New "Dreadnought" dinosaur is the most complete specimen of a giant

Credit: Jennifer Hall/Scientific American

Dreadnought represents the most complete giant dinosaur discovered to date. "Giant"? At seven times the size of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, the term seems justified.

Most things that die are soon destroyed. Fossilisation, therefore, is a rare event. Meat is eaten by scavengers, often with bones broken up &/or moved considerable distances. Anything that's left will usually be broken down by agents of decay, such as bacteria & fungi.

Fossilization depends on some relatively rare event, usually involving rapid burial. Something small, say the size of a mouse, can be buried relatively easily. Burial of an entire animal seven times the size of a T. Rex is much less likely. Thus, fossils of large animals are usually more or less incomplete.

How did Dreadnought live? Given its size, it probably had nothing to fear from anything, even a predator like T. REx. Hence the name — dread nought — fear nothing. In feeding, that long flexible neck would have given it access to an enormous volume of plant matter. Modern day giraffes use a similar strategy on a much smaller scale.

Between imperviousness to attack & that enormous neck, Dreadnought probably spent its days planted in one spot, munching its way through all the food it could reach. After exhausting everything in reach, it would have moved a few metres & repeated.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-dreadnought-dinosaur-most-complete-specimen-of-a-giant/

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-29050114 / calculated size specimens new supermassive dinosaur species paleontologist Ken Lacovara dino sauropod Dreadnoughtus schrani 25 meter long Dreadnoughtus genus name dread naught herbivores 65 tons seven times massive Tyrannosaurus rex Dreadnoughtus schrani Scientific Reports largest animals most complete fossil supermassive dinosaur insights late Jurassic giants moved grew Kristi Curry Rogers paleontologist Macalester College Minnesota sauropods Dreadnoughtuses sauropods long-necked herbivorous group dinosaurs includes apatosaurs giant dinosaur supermassive sauropods generally poorly preserved completely covered with sediment after death sediment-filled flood corpses mostly inaccessible scavengers|otherwise scatter their evolutionary relationships compare their femurs paleontologist Kenneth Lacovara Dreadnoughtus femur /