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Timelapse shows construction of world's largest dinosaur fossil
Patagotitan mayorum has arrived at London’s Natural History Museum.
LONDON - A 5,885-pound exhibit "101 million years in the making" goes on display this week at London’s Natural History Museum.
Timelapse video from the museum shows construction of the massive Patagotitan mayorum, the "most complete gigantic dinosaur ever discovered," the museum said in a news release.
The interactive exhibit will teach museum-goers how a titanosaur of this size was able to live on Earth.
Titanosaurs were the biggest animals to walk on our planet, according to the museum, and Patagotitan mayorum is one of the biggest known titanosaurs.
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Patagotitan mayorums weighed more than 125,000 pounds – about the size of eight Tyrannosaurus rex dinosaurs. Scientists believe they ate more than 284 pounds of plants every day to survive.
"These awe-inspiring giants entice children to science and inspire them about the natural world – helping them become advocates for the planet from an early age," Alex Burch, director of public programs for the museum, said in a prepared statement. "Learning that birds are living dinosaurs is an amazing entry to evolution - at any age!"
Largest dinosaur ever discovered goes on display in London (Credit: Natural History Museum via Storyful)
In addition to the giant fossil, the exhibit offers hand-drawn illustrations as a backdrop to the titanosaur. Visitors can step inside a titanosaur’s body, push the heart to pump blood, fill its lungs with air and squeeze food through its gut.
They can also find out how many people it would take to "balance the scales of a giant dino."
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"Learn which predators were brave enough to try to take down this 37 metre long titan (as seen in the bite mark in its tail!) in a two-player game of defend and attack, stretch your legs as you try to match titanosaur’s strides across the gallery floor and snap a selfie next to the femur fossil," the museum said.
The cast of Patagotitan mayorum was provided to the Museum by the Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio (MEF) in Argentina.
"To see it is to be humbled by the sheer majesty and dynamism of the natural world," the museum said.
The exhibit runs from Friday, March 31, 2023, through Jan. 7, 2024.