Notocolossus gonzalezparejasi
By Ripley Cook
Etymology: Southern Giant
First described By: González Riga et al., 2018
Classification: Dinosauromorpha, Dinosauriformes, Dracohors, Dinosauria, Saurischia, Eusaurischia, Sauropodomorpha, Bagualosauria, Plateosauria, Massopoda, Sauropodiformes, Anchisauria, Sauropoda, Gravisauria, Eusauropoda, Neosauropoda, Macronaria, Titanosauriformes, Somphospondyli, Titanosauria, Lithostrotia
Status: Extinct
Time and Place: Between 88 and 86 million years ago, in the Coniacian of the Late Cretaceous
Notocolossus is known from the Plottier Formation of Argentina
Physical Description: Notocolossus was a giant titanosaur, the group of dinosaurs that contains the largest land animals and most of the sauropods of the Cretaceous period. Like other titanosaurs, Notocolossus had a long thin neck, shorter (but still thin) tail, and extremely round stomach. I tend to describe titanosaurs to people on my tours as Bowling Balls with a noodle on either end, and Notocolossus would have followed that pattern. It probably was more than 25 meters in length, and it weighed as much as 60.4 tonnes. It had pillar-like feet - the front limbs had no toes whatsoever, essentially rendering them into columns; the back feet were reducing their toes as well, turning them into more column-like than ancestral sauropod feet. It had strong legs in addition to the sturdy feet, to help them stay upright with their extensive weight. The vertebrae were well fortified, to help to keep the animal supported. It would have been entirely scaly, and possibly had interesting color patterns for display to other members of the herd.
By González et al., CC BY 4.0
Diet: As a large titanosaur, Notocolossus would have primarily fed upon high levels of vegetation, especially upper levels of trees.
Behavior: Notocolossus appears to have been very common in its ecosystem, and thus it was probably a herding animal. These herds would spend most of their time scouring the open landscape for food, searching for plants and trees to feed on. They’d strip the plants of their leaves, and let them digest and break down in their stomachs over long periods of time. Being so large, Notocolossus probably didn’t have to defend itself from predators much; younger members of the herd and older members would have been vulnerable, but in general they were too big to be preyed upon. They were fairly active, being powered by a weird mixture of gigantothermy (body temperature maintained through size) and endothermy (body temperature maintained through one’s own energy); however, it seems unlikely that they took care of their young, given their body size and the nesting mod of other titanosaurs. That doesn’t mean it is certain either way, but it seems likely that they laid the eggs, and the surviving young only joined when they were big enough to keep up with the herd.
By Nobu Tamura, CC BY-SA 4.0
Ecosystem: The Plottier formation was an extremely large, semi-arid floodplain, with meandering rivers flowing through the area. These rivers sometimes swelled up, but were often very meager indeed, especially during the dry seasons. This lead to the ecosystem being filled with drier sediment - sand and red dirt - rather than mud. Still, plantlife was present here, including mosses, ferns, cycads, and lichens. It is even possible that some flowering plants were present. This environment was fairly lousy with titanosaurs - Petrobrasaurus, Muyelensaurus, and “Antarctosaurus” were all present, though Notocolossus was the most common of them. So, clearly, there were enough plants in the area for all of these animals to find food. Crocodylomorphs, predatory dinosaurs, and potential fish-eating raptors were present too, though none have been named. Many turtles also lived in this environment.
Other: Notocolossus is especially important because it actually preserved the foot bones, which is not common for titanosaurs; these foot bones show that the hindlimbs were especially adapted for holding up the large weight of the titanosaurs. The hands reduced their fingers and essentially became pillars, while the feet (hind limbs) also reduced the toe claws and compacted the toes themselves for better ability to support the weight. Notocolossus appears to have been closely related to other giant titanosaurs such as Patagotitan and Puertasaurus.
~ By Meig Dickson
Sources under the Cut
