(RNN) - A dinosaur skeleton discovered in 2012 was confirmed to be a new species on Tuesday, and took the crown of "largest dinosaur" from the Argentinosaurus.
The newly named "Patagotitan mayorum" weighed in at 76 tons, making it 11 times heavier than the dreaded Tyrannosaurus rex.
But get this: the Patagotitan only ate plants.
It was discovered in southern Argentina, where a group of researchers concluded that the creature was part of a group of dinosaurs called "titanosaurs."
"There was one small part of the family that went crazy on size," Diego Pol of the Egidio Feruglio Paleontologic Museum in Argentina told ABC News.
The dinosaur was named after the Patagonia region in which it was discovered. The second portion of its name was to honor a family that hosted researchers at the dig site.
Patagotitan's skeleton is on display the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Its fossils are dated to about 100 million years ago, based on the ash discovered around them.
But was the Patagotitan scary?
"I don't think they were scary at all," Pol told ABC. "They were probably massive, big, slow-moving animals."
Pol said the titanosaurs got so big because there was an excess of flowering plants during the Early Cretaceous period. It was "like an all-you-can-eat buffet" for the dinosaurs, Pol said
Copyright 2017 Raycom News Network. All rights reserved.
