STL Science Center

STL Science Center

25 October 2012

Belated Popularity

Argentinosaurus does not, contrary to my title today, have belated popularity at all; in fact, it was popular almost immediately after being described and revealed to the public in 1993 in part due to its massive size and also in part due to its implications for further study of the then burgeoning fauna of South American paleontology. Titanosaurs are an older group, officially named in 1877 by Lydekker, but have been haggled and argued over ever since, but Argentinosaurus still has titanosaur as a cladistic differentiation, and as such it is one of the more popular of the titanosaurs. Argentinosaurus has shown up, as noted previously, as toys, in books, and in documentaries on both Patagonia as a region as well as size related documentaries that discuss the more gigantic of the entire dinosaur clade of reptiles. Dinosaur King, a typical installation on the popularity post for most of the dinosaurs featured here, does not have a feature for Argentinosaurus that pops right out on a search. That is actually quite intriguing honestly. However, there are plenty of other new places to look at Argentinosaurus today. Argentinosaurus is one of the more popular museum cast skeletons, though most of the skeleton is a guesswork casting, such as in Atlanta:
Also, an animatronic version is standing tall in New Jersey to entertain the public as well:
Go out and find other displays of Argentinosaurus, I am willing, for one, to bet that there are plenty more scattered about this globe!

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