Lei Long, who lived in Cretaceous, was a large sauropod herbivorous dinosaur. Many fossils of Titan bones unearthed now show that their weight before death may exceed 65,438+000 tons (such as Argentinean dragon in Argentina). At the same time, paleontologists have also found that there are a large number of bone decks on Titan's skin. What are the functions of these bone decks? This has been a mystery to paleontologists for many years.

Thiago Marinho, a paleontologist at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, analyzed the embryo of Saltasaurus discovered in Patagonia, Argentina in 1997, and pointed out that the bony deck covering the skin of Titan in childhood had a strong protective effect, which could avoid the attack and hunting of predators. There are many lumps on the skin of Titan embryo, which are very similar to the skin of crocodile embryo, suggesting that when Titan grows up, the lumps will become as hard as crocodile skin.

As an adult, the function of Titan's skeleton deck is not important. The bone scales on its huge body are very small and soft, which is not enough to achieve real defense protection. Tiago stressed that the defensive effect of this skeleton deck is much greater for young Titan than for adults, which can effectively reduce the damage caused by predators in the attack.