Dino May Have Been Tallest

O K L A H O M A   C I T Y,   Nov. 2 -- Recently discovered dinosaur remains are of a creature so tall that it could have looked into a sixth-floor window and may have been the largest creature ever to walk the earth.

Weighing 60 tons, standing 60 feet tall and boasting the longest neck in the fossil record, the creature probably made the earth shake when it walked, prompting scientists to name it Sauroposeidon, which translates as “earthquake god lizard.”

“It’s truly astonishing. It’s arguably the largest creature ever to walk the earth,”said paleontologist Richard Cifelli of the University of Oklahoma said today.

Cifelli headed a team that examined bones unearthed in southeastern Oklahoma in 1994. Their findings are due to be presented in the March issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

Tree Trunks, or Bones?

The neck bones of the creature are each about four feet long.

When they were first cataloged, Cifelli said he thought they might be the trunks of prehistoric trees.

But closer examination revealed that they belonged to a larger relative of the better-known Brachiosaurus, which was about 45 feet tall.

“The neck on our creature is about a third longer than that of the Brachiosaurus,” said Mathew Wedel, a paleontology graduate student who researched the creature for Cifelli. “It’s a lot longer and a lot more specialized.”

That’s Some Giraffe

Sauroposeidon was giraffe-like in shape, with a short body and long neck, but was 30 times larger than the largest giraffe ever known.

Scanning the fossils with computerized equipment at the university’s hospital revealed the massive bones were filled with tiny air cells that lightened the load the creature had to carry.

It would be very hard to imagine that a neck could get much longer and still function, Cifelli said.

“No matter how small the dinosaur’s brain was, just lifting it up was a challenge,” Cifelli said. “It’s remarkable how large the bones are.”