ExtinctZoo - The Whale-Sized Dinosaur That Used To Roam America

Episode Date: August 7, 2024

Can it get any more American? Supersized, comeback story, the name - Alamosaurus has it all!

You said this place was steps from the water. We just haven't found the steps yet. How much did we save? Enough. Enough to get lost. Or you could book a stay with Hilton. Welcome to your ocean front room. Just steps from the water.

The Hilton sale is on now. Book on Hilton.com or the Hilton app and save up to 20% to get the stay you expected. When you want savings, not surprises. It matters where you stay. Hilton, for the stay. Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is California's number one entertainment destination for today's superstars. Catch the Jonas Brothers return to the Yamava Theater stage on April 30th, the powerful vocals of Demi Lovato on May 17th,

and the signature Southern Country Rock of Eric Church on July 19th. Tickets on sale now at Yamavat Theater.com, only at Yamava Resort and Casino, celebrating its 40th anniversary. You in? Must be 21 to enter. 66 million years ago, across the plains of southwestern North America, a behemoth of a dinosaur was roaming about, enjoying what were unknowingly its last days. This Titanic animal was significant not only because of its prowess, but because it represented the last of its kind to ever inhabit North America.

And still, this dinosaur's legacy would not end there, as it is also currently the largest known terrestrial North American animal to have ever lived. This was the Alamosaurus. In spite of holding such achievements, The Alamosaurus has actually gone somewhat under the radar compared to other late Cretaceous North American dinosaurs. On top of this, it's also less famous than other mainstream giant saropods, such as the brachiosaurus or Argentinosaurus. This absence from the spotlight is rather confusing, considering that in addition to being huge, it has been on paleontologist's radar for a long time, with its existence first being recognized all the way back in 1921,

when a shoulder and pelvic bone were found within the deserts of New Mexico. Right off the bat, the founder of the bones, Charles Gilmore, could tell this newly discovered dinosaur was a brand new kind of sauropod. But because the bones only made up a tiny portion of the full body, not many details could be said about this new dinosaur. Regardless, Gilmore ended up describing the sarapod just one year after its discovery, dubbing it, Alamosaurus San Juanensis, a nod to the Ojo-Alamo formation in which it was discovered. Ironically, its naming would be the only source of fame initially, but for all the wrong

reasons, as people were under the impression that the Alamo section had been inspired by the Alamo in Texas. Besides this popular misconception, the Alamosaurus failed to generate any meaningful buzz during the early and mid-1900s, since what little bones were known about only indicated it to be a mid-sized Sarapod and nothing more. However, this would all change during the 2000s, when multiple discoveries revealed that the Alamosaurus had been an unknown giant all along. The discovery specifically consisted of a giant fragmented leg bone, a separate yet equally large cervical,

and a juvenile specimen that was the most complete fossil of any known allamasaurus to date. The completeness of the young alamosaurus allowed paleontologists to determine that the giant isolated fossils did indeed belong to an alimosaurus, and showed that this creature got so much bigger than originally thought. In fact, these new finds pretty much thrust alimosaurus straight to the top of the list of North America's largest dinosaurs. Estimates suggest that on average, these titans could reach about 26 meters or 85 feet long from head to tail, while standing 5 meters or 16 feet tall at the shoulders, and weighing about 39 tons. Even at this size, Alamosaurus is one of the Earth's largest saropods, but like many other long necks, certain individuals could get much bigger than the rest,

with the largest Alamosaurus probably coming in at around 30 meters or 98 feet, and weighing 88 tons, making it more than eight times the weight of a fully grown T-Rex, the largest North American terrestrial predator of all time. But how does this size compare to other saropods? Well, for starters, it completely blows all other North American saropods out of the water, including the famous bunch that lived together during the Jurassic period, which included the Diplodocus, Apatosaurus, and Brachiosaurus. On top of this, large Alamosaurus specimens likely rivaled even the largest saropods seen in other

continents too. with paleontologists generally considering it to have been similar in size to behemates, like the South American Argentinosaurus, and the Asian Royongosaurus. The former of which is often considered to be the top contender for the largest dinosaur ever. With such immense size and considering that it hails from the late Cretaceous, it may not come as a shock that the Alamosaurus was a member of the Titanosaur clade, who dominated for the entire span of the Cretaceous, being the most widespread and largest sauropods around, existing on all seven continents.

Within this group, the Alamosaurus is generally placed within the Salta Soridae family, whose members are defined by having 35 or fewer caudal vertebrae. Additionally, one thing that made Salta swords stick out was not only their occasional massive bodies, but also their armor. This part may come as a bit of a surprise, since most don't think of Sarapods as being armored, but the Alamosaurus and the rest of its family did indeed possess a fair degree of armor, which came in the form of bony scutes. It is not well known how much of its body was covered by this armor, but recent finds suggest that at the very least, a part of its back was covered by these bony plates.

