The Tallest Sauropod

Sauropods were enormous animals, for the most part. They certainly have a wide range of sizes, but the absolute largest sauropod ever known was discovered in southeast Oklahoma and described in 2000 by Wedel, Cifelli, and Sanders. Trace fossils, in this case footprints, from Oklahoma, Wyoming, and Texas have long been associated with the animal as well and, despite the holotype consisting of only a few cervical vertebrae, many more bonebeds and isolated fossils have been discovered in these states since 2000. Named the "lizard earthquake god" that was "perfect before the end" Sauroposeidon proteles was estimated to have possessed a neck approximately 11.25–12 m (37–39 ft) long based on the largest cervical vertebra of a sauropod known, which measured in at 1.4 m (4.6 ft) long. That is a fairly large singular bone; almost as tall as my mother actually! It also makes the neck about 2 m (7 ft) longer than the next longest sauropod neck (belonging to Giraffatitan).

CC BY-SA 3.0 Stephen O'Connor