Photos: Huge dinosaur skeleton unearthed

Kenneth Lacovara, associate professor at Drexel University in Philadelphia, who discovered the dinosaur skeleton, standing with the tibia (shinbone) and humerus (upper arm bone) from Dreadnoughtus schrani.

Dreadnoughtus had a 37-foot-long neck, 30-foot tail, and weighed an estimated 65 tons, making it the most massive land animal known.

Massive creature

This is an artist's rendering of the massive dinosaur Dreadnoughtus schrani.In life, Dreadnoughtus was an herbivore that likely spent much of its life eating massive quantities of plants to maintain its enormous body size.

Huge skeleton unearthed

The skeleton of the dinosaur at the site where it was discovered and unearthed by a group of researchers in southern Patagonia, Argentina.

Excavation site

Kenneth Lacovara, an associate professor at Drexel University, who led the excavation and analysis of the skeleton, surrounded by fossilized bones of Dreadnoughtus schrani at the excavation site in Argentina.

Massive tail

The beautifully articulated tail of Dreadnoughtus schrani at the excavation site in Argentina.

Bones from the giant's tail

A pair of bones called a 'chevron' which occur along the bottom of the dinosaur's tail. In Dreadnoughtus, the lower portions of the chevron bones have an unusually large surface for muscle attachment, indicating that this dinosaur’s tail was extremely muscular and powerful.

The monstrous tail

Kenneth Lacovara in his lab with the 30-foot dinosaur tail, stretching along the length of the wall and around the corner.

Bones in the lab

Bones of Dreadnoughtus schrani in Lacovara’s fossil lab at Drexel University. Scapula (shoulder blade) (standing against divider); Cervical (neck) vertebra (on pallet), surrounded by preserved neck tendons; Sternal (chest) plates (front of table); Dorsal (mid-back) vertebrae (rear of table).

3D laser scan

Lacovara’s team prepared 3D laser scans of most of the fossil bones from Dreadnoughtus schrani, making them available to other researchers for future study.

30-foot-long tail

This composite image shows the tail bones of the Dreadnoughtus schrani specimen. This individual’s tail would have been 30 feet in length.

Rib bone

Kenneth Lacovara with a partial rib of Dreadnoughtus at excavation site in Argentina.

Read more: "Astoundingly huge" dinosaur skeleton unearthed in Argentina