SameerPrehistorica

Sep 18 2012, 08:03 PM

When the Apatosaurus became 92tonnes ? A brachiosaurus is 50 tonnes only. Apatosaurus weighs as much as 5 Elephants... 30 tonnes.

Grey

Sep 19 2012, 05:41 AM

The Blue Whale remains the largest animal in records to date.

Fragillimus335

 

Yes, Zammit (2010) wrote:

New Zealand has mostly Triassic specimens, with isolated ichthyosaur bones occurring on both the North and South islands (Fig. 1B). The first reported finds originated from the Mount Potts region near Canterbury, South Island (Hector 1874, 1879), and have since been referred to the Middle Triassic (Table 1) Daonella Zone (lower Carnian; Campbell & Warren 1965). These remains comprise indeterminate vertebral centra of extremely large dimensions (457 mm in diameter, Hector 1878) that appear to represent one of the largest ichthyosaurs in the world (Campbell 1965, Fleming et al. 1971). This is almost double the diameter of centra known from Shonisaurus sikanniensis, an animal well known as a giant (Nicholls & Manabe 2004). Unfortunately, these particular specimens can not be located, and are presumed to have been either sent to the US with other marine reptile bones that have now vanished (Cox 1991), or alternatively lost on the transport ship Matoaka, which disappeared en route to London (Hector 1874, Brazier et al. 1990). Hector (1874) diagnosed this material, together with several smaller vertebral centra from Rocky Gully, near Mount Potts, as Ichthyosaurus australis (a name pre-occupied by an Australian species). Replacement names include I. hectori (Lydekker 1889, Chapman 1914) and I. pottsi (see Fleming et al. 1971), though none is currently considered valid. This material was assigned to the Mixosauridae by Campbell (1965), but was later regarded as simply ichthyosaurian due to a lack of diagnostic features (Fleming et al. 1971).