A replica of the “Patagonian majorum,” one of the largest dinosaurs ever discovered, will be on display at the Natural History Museum in London starting Friday. At 37.2 meters long and tall enough to stick its head out of a five-story building, this herbivore lived between 100 and 95 million years ago in the forests of present-day Patagonia during the Upper Cretaceous.
Researchers estimate that the animal weighed about 57 tons and needed to consume about 130 kg of vegetation daily to subsist. The titanosaur replica, made from a cast of fossil bones excavated in the Argentine region, is one of six replicas created after a farmer found a giant thigh bone sticking out of the ground in 2010.
Researchers believe that all six dinosaurs discovered at the same site died at the same time, although the reason for their demise remains a mystery. Visitors to the exhibit can interact with interactive games and tactile replicas, such as touching the teeth of one of the titanosaur predators or going inside its internal organs to see how its lungs, heart, and intestine worked.
The exhibit seeks to tell the story of how the animal grew from a tiny egg to become this amazing 57-ton giant.