what people and dinos have to say about each other: wow!
PACK
animal?
(NOT by A. Elk) (mrs.)
People, Please! Use your imagination and
Something LARGER THAN THE TYRANNOSAURUS travelled in PACKS?
okay, what was their prey?
what possible dinner required a group of something bigger than a rex to work together to bring it down?
what kind of food source produced this something SO BIG (yet it still needed to travel in packs) kind of predator?
perhaps, perhaps, these dinos were really social and simply liked sharing their dinner and all, but still
what on earth
Get Reel:
Dinosaur Fossils Challenge Theories
A team of researchers from Argentina and North America unearthed the fossilized bones of as many as six of the previously unknown species in Patagonia, a desert on the eastern slopes of the Andes in South America.
The discovery of the predators' graveyard challenges the theory that the biggest meat-eaters were loners. It also raises the possibility that they lived and hunted in packs — which would make them even more terrifying to their prey.
(my note: prey don't need frightening, just catching. thank you.)
Phillip Currie said the newly discovered species lived about 100 million years ago, and was heavier and had slightly shorter legs than the T-rex, which roamed North America. It had a tail and short front legs that were basically useless.
The dinosaur also was characterized by a long, narrow skull and a jaw shaped like scissors. That suggests it could have dissected its prey with almost surgical precision, ``where the Tyrannosaur had a nutcracker skull,'' Currie said.
Researchers estimated the meat-eating giant was 45 feet long, bigger than the reigning king of the carnivores, the 41-foot Giganotosaurus. The better-known T-rex was about 40 feet long.
``I think it would look just as nasty, if not worse,'' Currie said. ``This guy has a long snout, long skull, incredibly sharp teeth — I think it would have been terrifying.'' (AGAIN with the terror. how does that get me my dinner?)
Currie said the animal is apparently related to the Giganotosaurus, but is a new species and genus, making the two creatures as closely related as a dog and a fox. The dinosaur is further removed from the T-rex, at least as different as a dog is from a cat.
Horner said he is awaiting the geological evidence that could determine whether the dinosaurs really did die together. ``If they all died at the same time and if they died somewhat catastrophically,'' he said, ``that would lend support to the fact that meat-eating dinosaurs traveled in groups, perhaps in family groups.''
In 1995, a farmer led Currie's colleague, Rodolfo Coria of the Carmen Funes Municipal Museum, to the site in the Andes foothills, 640 miles southwest of Buenos Aires. The region has yielded a number of discoveries, including the Giganotosaurus.
(food, glorious food! there must have been some really big bunnies around for all these "foxes to dogs" dinos. or could it, oh could it have been -- apples and oranges?)
Now a desert, the area where the bones were found was probably a forest when the dinosaurs prowled across it during the late Cretaceous period, Currie said.
By SHEILA HOTCHKIN, Associated Press Writer
Scientists have discovered the bones of what could be largest meat-eating dinosaur ever to walk the Earth — a needle-nosed, razor-toothed beast more terrifying than even the Tyrannosaurus rex.
