Editing Dinosaur (section)

===Size===
{{Main|Dinosaur size}}
[[File:Longest dinosaur by clade.svg|alt=|thumb|upright=1.35 |Scale diagram comparing the average human to the longest known dinosaurs in five major [[clade]]s:{{legend|#b1293a|[[Sauropoda]] (''[[Supersaurus|Supersaurus vivianae]]'')}}{{legend|#cf52cf|[[Ornithopod]]a (''[[Shantungosaurus|Shantungosaurus giganteus]]'')}}{{legend|#59ca4e|[[Theropoda]] (''[[Spinosaurus|Spinosaurus aegyptiacus]]'')}}
{{legend|#f89451|[[Thyreophora]] (''[[Stegosaurus|Stegosaurus ungulatus]]'')}}
{{legend|#2e538c|[[Marginocephalia]] (''[[Triceratops|Triceratops prorsus]]'')}}]]

Current evidence suggests that dinosaur average size varied through the Triassic, Early Jurassic, Late Jurassic and Cretaceous.<ref name=Sereno1999/> Predatory theropod dinosaurs, which occupied most terrestrial carnivore niches during the Mesozoic, most often fall into the {{convert|100|to|1000|kg|lb|abbr=on|adj=on}} category when sorted by estimated weight into categories based on [[order of magnitude]], whereas [[Holocene|recent]] predatory carnivoran mammals peak in the {{convert|10|to|100|kg|lb|abbr=on|adj=on}} category.<ref name=JF93/> The [[Mode (statistics)|mode]] of Mesozoic dinosaur body masses is between {{convert|1|and|10|MT|ST}}.<ref name=Peczkis1994/> This contrasts sharply with the average size of Cenozoic mammals, estimated by the [[National Museum of Natural History]] as about {{convert|2|to|5|kg|lb|abbr=on}}.<ref name=NMNH/>

The sauropods were the largest and heaviest dinosaurs. For much of the dinosaur era, the smallest sauropods were larger than anything else in their habitat, and the largest was an order of magnitude more massive than anything else that has since walked the Earth. Giant prehistoric mammals such as ''[[Paraceratherium]]'' (the largest land mammal ever) were dwarfed by the giant sauropods, and only modern whales approach or surpass them in size.<ref name="sander2011">{{cite journal |last1=Sander |first1=P. Martin |last2=Christian |first2=Andreas |last3=Clauss |first3=Marcus |last4=Fechner |first4=Regina |last5=Gee |first5=Carole T. |last6=Griebeler |first6=Eva-Maria |last7=Gunga |first7=Hanns-Christian |last8=Hummel |first8=Jürgen |last9=Mallison |first9=Heinrich |display-authors=3 |date=February 2011 |title=Biology of the sauropod dinosaurs: the evolution of gigantism |journal=Biological Reviews |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge Philosophical Society |volume=86 |issue=1 |pages=117–155 |doi=10.1111/j.1469-185X.2010.00137.x |issn=1464-7931 |pmid=21251189 |pmc=3045712}}</ref> There are several proposed advantages for the large size of sauropods, including protection from predation, reduction of energy use, and longevity, but it may be that the most important advantage was dietary. Large animals are more efficient at digestion than small animals, because food spends more time in their digestive systems. This also permits them to subsist on food with lower nutritive value than smaller animals. Sauropod remains are mostly found in rock formations interpreted as dry or seasonally dry, and the ability to eat large quantities of low-nutrient browse would have been advantageous in such environments.<ref name=KC06/>

====Largest and smallest====
Scientists will probably never be certain of the [[largest organisms|largest and smallest dinosaurs]] to have ever existed. This is because only a tiny percentage of animals were ever fossilized and most of these remain buried in the earth. Few non-avian dinosaur specimens that are recovered are complete skeletons, and impressions of skin and other soft tissues are rare. Rebuilding a complete skeleton by comparing the size and morphology of bones to those of similar, better-known species is an inexact art, and reconstructing the muscles and other organs of the living animal is, at best, a process of educated guesswork.<ref>{{harvnb|Paul|2010}}</ref>

[[File:Argentinosaurus 9.svg|thumb|upright=1.15|left|Comparative size of ''[[Argentinosaurus]]'' to the average human]]

