What was the biggest dinosaur? Hi! Welcome to Curious Kids Everyday! I'm Josh! How are you doing today? It's so good to hear from you. Hey, do you like learning about dinosaurs? I love learning about dinosaurs. It's so cool to think that a really, really long time ago, dinosaurs actually roamed the Earth! They're all gone now, but we can find evidence all over the place that they were once here. Have you ever wondered what the biggest dinosaur was? Before I made this episode today, if I had to guess what the biggest dinosaur was, I probably would have guessed the Tyrannosaurus Rex. But I wouldn't have been very confident about that guess. And now, after learning about it, I've discovered that there are way, way, way bigger dinosaurs than the T-Rex. You want to learn about it today? So what was the biggest dinosaur? Well, we aren't completely sure of the answer because we're only going off of what we've found. I'm sure there are more fossils and more records to discover, but as far as we know, the biggest dinosaur was called Argentinosaurus. Argentinosaurus was a kind of sauropod. And a sauropod is a giant plant-eating dinosaur, a long neck and a long tail and a small head and four thick legs. If you picture a dinosaur like Racheosaurus, that's a sauropod too. But Argentinosaurus, it was the biggest one of them all. At least we're pretty sure. So how big was Argentinosaurus? Well, scientists think Argentinosaurus may have been around a hundred feet long. That's like if you took three really big school buses and lined them up back to back to back. And Argentinosaurus may have weighed as much as several elephants put together. That is enormous. Now, here's a little quiz. Does the name Argentinosaurus... Does that remind you of a country you've heard of before? Argentinosaurus. If you said Argentina, you're right. That's how Argentinosaurus got its name. That's where they found evidence of this biggest dinosaur. Its huge neck helped it find food because Argentinosaurus didn't eat meat, it ate plants and things way up high in the trees. Imagine being able to stand in one spot and reach food in lots of different directions just by moving your neck. That would save a lot of energy, which was probably important for Argentinosaurus because it was so big. Moving that big body all over the place would have been a really big deal. But its body was built to handle its enormous size. Some of its bones are among the largest ever found from any land animal. One of its back bones, called a vertebra, was over five feet long. Its long tail helped balance its body, especially with such a long neck stretching out in the other direction. Imagine stretching both of your arms out left and right and then putting a 10 pound weight in one of your hands. What you'd probably need to put a 10 pound weight in the other hand too to kind of balance it out so you didn't tip over. Now even though the idea of a long neck would have been a big deal, I would have been able to tip over. Now even though the adult Argentinosaurus was incredibly large, it would have started life much smaller, hatching from eggs like other dinosaurs and young ones were likely more vulnerable to predators. While full grown adults were probably too big for most other animals to attack. How big do you think a baby Argentinosaurus was? Big baby. I wonder how fast it grew. This is why I love learning about dinosaurs because for as much as we know, there's still so much we don't know. Things that we just have to guess. But scientists have only found parts of the Argentinosaurus skeleton. Never the whole thing. So they use their bones to estimate the full size of this dinosaur. That's why we say it may have been the biggest dinosaur because it's the biggest one we've discovered. Probably. If you like learning about dinosaurs maybe one day you'll become a paleontologist and you'll help discover even more dinosaurs. Maybe you'll discover one that's even bigger than Argentinosaurus. If you do, you should call it the Curiosaurus. Okay, let's have a quick quiz. What is one of the biggest dinosaurs scientists have discovered? What is one of the biggest dinosaurs scientists have discovered? Argentinosaurus. And what kind of dinosaur is Argentinosaurus? It's a sauropod. And sauropod means it was a giant plant-eating dinosaur with a long neck and a long tail and a small head and four thick legs. What did Argentinosaurus eat? Plants was a plant-eating dinosaur. And why are scientists not completely sure which dinosaur was the biggest? Because they've only found part of the skeleton and they have to use fossils to estimate. Let's play true or false? True or false? Argentinosaurus was a meat-eating dinosaur. That's false. It was a plant-eating dinosaur. True or false? Argentinosaurus was found in Argentina. That is true. Hence the name. True or false? Scientists have found every single bone of Argentinosaurus. Nope, that's false. True or false? Argentinosaurus likely used its long neck to reach plants high in trees. That is true. Would you rather live with living dinosaurs or discover dinosaur bones? I've seen a lot of movies where people and dinosaurs are together and I just think it's so cool every time I see it. If I could live one day with the dinosaurs I would definitely choose that one. Alright, let's play What Am I? What am I? I am a type of dinosaur with a long neck and a long tail. I am many of the biggest dinosaurs. And Argentinosaurus was one of me. What am I? I am sauropod. Well, now we know a bit more about Argentinosaurus. I never heard of that dinosaur before making this episode so I was really excited to learn more about it. And now that you've learned about it what is your favorite thing about Argentinosaurus? I think all the sauropods are so cool. It's neat that their heads and necks and tails all have to balance so they don't tip over. What kind of question do you think we'll ask tomorrow on Curious Kids every day? I can't wait to find out so until then keep asking questions and stay curious kids. And we've got a few birthdays today. Today is Magnolia's birthday. Magnolia is from South Dakota and Magnolia is turning five. Happy birthday Magnolia. Grant is from Illinois and Grant is turning six. Happy birthday Grant. Nola is from South Dakota and Nola is turning five. Happy birthday Nola. Today is Penny's birthday too. Penny is from California. Happy birthday Penny. And Sophia is from California and Sophia is turning seven. Happy birthday Sophia. To all the grown-ups listening if you're a curious kid once their birthday mentioned on the show please visit supportcuriouskids.com and join the Curious Kids Club at supportcuriouskids.com See you tomorrow.
