On loan from London's Natural History Museum, a skeleton cast of the largest dinosaur ever discovered has arrived in Taipei for a new special exhibit. The reconstructed Patagotitan is already a firm favorite with dinosaur lovers in Taiwan.
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00:00Dwarfed by what could be the biggest animal to have ever walked the earth, visitors are
00:07here to see this towering 37-meter-long skeleton cast of a Patagotitan mayorum, the largest
00:14dinosaur ever discovered.
00:16On loan from London's Natural History Museum, this display will be here at the National
00:21Taiwan Science Education Centre in Taipei for the next four months.
00:26And getting it in place was no easy task.
00:29We used a spider wheel to get it in place.
00:34What's special about it is that we also removed the chandelier and windscreen from the museum
00:40to get it in place.
00:43Categorized as a Titanosaurus, a diverse group of land-dwelling dinosaurs, the Patagotitan
00:48mayorum roamed the planet over 100 million years ago and is named after the Patagonia
00:54region in Argentina where they were first discovered in 2010.
00:58Scientists 3D scanned the fossils to create a cast made of fiberglass, polyester resin,
01:04and expanding foam to successfully reconstruct this skeleton model, consisting of nearly
01:09300 bones.
01:12These massive herbivores are known for their distinct long necks that allowed them to forge
01:16for food on tall trees.
01:19The Patagotitan mayorum is literally a big deal.
01:22They can weigh over 70 tons, the equivalent of about eight T. rexes.
01:27This interactive exhibit gives visitors a chance to get up close and personal with the
01:32colossal animal, to view it from every single side, and even from underneath its belly.
01:38In addition to the behemoth skeletal replica, this special exhibit also includes lifelike
01:44animatronic models, allowing visitors to come face-to-face with various dinosaur species.
01:52It's already gone over big with dinosaur lovers and inquisitive schoolchildren.
01:57We're here to see our dinosaur friends.
01:59Yeah, our dead friends.
02:00Here is our titanosaurs.
02:04I like the dinosaur bones.
02:12This is the third time the Natural History Museum London has loaned an exhibit to Taiwan
02:16in recent years.
02:18The curators here say the success of these exchanges demonstrate the know-how that Taiwan's
02:23institutions possess, and could create more opportunities for international collaborations
02:29of this kind.
02:31Meaning the Patagotitan mayorum's temporary stay here not only offers an impressive showcase
02:36of paleontological marvels, but could lead to even bigger things to come for Taiwan's
02:42museums and scientific institutions.
02:45Andy Shura, Pichi Drong, and Wesley Lewis for Taiwan Plus.