‘Patagotitan’, exhibition with the largest dinosaur in the world, is better than a video game

Advances in audiovisual technology have left today’s audience tremendously unaccustomed to reconstructions of the Age of Dinosaurs. Would anyone who watches the run of “Jurassic World” year in and year out on a big screen TV still be able to be impressed by a mere skeleton of a dino? At least in the case of the Argentine monster Patagotitannow on display at Ibirapuera Park, the answer is an indisputable yes.

It’s very difficult not to have your legs at least a little wobbly in the face of the giant’s dimensions. The experience of watching science fiction films or documentaries, however well produced, simply does not compare to getting close – and standing underneath – the reconstruction of an animal whose femur is, in itself, the height of a person. .

By the way, you can also prove this by lying on the side of the real fossilized femur, brought from Patagonia for the show. Close to 40 meters in length, the 100-million-year-old long-necked herbivore makes any human being tiny.

The gigantism of the main star, however, is far from being the only virtue of the exhibition “Dinosaurs: Patagotitan – The Biggest in the World”, which can be seen in the Pavilion of Brazilian Cultures in the park. The exhibition’s structure is based on simplicity and is elegantly functional.

With the exception of a single cinematographic concession, a short and competent documentary about field research in Patagonia, produced by the Egidio Feruglio Paleontological Museum, home to most of the fossils in the show, the focus is on contact with the skeletons and reconstructions themselves. Some of the replicas of key parts of the dinos’ anatomy, distinguished with the color blue, can be touched by visitors.

This no-frills approach works well, in part, because it is possible to tell a very significant slice of the evolutionary history of dinosaurs, from 230 million years ago to 66 million years ago, using only Argentine and Brazilian fossils – for now, much more those on the other side of the border, thanks to the ease of finding the ancient skeletons in the bare rocks and in the Patagonian climate.

The saga begins with the gaucho species Buriolestes schultzian animal not much larger than a domestic cat and carnivorous like the cats of today, but which is at the origins of the group of large-necked herbivores and huge like the Patagotitan. Everything indicates that these modest South American species served as a relatively isolated laboratory for the evolution of the group, as they diversified in an environment of temperate climate and abundant vegetation, while the tropical regions of the planet had become a large desert.

The trajectory of the great South American carnivores is also documented, with some of the most famous examples of Argentine fauna from the Cretaceous period, between 145 million years and 66 million years ago, which had close relatives in Brazilian territory. It is the case of Tyrannotitan chubutensiswhich reached 12 meters, rivaling its almost namesake Tyrannosaurus rexand the horned carnotauruswhose big head was reconstructed to the appearance it would have had in life.

The diversity of shapes, sizes and lifestyles, explained with good supporting texts, is enough to show how dinosaurs, more than generic science fiction monsters, were what land mammals are today: the most important vertebrates of all time. their ecosystems, as different from each other as a chimpanzee is different from an elephant or an armadillo.

One last tip for the visitor: be sure to use the drum to simulate the herculean heartbeat of the Patagotitan. It’s better than any video game.