- A cast of the Patagotitan mayorum dinosaur is being displayed at London's Natural History Museum.
- The creature belongs to a group of dinosaurs known as titanosaurs.
- The dinosaur giant lived on Earth about 100 million years ago and weighed as much as 57 tons.
One of the largest animals to ever walk the Earth debuted at London's Natural History Museum on Friday.
The new exhibit features a cast of the giant Patagotitan mayorum — a gargantuan dinosaur belonging to a group known as titanosaurs — visitors can touch, walk under, and appreciate its massive size.
The prehistoric giant lived on Earth about 100 million years ago and weighed as much as 57 tons – comparable in weight to more than nine African elephants. The dinosaur's length stretches about 120 feet.
When it was alive, the enormous herbivore ate 284 pounds of plants daily — or approximately 516 round lettuces.
"The replica is a composite – it incorporates bones from at least six different individuals found at the site," Sinead Marron, exhibition and interpretation manager at the museum, told CNN. "For the bones that weren't found, the specialist team at MEF have filled in the gaps using what we know from closely related dinosaurs."
"We hope visitors will experience a sense of awe at the sheer scale of the titanosaur. It's an incredible experience to stand underneath it, to be dwarfed by this immense creature," Marron added.
The first evidence of the Patagotitan was discovered in Argentina in 2010 when a framer spotted a huge dinosaur bone pocking out of the ground. It turned out to be an eight-foot-long femur – thigh bone – that alone weighed 1,100 pounds.
The fossils from the subsequent digs were used by experts at the Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio to collate the cast, according to CNN.
"There is nothing that comes close to Patagotitan walking the Earth today – so in this case, seeing is believing. The large animals that we share the planet with today continue to play vital ecosystem roles – from elephants and rhinos to blue whales – but they are increasingly at risk of extinction from habitat loss and other devastating human impacts," Dr. Doug Gurr, Director of the Natural History Museum, said in a statement.
