WASHINGTON -- A study proclaims a newly named species the heavyweight champion of all dinosaurs, making the scary Tyrannosaurus rex look like a munchkin.
"There was one small part of the family that went crazy on size," said Diego Pol, of the Egidio Feruglio paleontology museum in Argentina, co-author of the study published Tuesday in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
The researchers named the dinosaur Patagotitan mayorum after the Patagonia region where it was found and the Greek word titan, which means large.
"It's hard to argue this isn't a big deal when it concerns the (probable) largest land animal ever discovered," University of Maryland paleontologist Thomas Holtz, who wasn't part of the study, said in an email.
She said the fact that Patagotitan's bones show signs that they haven't completed their growth "means that there are even bigger dinosaurs out there to discover."
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- Patagotitan Mayorum: How the Biggest Dinosaur to Walk the Earth Came to Be So HugeNewsweek
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- Meet the new heavyweight champion of dinosaurs: PatagotitanABC News
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