Sir David Attenborough's BBC show will feature a 37m model of the 70-tonne titanosaur. Photo / BBC
Sir David Attenborough's BBC show will feature a 37m model of the 70-tonne titanosaur. Photo / BBC
The biggest dinosaur to walk the planet is to be unveiled by Sir David Attenborough in a new BBC show.
The 70-tonne titanosaur, which at 37m from nose to tail is nearly the length of four London buses, was discovered by a Patagonian shepherd, who found the tip of agiant thigh bone sticking out of a rock in the Argentinian province of Chubut in 2014.
Palaeontologists later discovered more than 220 fossilised bones, belonging to seven separate dinosaurs, one of which is thought to be the biggest creature ever to walk the Earth.
Dr Diego Pol, lead scientist on the excavation based at the Museum of Palaeontology Egidio Feruglio, in Trelew, Argentina, said: "It was like a palaeontological crime scene, a unique thing that you don't find anywhere else in the world, with the potential of discovering all kinds of new facts about titanosaurs.
"According to our estimates this animal weighed 70 tonnes. A comparison of the back bones shows that this animal was 10 per cent larger than Argentinosaurus, the previous record holder."
Filmed over two years, Attenborough and the Giant Dinosaur, airing in Britain this month, follows the scientists' forensic investigations, as they seek to prove the beast is the largest to be found. It will also feature a 37m model of the newly discovered giant.
CGI modelling done for the programme will allow viewers to see inside the creature, whose heart weighed the same as three people.
Experts said the beast, thought to be 100 million years old, would have eaten the equivalent of a skip-full of plants in a day.
