What Was the Biggest Dinosaur?

🕐 4 min 19 sec 👦 Ages 6–8 🌍 English
Koko discovers the true biggest dinosaur — Patagotitan — and learns about giant plant-eating sauropods!
Identifying the largest known dinosaur Understanding herbivores vs predators How scientists name and measure dinosaurs Comparing dinosaur sizes to everyday objects
📖 Story Script
                    Koko:
                    Owlo! Owlo! I have the most exciting news. I found something huge in the school garden today!
                
                    Owlo:
                    Slow down, Koko. Take a breath and tell me what happened out there.
                
                    Koko:
                    I was digging near the big oak tree, looking for cool rocks. And I found this giant, giant bone!
                
                    Owlo:
                    My goodness. Let me take a look at that. It is quite large, isn't it?
                
                    Koko:
                    Do you think it could be a dinosaur bone, Owlo? That would be the best thing ever!
                
                    Owlo:
                    Well, it looks like an old animal bone, but probably not a dinosaur. Still, your discovery has given me a wonderful idea for today's lesson.
                
                    Koko:
                    Is it about dinosaurs? Please say it's about dinosaurs!
                
                    Owlo:
                    It is absolutely about dinosaurs. And I have a very big question for you to think about.
                
                    Koko:
                    I'm ready. Ask me, ask me!
                
                    Owlo:
                    What do you think was the biggest dinosaur that ever walked on Earth?
                
                    Koko:
                    Hmm. I think it was a T-Rex! Those teeth are so scary in all the pictures.
                
                    Owlo:
                    The T-Rex is a fantastic guess, and it certainly was scary. But it was not the biggest dinosaur. Come with me to the library and I will show you something amazing.
                
                    Owlo:
                    Here we go. I pulled out this big dinosaur atlas last week, and I have been waiting for the right moment to use it.
                
                    Koko:
                    Wow, this book is almost as big as me! Look at all these pictures.
                
                    Owlo:
                    Open it to the page with the long-necked dinosaurs. Those are called sauropods, and they were the true giants.
                
                    Koko:
                    Sore-oh-pods? That's a funny word. They look like really, really long snakes with legs.
                
                    Owlo:
                    That is a clever way to picture them. Now, scientists believe one of the very biggest was a dinosaur called Patagotitan. It lived about one hundred million years ago.
                
                    Koko:
                    Pata-go-titan. That sounds like a superhero name!
                
                    Owlo:
                    It does, doesn't it? This dinosaur was discovered in a place called Patagonia, in the country of Argentina. That is how it got its name.
                
                    Koko:
                    So how big was it? Was it bigger than our school?
                
                    Owlo:
                    Imagine this, Koko. Patagotitan was about thirty-seven meters long. That is longer than three school buses parked end to end.
                
                    Koko:
                    Three whole buses! My jaw just fell on the floor.
                
                    Owlo:
                    And it weighed around sixty-nine tonnes. That is heavier than ten large elephants all standing together.
                
                    Koko:
                    How did its legs not just break from being so heavy?
                
                    Owlo:
                    That is brilliant thinking. Its bones were incredibly thick and strong, almost like pillars holding up a building. Nature is a very clever engineer.
                
                    Koko:
                    What did it eat? Something that big must have eaten everything!
                
                    Owlo:
                    Actually, Patagotitan only ate plants. Dinosaurs like this are called herbivores, which means plant eaters. It used that long neck to reach the tallest treetops.
                
                    Koko:
                    So it was giant and gentle at the same time. I kind of love it now.
                
                    Owlo:
                    Many of the largest animals in history have been plant eaters. Size does not always mean fierce.
                
                    Koko:
                    What about T-Rex though? Where does it fit?
                
                    Owlo:
                    T-Rex was a predator, which means it hunted other animals for food. It was about twelve meters long, which is still enormous. But compared to Patagotitan, it was much smaller.
                
                    Koko:
                    So T-Rex was like the scary one, and Patagotitan was the massive gentle giant. Got it.
                
                    Owlo:
                    You have understood it perfectly. Now, before we put this book away, can you tell me what you learned today?
                
                    Koko:
                    Okay, okay. So the biggest dinosaur was not T-Rex, even though T-Rex has way cooler teeth. The real biggest was Patagotitan, which was as long as three school buses and as heavy as ten elephants. It ate plants, not other dinosaurs, which honestly seems like a lot of salad. And it lived super long ago, like one hundred million years.
                
                    Owlo:
                    That is an excellent summary, Koko. I am very proud of you.
                
                    Koko:
                    Next time I want to find out which dinosaur was the fastest. Maybe I can race it!
                
                    Owlo:
                    Now that is a lesson worth planning for. Same time tomorrow, Koko.