How can scientists recreate entire skeletons of extinct animals with only a few bones found?

Question

I was studying sauropods like Argentinosaurus and found that palaeontologists have only discovered partial remains of the dinosaur, just a few femur bones and spinal columns. How do they recreate the entire dinosaur based off just that? Has it happened in the past that they “attached” the bones to other bones they believed belonged to the same species but really didn’t?

In: Biology

Answer 1

They use the skeletons of related dinosaurs to make an educated guess on what the new skeleton would look like when completed.

And yes, it has happened that they made mistakes. Many times, in fact.