The tallest and heaviest dinosaur known from good skeletons is ''[[Giraffatitan|Giraffatitan brancai]]'' (previously classified as a species of ''[[Brachiosaurus]]''). Its remains were discovered in Tanzania between 1907 and 1912. Bones from several similar-sized individuals were incorporated into the skeleton now mounted and on display at the [[Natural History Museum, Berlin|Museum für Naturkunde]] in [[Berlin]];<ref name=EC68/> this mount is {{convert|12|m|ft|sp=us}} tall and {{convert|21.8|to|22.5|m|ft|sp=us}} long,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Mazzetta |first1=Gerardo V. |last2=Christiansenb |first2=Per |last3=Fariñaa |first3=Richard A. |year=2004 |title=Giants and Bizarres: Body Size of Some Southern South American Cretaceous Dinosaurs |url=http://www.miketaylor.org.uk/tmp/papers/Mazzetta-et-al_04_SA-dino-body-size.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090225155217/http://www.miketaylor.org.uk/tmp/papers/Mazzetta-et-al_04_SA-dino-body-size.pdf |archive-date=2009-02-25 |url-status=live |journal=Historical Biology |location=Milton Park, Oxfordshire |publisher=Taylor & Francis |volume=16 |issue=2–4 |pages=71–83 |doi=10.1080/08912960410001715132 |bibcode=2004HBio...16...71M |citeseerx=10.1.1.694.1650 |s2cid=56028251 |issn=0891-2963}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Janensch |first=Werner |author-link=Werner Janensch |year=1950 |others=Translation by Gerhard Maier |title=Die Skelettrekonstruktion von ''Brachiosaurus brancai'' |trans-title=The Skeleton Reconstruction of Brachiosaurus brancai |url=https://paleoglot.org/files/Janensch1950b.pdf |url-status=live |journal=Palaeontographica |location=Stuttgart |publisher=[[E. Schweizerbart]] |volume=Suplement VII |issue=1. Reihe, Teil 3, Lieferung 2 |pages=97–103 |oclc=45923346 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170711052046/https://paleoglot.org/files/Janensch1950b.pdf |archive-date=July 11, 2017 |access-date=October 24, 2019}}</ref> and would have belonged to an animal that weighed between {{gaps|30|000}} and {{gaps|60|000}}&nbsp;kilograms ({{gaps|70|000}} and {{gaps|130|000}}&nbsp;lb). The longest complete dinosaur is the {{convert|27|m|ft|sp=us}} long ''Diplodocus'', which was discovered in [[Wyoming]] in the [[United States]] and displayed in [[Pittsburgh]]'s [[Carnegie Museum of Natural History]] in 1907.<ref name=lucas04>{{cite conference |last1=Lucas |first1=Spencer G. |last2=Herne |first2=Matthew C. |last3=Hecket |first3=Andrew B. |last4=Hunt |first4=Adrian P. |last5=Sullivan |first5=Robert M. |display-authors=3 |year=2004 |title=Reappraisal of ''Seismosaurus'', a Late Jurassic Sauropod Dinosaur From New Mexico |url=https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2004AM/finalprogram/abstract_77727.htm |url-status=live |conference=2004 Denver Annual Meeting (November 7–10, 2004) |conference-url=https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2004AM/webprogram/start.html |volume=36 |publisher=Geological Society of America |location=Boulder, CO |page=422 |id=Paper No. 181-4 |oclc=62334058 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191008110318/https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2004AM/finalprogram/abstract_77727.htm |archive-date=October 8, 2019 |access-date=October 25, 2019}}</ref> The longest dinosaur known from good fossil material is ''[[Patagotitan]]'': the skeleton mount in the American Museum of Natural History in [[New York City|New York]] is {{convert|37|meters|feet}} long. The [[Museo Carmen Funes|Museo Municipal Carmen Funes]] in [[Plaza Huincul]], Argentina, has an ''[[Argentinosaurus]]'' reconstructed skeleton mount that is {{convert|39.7|m|feet|sp=us}} long.<ref name="PLOS One">{{cite journal |last1=Sellers |first1=William Irvin. |last2=Margetts |first2=Lee |last3=Coria |first3=Rodolfo Aníbal |author3-link=Rodolfo Coria |last4=Manning |first4=Phillip Lars |year=2013 |editor1-last=Carrier |editor1-first=David |title=March of the Titans: The Locomotor Capabilities of Sauropod Dinosaurs |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0078733 |journal=PLOS ONE |location=San Francisco, CA |publisher=PLOS |volume=8 |issue=10 |page=e78733 |pmid=24348896 |pmc=3864407|bibcode=2013PLoSO...878733S |issn=1932-6203|doi-access=free }}</ref>
[[File:Maraapunisaurus Skeletal V1.svg|thumb|upright=1.15|left|''Maraapunisaurus'', one of the largest animals to walk the earth.]]
[[File:Bruhathkayosaurus matleyi updated.png|thumb|upright=1.15|right|''[[Bruhathkayosaurus]]'', potentially the largest terrestrial animal to ever exist.]]
There were larger dinosaurs, but knowledge of them is based entirely on a small number of fragmentary fossils. Most of the largest herbivorous specimens on record were discovered in the 1970s or later, and include the massive ''Argentinosaurus'', which may have weighed {{convert|80000|to|100000|kg|ST|sp=us|abbr=off|comma=gaps}} and reached lengths of {{convert|30|to|40|m|ft|sp=us}}; some of the longest were the {{convert|33.5|m|ft|sp=us|adj=mid}} long ''Diplodocus hallorum''<ref name=KC06/> (formerly ''Seismosaurus''), the {{convert|33|to|34|m|ft|sp=us|adj=mid}} long ''[[Supersaurus]]'',<ref name=LHW07/> and {{convert|37|m|feet|sp=us|adj=mid}} long ''Patagotitan''; and the tallest, the {{convert|18|m|ft|sp=us|adj=mid}} tall ''[[Sauroposeidon]]'', which could have reached a sixth-floor window. There were a few dinosaurs that was considered either the heaviest and longest. The most famous one include ''[[Amphicoelias fragillimus]]'', known only from a now lost partial vertebral [[Vertebra#Structure|neural arch]] described in 1878. Extrapolating from the illustration of this bone, the animal may have been {{convert|58|m|ft|sp=us}} long and weighed {{cvt|122400|kg|lb|comma=gaps}}.<ref name=KC06/> However, recent research have placed ''Amphicoelias'' from the long, gracile diplodocid to the shorter but much stockier rebbachisaurid. Now renamed as ''[[Maraapunisaurus]]'', this sauropod now stands as much as {{convert|40|m|ft|sp=us}} long and weigh as much as {{cvt|120000|kg|lb|comma=gaps}}.<ref name="carpenter2018">{{cite journal | title=Maraapunisaurus fragillimus, N.G. (formerly Amphicoelias fragillimus), a basal Rebbachisaurid from the Morrison Formation (Upper Jurassic) of Colorado | author=Carpenter, Kenneth | journal=Geology of the Intermountain West | year=2018 | volume=5 | pages=227–244 | doi=10.31711/giw.v5i0.28 | doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Paul|first=Gregory S.|date=2019|title=Determining the largest known land animal: A critical comparison of differing methods for restoring the volume and mass of extinct animals|url=http://www.gspauldino.com/Titanomass.pdf|journal=Annals of the Carnegie Museum|volume=85|issue=4|pages=335–358|doi=10.2992/007.085.0403|bibcode=2019AnCM...85..335P|s2cid=210840060|archive-date=January 28, 2020|access-date=December 2, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200128092205/http://www.gspauldino.com/Titanomass.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> Another contender of this title includes ''[[Bruhathkayosaurus]]'', a controversial taxon that was recently confirmed to exist after archived photos were uncovered.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Pal |first1=Saurabh |last2=Ayyasami |first2=Krishnan |date=27 June 2022 |title=The lost titan of Cauvery |journal=[[Geology Today]] |language=en |volume=38 |issue=3 |pages=112–116 |doi=10.1111/gto.12390 |bibcode=2022GeolT..38..112P |s2cid=250056201 |issn=0266-6979}}</ref> ''Bruhathkayosaurus'' was a titanosaur and would have most likely weighed more than even ''Marrapunisaurus''. Recent size estimates in 2023 have placed this sauropod reaching lengths of up to {{cvt|44|m|ft}} long and a colossal weight range of around {{cvt|110000–170000|kg|lb|comma=gaps}}, if these upper estimates up true, ''Bruhathkayosaurus'' would have rivaled the ''[[blue whale]]'' and ''[[Perucetus colossus]]'' as one of the largest animals to have ever existed.<ref name="Bruhathkayosaurus2023">{{Cite journal |last1=Paul |first1=Gregory S. |last2=Larramendi |first2=Asier |date=11 April 2023 |title=Body mass estimate of ''Bruhathkayosaurus'' and other fragmentary sauropod remains suggest the largest land animals were about as big as the greatest whales |journal=Lethaia |language=en |volume=56 |issue=2 |pages=1–11 |doi=10.18261/let.56.2.5 |bibcode=2023Letha..56..2.5P |s2cid=259782734 |issn=0024-1164|doi-access=free }}</ref>

