'Thunder-Thighs' Dinosaur Discovered

ScienceDaily ^ | February 23, 2011 | Unknown

[Immerito]

'Thunder-Thighs' Dinosaur Discovered: Brontomerus May Have Used Powerful Thigh Muscles to Kick Predators

ScienceDaily (Feb. 23, 2011) — A new dinosaur named Brontomerus mcintoshi, or "thunder-thighs" after its enormously powerful thigh muscles, has been discovered in Utah, USA. The new species is described in a paper recently published in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica by an international team of scientists from the UK and the US.

A member of the long-necked sauropod group of dinosaurs which includes Diplodocus and Brachiosaurus, Brontomerus may have used its powerful thighs as a weapon to kick predators, or to help travel over rough, hilly terrain. Brontomerus lived about 110 million years ago, during the Early Cretaceous Period, and probably had to contend with fierce "raptors" such as Deinonychus and Utahraptor.

The fossilised bones of two specimens of Brontomerus mcintoshi -- an adult and a juvenile -- were rescued from a previously looted and damaged quarry in eastern Utah by researchers from the Sam Noble Museum. Paleontologists speculate that the larger specimen is the mother of the younger and would have weighed around 6 tons, about the size of a large elephant, and measured 14 meters in length. At a third of the size, the smaller specimen would have weighed about 200 kg, the size of a pony, and been 4.5 m long.

[hattend]

Picture taken from 50 feet away and you can still see cottage cheese.

[Salamander]

Somebody asked me that about a large woman we’d seen a long time ago and now I think of it every time I see a morbidly obese person.

[I wish I could -forget- that horrid question]....LOL

[Salamander]

LOL!

[cranked]

I saw this particular dino last weekend firsthand walking out of the White House..../s =.=

[SunkenCiv]

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