Dino card No. 0697 of 2,027

Garrigatitan

Say it: gah-REE-gah-TIE-tan

Name means: “garrigue giant, after the dry Mediterranean shrubland where it was found”1

Ate: PlantsLong-necksLate Cretaceous

Garrigatitan was a long-necked plant-eater that lived in what is now southern France. It was a medium-sized sauropod, and some individuals may have grown as long as a school bus!1 2

Lived

84 to 72 million years ago4

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Velaux-La Bastide Neuve, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France1 2

Food

Plants3

Length

4 to 16 m1 2

subadults and adults 4 to 6 m, possible adults up to 12 to 16 m

Weight

2 tonnes to 2.5 tonnes1 2

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 1.5 cars

as long as 4 cars parked in a rowas long as 89 bananas end to endas heavy as 83 big dogsas heavy as 500 watermelons

How big was Garrigatitan compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Garrigatitan lived about 74 to 70 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous Period.1

Its fossils were found in two bonebeds at the same site, alongside another titanosaur called Atsinganosaurus.2

The name Garrigatitan comes from the Occitan word 'garriga', meaning dry thicket, and the Greek word 'titan' for giant.1

Scientists think Garrigatitan belonged to a group of titanosaurs called Lirainosaurinae, which lived in Europe.1

Some bones show that even the smaller individuals had reached full adulthood, with growth rings like tree rings.2

Garrigatitan had hourglass-shaped upper arm bones, a unique feature among titanosaurs.2

AI-made picture of Garrigatitan — An AI-made picture of how Garrigatitan 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: Garrigatitan
Named by: Díez Díaz et al. 20214
Group: Long-necks
Family / clade: Lirainosaurinae4
Classification: Sauropodomorpha > Sauropoda > Titanosauria > Macronaria4
Age of the rocks: 84 to 72 million years (Campanian)4
Countries: France4
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Garrigatitan was named in 2021 by Verónica Díez Díaz and colleagues. The first fossils were found between 2009 and 2012 during excavations by the Palaios Association and the University of Poitiers.1 2
Still debated: Scientists are not sure whether Garrigatitan was a lirainosaurine or a member of a different group called Lognkosauria, because its fossils are fragmentary.1

Where the facts come from

Garrigatitan (en.wikipedia.org)
ORBi: A new titanosaur (Dinosauria: Sauropoda) from the Upper Cretaceous of Velaux-La-Bastide Neuve (southern France) - 2021 (orbi.uliege.be)
PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
Garrigatitan in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

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