The replica of one of the largest dinosaurs to ever inhabit the Earth will be on display in London from this Friday (31). This is the first time this species of titanosaur will be on display in Europe since the original was discovered in Patagonia 20 years ago.

37.2 meters long, the “Patagotitan mayourum” only fits in the great hall of the Natural History Museum in London.

With its neck stretched upwards, the animal replica reached the height of a five-story building, the researchers said.

The titanosaur will replace the popular Diplodocus (a species of herbivorous dinosaur) replica “Dippy”, which was on display at the museum until 2015.

The latest addition to the gallery was made from the mold of one of the six titanosaurs discovered after a farmer in the Argentine region spotted, in 2010, a giant femur protruding from the ground, giving rise to excavations that ended in continued until 2015.

“They discovered a cemetery of these animals with six different individuals underground,” Paul Barrett, scientist in charge of the exhibition, told AFP before the opening.

“For nearly three years, they excavated all these bones (…) and were able to reveal that there was a new species of gigantic dinosaur (…), one of the largest animals to have ever walked on the Earth,” he adds. .

The species lived in the forests of present-day Patagonia between 100 and 95 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous period.

Experts estimate that the animal weighed around 57 tons.

– Giant puzzles –

This herbivore had four columnar legs and an extremely long neck and tail.

To survive, he ate about 130 kilos of vegetation a day.

Although the reason for their disappearance remains a mystery, it is believed that the six dinosaurs discovered in the same place died at the same time.

“We don’t know why they died…a flood could have washed them away, it could also have been due to another environmental issue, like a drought,” Barrett said, adding that further investigations are ongoing.

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After the discovery in Argentina, dinosaur specialists 3D scanned each of the bones to create replicas in polyester resin and fiberglass which they mounted on a steel frame.

It took more than six months for a Canadian company to make the giant mold from dozens of fossils excavated from the site.

The real bones are too heavy to display and the fact that they are replicas allows visitors to touch them.

It arrived in London in 32 separate boxes, meaning “every piece had to fit together like a giant jigsaw puzzle,” says Sinead Marron of the Natural History Museum in London.

The exhibit wants to “tell the story of how an animal like this grew from a tiny egg, smaller than a football, to become this incredible 57-tonne giant,” he says.

Visitors can touch the teeth of one of the titanosaur predators or step inside its internal organs to see how its lungs, heart and intestines work.

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