What's more is that these scutes may have been a bit pointy, as certain paleontologists have found remains that appear to take more of a spiky shape than around one, meaning this Titan could have been walking around with giant spikes along its back, and possibly other parts of its body too. These scutes are thought to have played a role in protection against attacks from predatory theropods, or they could have been used. as a form of social identification and display. Whatever the case is, these spikes were no doubt useful, yet they still weren't the Alamosaurus's top defense, as that was its skeletal structure. Compared to most sauropods, Alamosaurus had an extremely robust body, with both his neck and chest being especially sturdy. This gave the Alamosaurus a big boost in durability and kept its most vulnerable organs

well out of harm's way. This robustness, coupled with its giant size, made fully matured large adults practically untouchable to any carnivorous dinosaurs. Although juveniles and smaller adults, on the other hand, were not 100% safe, as they did live alongside the Tyrannosaurus. And the Alamosaurus actually coexisted with both species of the Tyran lizard, the T-Rex and the older, Macrensus. Both of these species were giant, and were actually known to have attacked and scavenged

Alamosaurus. As certain specimens bear healed bites, indicating active predation, while other fossils have unhealed bites, meaning that the individual was already dead or dead. died in the attack. However, the predation of Alamosaurus was ultimately uncommon, as the vast majority of specimens bear no bite marks at all, showing just how valuable size was if you lived alongside the king. Sometimes, though, size and bony scoots was not enough, and that is why some paleontologists assert that the Alamosaurus had an active defensive weapon, too. It's tail. Like many Titanosaurs, the tail of Alamosaurus was rather long and whip-like, yet not as long as the

tail seen in Diplodokids. Nevertheless, many think that the Alamosaurus potentially wield its built-in whip as a weapon, seeing that Titanosaurs have the highest rates of damaged tails among any Sarapod group, even outclassing the Diplodicids, indicating that their tails were quite active, so to speak. The injuries in question consist of a variety of diseases and ailments. But one of the most common finds was consistent with force-based trauma, raising the possibility of it being used as a weapon that much more. Overall, alamosaurus no doubt had an imposing appearance, which has helped increase the amount

of people paying attention to it. And another detail that also has added to resurgence in its interest, which has nothing to do with its size or physical appearance, is when it lived. Because as mentioned, the alamosaurus lived during the late Cretaceous, specifically between 70 and 66 million years ago, a monumental time to be alive, as this meant it lived in a period now referred to as the Sarapod hiatus. This event began during the Cenomanian stage of the late Cretaceous, approximately 104 million years ago, when Sarapods suddenly vanished from North America.

This absence would last for over 30 million years until the Alamosaurus popped up. This pivotal lapse in Sarapods has generated a lot of debate over the years on both why they seemingly vanished and how the Alamosaurus then appeared millions of years afterwards. Currently, the main explanation has been that their disappearance was the result of an extinction event, with paleontologists citing competition with ornithicians such as hadrosaurs, and the expansion of the Western Interior Seaway as being potential causes. And in regard to the Alamosaurus's appearance, the common thought is that it managed to repopulate Southern North America

after it migrated there from South America, or possibly even Asia, although this idea is less accepted. Of course, seeing that it entered the continent 70 million years ago, the Alamosaurus still would have had a deal with a lot of competition and a rather large western interior of seaway. And yet, it still managed to thrive despite seemingly being not too different than its distant ancestors, with no significant change in diet being noticed,

since it possessed rod-shaped teeth that were used to crop and strip vegetation from medium to tall trees, just like its predecessors. Additionally, the discovery of stones within multiple specimen's stomachs confirmed that alamosaurus routinely consumed rocks in order to aid digestion, a common trend is seen amongst other saropods as well. Nevertheless, its arrival resulted in it being an extreme success, and Alamosaurus even became

one of the most common late-Gretaceous dinosaurs in North America, with an especially high prevalence within what is today, the U.S. Its apparent high population was so staggering compared to other dinosaurs that paleontologists actually used the term Alamosaurus fauna to describe the general life found within certain areas. Along with strong numbers, Alamosaurus was also able to re-establish a respectable domain in the name of saropods, with fossils being found throughout a large portion of southern United States and northern Mexico. In these lands, populations would have lived in both coastal habitats bordering the western interior seaway, while also inhabiting semi-arid inland plains where

relief from the dry climate was occasionally found in the form of rivers, swamps, and lakes. Throughout its habitat, Almasaurus would have lived alongside a large variety of different dinosaurs that included the likes of Oho Ceratops, Glyptidontopelta, Richard de Orozesaurus, Ojo-Raptosaurus, dineobelator, Taurosaurus, Tyrannosaurus, bravo seratops, gripposaurus, creedosaurus, saranithelestis, undetermined anchylosaurs, and trudontids. Non-dinosaur life was also very plentiful in these areas, being represented by a number of fish, rays, amphibians, turtles, snakes, lizards, crocodilians, mammals, chrystodieries, and pterosaurs.

Terosaurs in particular were quite abundant, with the Wellen Hopterus and Quetzokalus being the most widespread. The Quetzlequatlus in particular was actually so common where Alamosaurus fossils have been found that some paleontologists have wondered if there was a connection between the two, like how there is between some birds and elephants or certain fish and whale sharks. In any case, Alamosaurus, and Quetzelcoatlas would have been a common yet breathtaking sight, as both were giants within their own rights. But ultimately, alamosaurus was the true titan of these lands, a distinction which had also held until the very bitter end, an end which perhaps should have came later than it did. As like many, it too was still kicking 66 million years ago when the

KT extinction event occurred. But what's interesting about the alamosaurus is that bones belonging to a juvenile were found only a few feet below their Cretaceous paleogene boundary. making it one of the youngest known dinosaurs and presumably one of the last non-avian dinosaurs around. Perhaps not a surprising feat for North America's largest and last titan. Ambition comes in all shapes and sizes. At First Citizens Bank, we roll with your goals because we're built for what you're building. Fit for your ambition for Citizens Bank. Some follow the noise.

Bloomberg follows the money. Because behind every headline is a bottom line. Whether it's the funds fueling AI or crypto's trillion dollar swings, there's a money side to every story. And when you see the money side, you understand what others miss. Get the money side of the story. Subscribe now at Bloomberg.com.