The largest carnivorous dinosaur was ''[[Spinosaurus]]'', reaching a length of {{convert|12.6|to|18|m|ft|sp=us}} and weighing {{convert|7|to|20.9|MT|ST}}.<ref name=SMBM06/><ref name=TH07/> Other large carnivorous theropods included ''[[Giganotosaurus]]'', ''[[Carcharodontosaurus]]'', and ''Tyrannosaurus''.<ref name=TH07/> ''[[Therizinosaurus]]'' and ''[[Deinocheirus]]'' were among the tallest of the theropods. The largest ornithischian dinosaur was probably the hadrosaurid ''[[Shantungosaurus|Shantungosaurus giganteus]]'' which measured {{convert|16.6|m|feet|sp=us}}.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Zhao |first1=Xijin |author1-link=Zhao Xijin |last2=Li |first2=Dunjing |last3=Han |first3=Gang |last4=Zhao |first4=Huaxi |last5=Liu |first5=Fengguang |last6=Li |first6=Laijin |last7=Fang |first7=Xiaosi |display-authors=3 |year=2007 |title=Zhuchengosaurus maximus from Shandong Province |journal=Acta Geoscientia Sinica |location=[[Beijing]] |publisher=[[Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences]] |volume=28 |issue=2 |pages=111–122 |issn=1006-3021}}</ref> The largest individuals may have weighed as much as {{convert|16|MT|ST}}.<ref>{{harvnb|Weishampel|Dodson|Osmólska|2004|pp=438–463|loc=chpt. 20: "Hadrosauridae" by John R. Horner David B. Weishampel, and Catherine A. Forster.}}</ref>

