Was Patagotitan truly the largest land animal to ever walk the Earth?

Nature · Published 30 September 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Once hailed as the undisputed heavyweight champion of the dinosaur world, Patagotitan mayorum has seen its status shift as paleontologists refine their estimates. While these massive sauropods were undeniably colossal, recent research suggests they may have been similar in size to, or even smaller than, their closest relatives.

Patagotitan belongs to the Titanosauria, a diverse clade of herbivorous sauropods that roamed the Earth from the Late Jurassic to the end of the Cretaceous Period. These creatures were defined by their long necks, long tails, and stocky, wide-stanced bodies. Unlike other sauropods, titanosaurs possessed vertebrae with a unique honeycomb-like internal structure, a feature that likely helped support their immense mass. While some species, such as Saltasaurus, developed armoured plates known as osteoderms, Patagotitan is distinguished by specific anatomical features in its vertebrae and limbs.

The discovery of Patagotitan began in 2010 when a farm worker found a femur fragment in the desert near La Flecha, Argentina. Subsequent excavations led by the Museum of Paleontology Egidio Feruglio uncovered over 200 fossils, including partial skeletons from at least six individuals. These remains, dated to approximately 101.62 million years ago, provided a rare, relatively complete look at a titanosaur. The genus was officially named in 2017 by a team led by José Carballido and Diego Pol, with the name combining a reference to the Patagonia region with the Greek Titans to signify its immense strength and scale.

Initial reports suggested Patagotitan reached lengths of 37 metres and weighed 69 tonnes, potentially making it the largest land animal ever recorded. However, later scientific analysis revised these figures downward to approximately 31 metres in length and 50 to 60 tonnes in weight. These updated estimates place Patagotitan in a similar weight class to other giants like Argentinosaurus, which has been conjectured to weigh around 70 metric tons. Because size estimates for these massive animals are often based on fragmentary remains, the title of the largest land animal remains a subject of ongoing paleontological debate and refinement.

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