Genus
Valid Extinct

Patagotitan

Carballido et al. 2017

Patagotitan is a genus of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous Cerro Barcino Formation in Chubut Province, Patagonia, Argentina. The genus contains a single species known from at least six young adult individuals, Patagotitan mayorum, which was first announced in 2014 and then named in 2017 by José Carballido and colleagues. Originally thought to be the largest known titanosaur and land animal overall, preliminary studies and press releases suggested that Patagotitan had an estimated length of 37 m (121 ft) and an estimated weight of 69 tonnes. Later research revised the length estimate down to 31 m (102 ft) and weight estimates down to approximately 50–60 tonnes, suggesting that Patagotitan was of a similar size to, if not smaller than, its closest relatives Argentinosaurus and Puertasaurus. Still, Patagotitan is one of the best-known titanosaurs, and so its interrelationships with other titanosaurs have been relatively consistent in phylogenetic analyses. This led to its use in a re-definition of the group Colossosauria by Carballido and colleagues in 2022.

Temporal range
Triassic
Jurassic
Cretaceous
Paleogene
Neogene
252 201 145 66 0 Ma
PBDB occurrences
1
Group
Dinosaures
Herbivore Ground dwelling, gregarious Terrestrial
Patagotitan
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Wikimedia
PBDB Wikipedia
Classification
Dinosauria Unranked clade
Saurischia Unranked clade
Sauropodomorpha Unranked clade
Massopoda Unranked clade
Sauropodiformes Unranked clade
Sauropoda Unranked clade
Gravisauria Unranked clade
Eusauropoda Unranked clade
Neosauropoda Unranked clade
Macronaria Unranked clade
Titanosauriformes Unranked clade
Somphospondyli Unranked clade
Titanosauria Unranked clade
Eutitanosauria Unranked clade
Patagotitan Genus
Fossil sites 1 geolocated sites
Distribution
Top countries
🇦🇷 Argentina
1
Geological formations
Cerro Barcino
1
Temporal distribution
Albian (113.2–100.5 Ma)
1
Species (1)
Patagotitan mayorum 113 Ma
Images 2
Bibliography
Original description
J. L. Carballido, D. Pol, and A. Otero, I. A. Cerda, L. Salgado, A. C. Garrido, J. Ramezani, N. R. Cúneo, J. M. Krause. 2017. A new giant titanosaur sheds light on body mass evolution among sauropod dinosaurs. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 284:20171219:1-10 DOI ↗
Bibliography (1)
J. L. Carballido, D. Pol, and A. Otero, I. A. Cerda, L. Salgado, A. C. Garrido, J. Ramezzani, N. R. Cúneo, M. J. Krause. 2016. A new giant titanosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Chubut sheds light to giant titanosaur evolution. XXX Jornadas Argentinas de Paleontología de Vertebrados. Resúmenes. Ameghiniana 53(6 (suppl.)):11