(1) Sauropods, known today as the largest dinosaurs, were long-necked giants. (2) Their fossils have baffled scientists for decades. (3) These animals were so large that scientists did not know how they were able to support their own weight, unless they lived entirely in the water. (4) Scientists also argued that these overgrown creatures were not well suited for survival and likely became extinct after only a few generations. (5) However, the fossil evidence suggested that sauropods existed, on land, for quite a long time. (6) More recent discoveries of sauropod fossils in locations around the world have confirmed that these resilient animals did indeed walk the earth for millions of years. (7) As a result, scientists have had to rethink many of their previous assumptions about these creatures. (8) By studying these fossils, they are starting to gain a better understanding of how sauropods lived and adapted to the changing environment around them. (9) One area of particular interest involves the growth rates of the creatures. (10) Because sauropods are reptiles, most early dinosaur researchers estimated sauropod growth rates based on the growth rates of modern reptiles. (11) By those calculations, it would have taken sauropods a century to reach their full size. (12) A different perspective developed when scientists began to more closely examine various features of sauropod bones. (13) It was determined that the animals' growth rates would actually have been faster than those of modern reptiles and closer to those of large-bodied mammals.