What is the largest dinosaur in Jurassic World Dominion?
The largest dinosaur in Jurassic World Dominion is a dinosaur known as Dreadnoughtus. Dreadnoughtus shows up for the very first time in this newest film, although we only get to see its true size a few times. Although Dreadnoughtus is the largest dinosaur in the newest movie, it’s also the largest dinosaur seen in any of the six Jurassic Park films. In fact, it may just be the largest terrestrial dinosaur to have ever lived! There is currently some debate as to the largest terrestrial dinosaur to have ever lived, but Dreadnoughtus is easily part of the debate each time. The main distinction between the largest terrestrial dinosaur and the largest dinosaur overall has one to do with habitat. Terrestrial dinosaurs live on land and are thereby restricted in how large they can be. Aquatic dinosaurs can grow much larger because they have the ocean to help support their massive weights. Still, holding the record for one of the largest terrestrial dinosaurs is nothing to be ashamed of! Let’s learn a bit more about Dreadnoughtus below.
Dreadnoughtus in the film
The first time we hear about Dreadnoughtus is in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. In the movie, a Dreadnoughtus embryo is sold at a large black-market auction and is seen being loaded onto a plane alongside other embryos. Although technically, this is the first time we “see” Dreadnoughtus, it’s not a true representation of it. The first time we really see Dreadnoughtus is in Jurassic World Dominion. The Dreadnoughtus was cloned by Biosyn, one of the antagonist organizations in the film. It was created through genetic cloning and was released in the Biosyn Sanctuary. The Biosyn Sanctuary was a closed-off valley in the middle of the Dolomite Mountains in Italy. When Chris Pratt, Dewanda Wise, and Bryce Dallas Howard are flying the plane into the sanctuary on a rescue mission, Dewanda Wise points out a Dreadnoughtus, mentioning it as one of the largest dinosaurs to ever live. The last time we see a Dreadnoughtus is when the burning locusts set the forest alight, seeing the dinosaurs running away in a panic. During this scene, we see two Dreadnoughtus’s running together.
How big was Dreadnoughtus?
Dreadnoughtus was a titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur and the largest land animal that can be calculated with some degree of certainty. Titanosaur was a large group of the largest living dinosaurs that existed right before the mass extinction. Sauropods are long-necked and tailed dinosaurs with stubby legs, with members including the Brontosaurus and others. Its name means “fears nothing,” as the movie stated, and it was a herbivore. Dreadnoughtus was one of the largest terrestrial animals ever known, measuring around 85 feet long, standing two stories tall, and weighing over 50 tons. What makes the Dreadnoughtus special is that it has one of the most completed skeletons of any large dinosaur, something close to 70%. Other dinosaurs that could potentially challenge the Dreadnoughtus in size only have fossil completions of around 3-10%, making estimations unreliable.
When was Dreadnoughtus alive?
Dreadnoughtus was around a few million years before the mass extinction event that killed off the dinosaurs. Its temporal range is known as the Late Cretaceous, with an estimated time frame of around 76-70 million years ago. The Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event occurred soon after the Dreadnoughtus was around, roughly 65 million years ago. After the event, no living tetrapod weighing more than 55 lbs survived.
When was Dreadnoughtus first discovered?
Dreadnoughtus was first discovered in the Cerro Fortaleza Formation located in Santa Cruz Province, Patagonia/Argentina, in 2005. It took nearly four years to remove all of the massive bones from the site using mules and ropes. The remains were first discovered by American paleontologist Kenneth Lacovara. Part of what makes Dreadnoughtus so special is the completeness of the skeleton. In many cases, fossil remains are tiny, and huge guesses are made off of fragments. The Pyroraptor, for example, is assumed to have existed from a small foot bone found in Europe. Dreadnoughtus, on the other hand, is nearly 70% completed.
Where did Dreadnoughtus live?
Dreadnoughtus lived during a time when the continents had begun to break apart from the supercontinent known as Pangea. During that period, Dreadnoughtus would have lived in what we now call modern-day South America, along with many other of the largest dinosaurs to have ever lived.
