Dino card No. 0571 of 2,027

Elaltitan

Say it: EL-al-TIE-tan

Name means: “Elal's giant, after the Tehuelche god Elal and the Greek word for giant”1

Ate: PlantsLong-necksLate Cretaceous

Elaltitan was a giant, long-necked plant-eater that lived in what is now Argentina. It was one of the biggest dinosaurs ever, as heavy as a herd of elephants!1

Lived

90 to 86 million years ago3

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Chubut Province, Argentina1

Food

Plants3

Length

20 m1

estimate

Weight

23 tonnes to 42.8 tonnes1

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

How heavy was it?

as heavy as 7 elephants

as long as 4 cars parked in a rowas long as 110 bananas end to endas heavy as 8600 watermelons

How big was Elaltitan compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Elaltitan is the first titanosaur skeleton ever found with a preserved calcaneum, a bone in the ankle.1

Its fossils were originally thought to belong to another dinosaur, Antarctosaurus, before scientists realized it was a new species.1

Elaltitan lived about 96 to 89 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous period.1

The complete femur (thigh bone) of Elaltitan would have been about 2.3 meters (7.5 feet) long, as tall as a person.1

Scientists estimate Elaltitan weighed between 23 and 43 tonnes, making it one of the heaviest dinosaurs known.1

The name Elaltitan honors the Tehuelche people's god Elal, from the region where the fossils were found.1

AI-made picture of Elaltitan — An AI-made picture of how Elaltitan might have looked, made by a computer from what scientists know. It is a guess: the real animal may have looked different, and nobody knows its true colours.

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Elaltitan
Named by: Mannion and Otero 20123
Group: Long-necks
Family / clade: Lithostrotia3
Classification: Sauropodomorpha > Sauropoda > Titanosauria > Macronaria3
Age of the rocks: 90 to 86 million years (Coniacian)3
Rock formations: Lago Colhué Huapi3
Countries: Argentina3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Elaltitan was named in 2012 by Philip Mannion and Alejandro Otero. The fossils were collected by an expedition led by José Bonaparte from the Bajo Barreal Formation in Argentina.1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly where Elaltitan fits in the titanosaur family tree. More fossils might help solve this puzzle.2

Where the facts come from

Elaltitan (en.wikipedia.org)
A reappraisal of the Late Cretaceous Argentinean sauropod dinosaur Argyrosaurus superbus, with a description of a new titanosaur genus (ri.conicet.gov.ar)
Elaltitan in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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