of a house, weighed as much as a herd of elephants, and had a long tail that it used as a weapon. It ate a huge amount of plants.

2. Patagotitan mayorum, the Titanosaur

This may have been the largest land animal of all time. (Photo: Britannica).

Patagotitan mayorum may have been the largest land animal of all time, based on estimates of the size of its fossilized bones. Paleontologists have found thigh bones that were up to 2.4 meters (8 feet) long. It is thought to have weighed around 70 tons and been 37.2 meters (122 feet) long. However, some researchers believe these estimates are too high. The species lived between 100 million and 95 million years ago.

3. Argentinosaurus

Replica of Argentinosaurus at the Carmen Funes Municipal Museum, Plaza Huincul, Neuquen, Argentina. (Photo: William Irvin Sellers, Lee Margetts, Rodolfo Aníbal Coria, Phillip Lars Manning).

Argentinosaurus has been known to science since 1993. Evidence of it was first discovered in 1987, when a fossil the size of an adult human was unearthed on a farm in Argentina. The farm owner believed the fossil specimen to be a large chunk of petrified wood, and it wasn't until 1993 that it was reclassified as a single vertebra belonging to a new species of dinosaur.

Although no complete skeleton of Argentinosaurus has been found, estimates of the length of this dinosaur (based on predicting the size of the rest of the body using existing fossils) range from 37 to 40 meters (about 121 to 131 feet), and it is thought that it may have weighed between 90 and 100 tons. By these measurements, Argentinosaurus is the largest dinosaur as well as the largest land animal ever known.

4. Saltasaurus

 Saltasaurus dinosaur from the Cretaceous period, a member of the Titanosaurs family. (Photo: mark Turner/Dreamstime.com).

Saltasaurus is named after the city of Salta in northern Argentina, where it was discovered. The species was first described in 1980 and was considered small compared to other titanosaurs, measuring only 12.2 to 12.8 meters (about 40 to 42 feet) in length and weighing less than 7 tons.

While some other dinosaurs relied on their sheer size to deter predators from attacking them, an analysis of a collection of incomplete fossil skeletons of Saltasaurus suggests that the species used a different defensive strategy. The titanosaur's body was covered in osteoderms, or armored plates of bone, that made it harder for predators' teeth to penetrate its flesh.

5. Rapetosaurus krausei

 Skull of Rapetosaurus krausei at the Ontario Museum, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo: D. Gordon E. Robertson).

A juvenile Rapetosaurus krausei was discovered by researchers excavating a hillside in northern Madagascar in 1998. The excavation revealed one of the most complete dinosaur skeletons ever discovered. A juvenile skull and an adult skull were also found at the site. Although the juvenile skeleton was only 8 meters (about 26 feet) long and no adult skeleton was found, paleontologists estimate that the species could have grown to 15 meters (49 feet) as an adult.

6. Austroposeidon magnificus

Fully grown Austroposeidon magnificus grew to 25 metres (82 feet) long.

In 1953, partial dinosaur vertebrae and ribs were excavated from the Presidente Prudente Formation on the outskirts of Sao Paulo. These fossils sat in museums for more than 60 years before Brazilian researchers had the manpower and resources to study them and declare them to belong to an entirely new species of dinosaur, the largest of nine known species in Brazil in 2016. Among these fossils unearthed, a fully grown Austroposeidon magnificus measured up to 25 meters (82 feet) long. The age of the sandstone and mudstone layers containing the fossils suggests that Austroposeidon magnificus lived between 84 million and 66 million years ago.

7. Paralititan stromeri

 Paralititan stromeri is a giant lizard from the Albian-Cenomanian of Egypt. (Photo: Dmitry Bogdanov).

Paralititan stromeri was first described in 2001 after earlier excavations at a site about 300 kilometers (about 186 mi) southwest of Cairo, Egypt, revealed a femur measuring 1.69 meters (5.6 feet) long. The discovery of such a large femur allowed many paleontologists to assert that Paralititan was comparable in size to Argentinosaurus. Estimates of the dinosaur's length and weight vary: estimated lengths range from 25 to 30.5 meters (82 to 100 feet) and estimated weights range from 60 to 75 tons. Paralititan colonized salt marshes during the mid-Cretaceous period about 94 million years ago.

8. Shingopana songwensis

S. songwensis is one of the smallest dinosaurs on the list above. (Photo: internet).

Shingopana songwensis was first discovered in August 2017. Its fossil collection, made up of vertebrae, ribs, bones from one of its forelimbs, and a fragment of its lower jaw and pubic bone, was found in 2002 in the Galula Formation of Africa's Great Rift Valley, located in southwestern Tanzania. The rocks containing the fossils were found to be between 100 million and 70 million years old.

Shingopana is the Swahili word for 'wide neck', and the titanosaur's bulging neck vertebrae inspired its name. At just 8 metres (about 26 feet) long and weighing around 5 tonnes, S. songwensis was one of the smallest dinosaurs on this list.