Massive dinosaur skeleton will spill out of hall at NY museum

Updated: 2016-01-15 11:09

(Agenceis)

The skeleton cast of a titanosaur is seen during a media preview at the American Museum of Natural History in New York January 14, 2016. The new, 122-foot (37-meter) dinosaur skeleton to be unveiled on Friday is too long to fit in the fossil hall and so its neck and head will poke out toward the elevator banks, offering a surprise greeting when the lift doors open.[Photo/Agencies]

The titanosaur's remains were excavated in the Argentinian desert near La Flecha by a team from the Museum of Paleontology Egidio Feruglio led by José Luis Carballido and Diego Pol, who studied at the New York museum. They were responding to a tip from a rancher who noticed the fossils on his land.

One enormous femur found at the site will be among five original fossils temporarily on view with the titanosaur, the museum said.

There are other giant beasts housed at the museum - including an actual mummified woolly mammoth that lived about 11,000 years ago, according to the museum website.

Among the biggest hits with visitors are the Tyrannosaurus rex, with its 4-foot (1.2-meter) long jaw and 6-inch (15-cm)long teeth, and the blue whale, a 21,000-pound (9,525-kg) fiberglass model that is 94 feet (29 meters) long.