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Breviparopus

Breviparopus (ichnotype B. taghbaloutensis) is the name given to an ichnogenus of dinosaur, having been made by an unknown genus of sauropod. As an ichnogenus, the taxon is represented by (and named for) a 90-metre (295 ft) long series of fossil tracks, or ichnites, found in the spring of 1979 in the Atlas Mountains of present-day Morocco. At the time, this area would have been part of the splitting Gondwana supercontinent. The animal that produced the Breviparopus tracks is rumored to be one of the largest dinosaurs, though its exact size has been the subject of much debate.

The size, weight, and even family tree of the animal that made Breviparopus tracks is unknown, but a great deal of speculation has arisen about this animal. Length estimates as great as 48 metres (157 ft) have been given in popular books such as Guinness World Records, though these were based on the misconception that the 115 centimetres (45 in) figure was based on a single footprint, not the combined length of the fore and hind feet.

In reality, the trackmakers of Breviparopus were likely somewhat smaller than this. The actual prints are 90 centimetres (35 in) wide and about as long. The feet were probably even larger than 90 centimetres (35 in) wide since the edges of the prints are collapsed. This would result in an animal roughly 34 to 48 metres (112 to 157 ft) long, assuming proportions similar to Giraffatitan. Earlier estimates that the prints were only 50 centimetres (20 in) wide, no larger than the feet of Diplodocus, have since been shown to be incorrect. In 2020 Molina-Pérez and Larramendi suggested that the narrow-gauge track, the position of the claws, and the era all indicate that it belonged to an enormous diplodocoid, and estimated its size at 33.5 m (110 ft) and 62 t (68 short tons).