Paralititan
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Paralititan Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 95 Ma |
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| Life restoration | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | Saurischia |
| Suborder: | †Sauropodomorpha |
| Clade: | †Neosauropoda |
| Clade: | †Macronaria |
| Clade: | †Titanosauria |
| Genus: |
†Paralititan Smith et al., 2001 |
| Type species | |
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†Paralititan stromeri Smith et al., 2001 (type) |
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Paralititan (meaning "tidal giant") was a giant titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur genus discovered in coastal deposits in the Upper Cretaceous Bahariya Formation of Egypt. It lived between 98 and 93 million years ago. It was called by one science journalist "what appears to have been the second largest known creature ever to walk on Earth."
Joshua Smith and his fellow discoverers called it Paralititan stromeri, which means "Stromer's tidal (Greek para + halos "near sea") titan" or "Stromer's tidal giant". It was named by Joshua B. Smith, Matthew C. Lamanna, Kenneth J. Lacovara, Peter Dodson, Jennifer R. Smith, Jason C. Poole, Robert Giegengack and Yousri Attia in 2001 to honor Ernst Stromer von Reichenbach, a German paleontologist and geologist who found dinosaurs in this area in the early 1900s.
The fossil represents the first tetrapod reported from the Bahariya Formation since 1935. Its 1.69 meter (5.54 ft) long humerus is longer than that of any known Cretaceous sauropod.
Smith, who led the research team that found the dinosaur fossils, told an interviewer, "It was a truly enormous dinosaur by any reckoning."
Little of Paralititan is known, so its exact size is difficult to estimate. However, the limited material suggests that it is one of the most massive dinosaurs ever discovered, with an estimated weight of 59 t (65 short tons). Using Saltasaurus as a guide, Carpenter estimated its length at around 26 m (85 ft). Scott Hartman estimates an animal that is massive, but still smaller than the biggest titanosaurs such as Puertasaurus, Alamosaurus, and Argentinosaurus. Like other titanosaurs, it had a wide-gauge stance and may have possessed osteoderms for defense. The Paralititan type specimen appears to have been scavenged by a meat-eater. It is also possible that Paralititan was hunted by large predatory dinosaurs such as, Bahariasaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, and Spinosaurus, though this would only be possible if the mentioned predators were able to hunt in groups of at least several individuals.
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Wikipedia