Editing Dinosaur (section)

====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"/>