[[File:Bee hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae) adult male in flight-cropped.jpg|thumb|An adult [[bee hummingbird]], the smallest known dinosaur]]
The smallest dinosaur known is the [[bee hummingbird]],<ref>{{harvnb|Norell|Gaffney|Dingus|2000}}</ref> with a length of only {{convert|5|cm|in|sp=us}} and mass of around {{convert|1.8|g|oz|abbr=on}}.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.birds.com/species/a-b/bee-hummingbird/ |url-status=live |title=Bee Hummingbird (''Mellisuga helenae'') |website=Birds.com |publisher=Paley Media |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150403005328/https://www.birds.com/species/a-b/bee-hummingbird/ |archive-date=April 3, 2015 |access-date=October 27, 2019}}</ref> The smallest known non-[[Avialae|avialan]] dinosaurs were about the size of [[pigeon]]s and were those theropods most closely related to birds.<ref name=zhang2008/> For example, ''[[Anchiornis huxleyi]]'' is currently the smallest non-avialan dinosaur described from an adult specimen, with an estimated weight of {{convert|110|g|oz|abbr=on}}<ref name=anchiadvance/> and a total skeletal length of {{convert|34|cm|ft|sp=us}}.<ref name=zhang2008/><ref name=anchiadvance/> The smallest herbivorous non-avialan dinosaurs included ''[[Microceratus]]'' and ''[[Wannanosaurus]]'', at about {{convert|60|cm|ft|sp=us}} long each.<ref name=Holtz2007/><ref name="butler&zhao2009"/>