Futalognkosaurus dukei skeletal reconstruction

Futalognkosaurus dukei ("Giant chief reptile of the Duke Energy Company") is a species of giant titanosaur from Middle-Late Cretaceous Argentina, and one of the best-preserved of Gondwanaland's megatitanosaurs. Its preserved axial column from atlas to sacrum reaches approximately ~12 metres, and in addition, its ilia reach a width of a staggering ~2.55 metres, indicating a vastly wide ribcage. Originally estimated at ~32-34 metres in it's original description and comparable in size to Argentinosaurus, this is probably an exaggeration, with the real animal probably being more comparable to the Brachiosaurus altithorax holotype. Its tall cervical neural spines make Isisaurus look less of an aberrant in terms of proportional neck depth.

The missing portions of the limbs and some aspects of the tail are restored based on Dreadnoughtus, caudal proportions and coracoid based on Patagotitan, scapula based on Mendozasaurus, and gastralia inferred from Jobaria and Diamantinasaurus while represented as generic elements. The skull is based on Tapuiasaurus. Osteoderm rows aren't included in this reconstruction, but Futalognkosaurus most likely had them.

Bones in light grey are unillustrated, which in this case, are the limb bones uncovered from a later excavation on the same site and assemblage as the holotype, presented in 2014, and most likely belonged to the same individual.

Reconstructed dimensions

• Hip height: ~4.02 metres
• Shoulder height: ~4.62 metres
• Total height: ~10.76 metres
• Standing length: ~20.42 metres
• Axial length: ~23.61 metres

References

• Calvo et al., 2007, "A new Cretaceous terrestrial ecosystem from Gondwana with the description of a new sauropod dinosaur"
• Calvo et al., 2007, "Anatomy of Futalognkosaurus dukei Calvo, Porfiri, Gonzales Riga & Kellner, 2007 (Dinosauria, Titanosauridae) from the Neuquen Group(Late Cretaceous), Patagonia, Argentina"
• Calvo et al., 2008, "Re-sizing giants: estimation of body length of Futalognkosaurus dukei and implications for giant titanosaurian sauropods"
• Calvo, 2014, "New fossil remains of Futalognkosaurus dukei (Sauropoda: Titanosauria) from the Late Cretaceous of Neuquen, Argentina"
• Gonzalez-Riga, 2003, "A new titanosaur (Dinosauria, Sauropoda) from the Upper Cretaceous of Mendoza Province, Argentina"
• Wilson et al., 2016, "The skull of the titanosaur Tapuiasaurus macedoi (Dinosauria: Sauropoda), a basal titanosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of Brazil"
• Lacovara et al., 2014, "A gigantic, exceptionally complete titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur from southern Patagonia, Argentina"
• Gonzalez-Riga et al., 2016, "A gigantic new dinosaur from Argentina and the evolution of the sauropod hind foot"
• Carballido et al., 2017, "A new giant titanosaur sheds light on body mass evolution among sauropod dinosaurs"
• Paul, 2016, "The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs"
• Scott Hartman's Futalognkosaurus
• svpow.files.wordpress.com/2009…
• lh3.googleusercontent.com/-yH7…
• museumtalkarchive.files.wordpr…

Update log

• 9/13/2017: Updated due to the description of Patagotitan. The tail was overhauled, and the Dreadnoughtus-based shoulder girdle was replaced. The new scapula is based on that of Mendozasaurus, which was found to be close to Futalognkosaurus in several analyses consistently, while the new coracoid is roughly based on Patagotitan, adjusted to fit with the Mendozasaurus-based scapula. See the older version for comparison.
• 4/25/2018: Added detail, replaced the skull, and scalebar updated to my new conventions. See the previous version here for comparison.
• 5/22/2020: Replaced the head with my new Tapuiasaurus skull, and some minor tweaks to the feet.