Recreating the world's largest dinosaur.

In 2013, a shepherd discovered a massive fossilized dinosaur bone protruding from a rock at the La Flecha farm in the heart of the Patagonian desert.

Researchers from the Egidio Feruglio Museum of Paleontology (MEF) in Trelew, Argentina, set up camp in the area and conducted excavations. They discovered the largest femur ever found, measuring 2.4 meters in length. After the excavation, they also found 223 bones belonging to 7 specimens. A fiberglass model of this Cretaceous dinosaur skeleton is now on display at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York.

The titanosaur skeleton is on display at the Natural History Museum in New York, USA. Photo: Scientific American.

The model, measuring 5.8 meters high and 37.5 meters long, reveals an image of a giant, herbivorous dinosaur belonging to the titanosaur group, which lived in the forests of southern South America (Patagonia) 95-100 million years ago. This may be the largest dinosaur ever discovered, but it does not yet have an official scientific name.

Because the bones were found in a mixed state, the research team was unable to create a complete specimen. This means the skeleton on display in New York is a combination of old bones and reconstruction techniques based on details taken from closely related species.

The dinosaur's thigh bone is 2.4 meters long. Photo: BBC.

Research Casting International (RCI), based in Trenton, Ontario, Canada, was tasked with reconstructing the dinosaur skeleton. They began their work before the bones were extracted from the sedimentary rock. In February 2015, the reconstruction team examined half of the newly discovered fossil bones at the excavation site and conducted digital scans, according to Peter May, president of RCI. They returned again in May 2015 to scan the remaining bones.

According to May, reconstructing an animal of such a large size was no easy task. To prevent cables hanging from the ceiling from turning the dinosaur skeleton into a biological suspension bridge, May's team used a rigid steel frame inside to support the animal's long neck and tail. The reconstruction of the dinosaur took 3.5 months and involved 4-6 people casting the frame and 3-10 people assembling the skeleton.

According to VnExpress