Anchiornis vs Argentinosaurus

A detailed side-by-side comparison of Anchiornis and Argentinosaurus, covering size, diet, classification, geologic period, and discovery history.

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Side-by-Side Comparison

Property	Anchiornis	Argentinosaurus
Scientific Name	Anchiornis huxleyi	Argentinosaurus huinculensis
Classification	Theropoda	Sauropoda
Period	Jurassic Late	Cretaceous Late
Diet	Insectivore	Herbivore
Length	0.4 m	35.0 m
Height	0.2 m	12.0 m
Weight	0 kg	70.0 t
Discovery Year	2009	1993
Discovery Location	Tiaojishan Formation, China	Neuquen Province, Argentina
Named By	Xu Xing et al.	Jose Bonaparte & Rodolfo Coria

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Size Comparison

Anchiornis 0.4 m

smaller than a human child

Argentinosaurus 35.0 m

as long as 3 school buses

Weight Comparison

Anchiornis 0 kg

lighter than a human adult

Argentinosaurus 70.0 t

heavier than 12 African elephants

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Timeline Comparison

Anchiornis

161.5 Mya Jurassic Late (Mesozoic) 145.0 Mya

Argentinosaurus

100.5 Mya Cretaceous Late (Mesozoic) 66.0 Mya

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Diet Comparison

Anchiornis

Insectivore

Anchiornis primarily fed on insects and other small invertebrates.

Argentinosaurus

Herbivore

Argentinosaurus was a plant-eater, feeding on vegetation like ferns, conifers, and cycads.

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Classification Comparison

Anchiornis

Clade: Saurischia

Group: Theropoda

(Beast feet)

Argentinosaurus

Clade: Sauropodomorpha

Group: Sauropoda

(Lizard feet)

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Did You Know?

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Argentinosaurus was about 87.5x longer than Anchiornis.

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Argentinosaurus weighed roughly 700000x more than Anchiornis.

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Anchiornis was a insectivore while Argentinosaurus was a herbivore.

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Anchiornis lived during the Jurassic Late while Argentinosaurus lived during the Cretaceous Late, separated by roughly 44 million years.

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Argentinosaurus was discovered 16 years earlier, in 1993.

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Anchiornis belonged to Theropoda while Argentinosaurus belonged to Sauropoda.

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Explore These Dinosaurs

Anchiornis

Anchiornis huxleyi

0.4m long, 0.2m tall, 0.1kg · Jurassic Late

Argentinosaurus

Argentinosaurus huinculensis

35.0m long, 12.0m tall, 70.0t · Cretaceous Late

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