Argentinosaurus walks in never-before-seen images PIC: University of Manchester
Argentinosaurus walks in never-before-seen images (University of Manchester)

The heaviest and longest creature to ever walk the face of the Earth was faster than man, scientists have claimed.

A Manchester University team discovered that Argentinosaurus could trot along at an average speed of around 5mph.

That is more than 1.5mph quicker than the average human being's pace.

The huge dinosaur, which lived during the Cretaceous period (145 million to 66 million years ago), weighed in at 88 tonnes and measured 131ft from head to tail.

In a walking race with a human being, the ground-shakingly massive Argentinosaurus would win.

Unveiling a computer model of the world's biggest thunder lizard, lead scientist Bill Sellers said that the team's discovery could teach us more about ourselves.

Argentinosaur on display PIC: Reuters
Argentinosaur on display (Reuters)

Sellers said of the model: "All vertebrates from humans to fish share the same basic muscles, bones and joints.

"To understand how these function we can compare how they are used in different animals, and the most interesting are often those at extremes. Argentinosaurus is the biggest animal that ever walked on the surface of the Earth and understanding how it did this will tell us a lot about the maximum performance of the vertebrate musculoskeletal system.

"We need to know more about this to help understand how it functions in ourselves."