What's the largest a sauropod could hypothetically achieve?

[Rh_4m]

How big could a sauropod get? Like, not what's the biggest sauropod, but what's the maximum size a sauropod could hypothetically achieve?

 

what would be the maximum length, mass and/or height one of these animals could get to and still be biologically feasible? and how might these "maximum dimensions" change with different types of sauropods like brachiosaurs, titanosaurs, diplodocids etc?

 

Also I know this isn't really fossil discussion and moreso dinosaurs in general, but idk where to ask. If any of y'all know any good dinosaur or other paleontology forums I would really appreciate some suggestions!

[Kane]

You may find this relatively recent BBC article of interest: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230405-did-the-dinosaurs-reach-their-maximum-possible-size

[Rh_4m]

2 minutes ago, Kane said:

You may find this relatively recent BBC article of interest: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230405-did-the-dinosaurs-reach-their-maximum-possible-size

Hmmm... Idk, I guess this doesnt help a whole lot for me. It tells a lot about how sauropods could have gotten large but not a whole lot on how big they could have gotten.

 

Of course it is true that, as the article mentions, the largest sauropods we know of irl were likely close to the limit of terrestrial animal size, but considering how something like 99.9% of extinct species never fossilize and only a fraction of those 0.01% that do fossilize are found by people, I can't imagine that the sauropods we know of were the absolute largest of all the ones that had existed.

 

Still an interesting read though, thanks!

 

[Troodon]

I think the article does address your question if I'm reading this right?

 

 

"The jury is still out on whether titanosaurs could have become even bigger, had dinosaurs not gone extinct.  "I think that there could have been somewhat larger sauropods, perhaps, but not dramatically so," says Carrano. He says that it helps to think in terms of "orders of magnitude", which technically refers to change by factors of ten, to think about major shifts in size. For example, going from one tonne to 10 tonnes is a big deal, he says – significantly more so than going from 10 to 20 tonnes. "There’s a shift in scale in the former but not the latter.""