Paralititan

sauropod · dinosaur · Egypt · giant

Gigantic long-neck. Paralititan was a sauropod dinosaur, which means it had an extremely long neck, a massive body, and four thick legs like a living skyscraper made of bone and muscle.

Ancient Egyptian resident. This enormous dinosaur lived in Egypt during the Late Cretaceous period, between 101 and 94 million years ago, when that part of the world looked very different than it does today.

Found in pieces. Scientists discovered Paralititan's fossils in the Bahariya Oasis in western Egypt, but they only found fragments like backbones and leg bones, not a complete skeleton.

Lost to history. A German scientist named Ernst Stromer studied one of Paralititan's vertebrae in 1932, but that precious bone was destroyed during bombing in World War II and is gone forever.

Named in 2001. American paleontologist Joshua B. Smith and his team officially named and described Paralititan in 2001, more than 60 years after the first bones were found.