Posted on 10/30/2009 7:19:16 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
A husband and wife team of paleontologists has discovered a newfound species of armored dinosaur that lived 112 million years ago in what is now Montana.
The duo, Bill and Kris Parsons of the Buffalo Museum of Science in New York, spotted the dinosaur's skull on the surface of a hillside in Montana in 1997. Over the next few years, they retrieved more of the now nearly complete skull along with skin plates, rib fragments, a vertebra and a possible limb bone from the dinosaur species.
Now called Tatankacephalus cooneyorum, the beast is a type of ankylosaur, or a group of plant-eating dinosaurs that resembled nature's armored tanks as they walked about on four limbs and their bodies were covered with bony armor that may have been covered with a colorful keratinous sheathing (same as the stuff in bird beaks and turtle shells).
"These were big dinosaur versions of a Sherman tank," Bill Parsons said. "They were armored and they withstood whatever came at them, and they just kept going." T. cooneyorum was about 15 to 20 feet (4.5 to 6 meters) in length.
And this dinosaur had its share of protection, with two sets of stubby horns, one on the cheeks and the other around its eyes, two thick domes at the back of the skull and thickened areas around the nasal region.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
A newfound species of armored dinosaur, now called Tatankacephalus cooneyorum,
may have showed off skin colored with subdued colors, the researchers speculate.
Credit: Bill Parsons.
The Dinosaur Song
~ Heywood Banks
Paleozoic, Mesozoic, Cenozoic,
Dont ya know its funny how the time goes by
Seems like only yesterday we slithered out of the sea
And now we got to wear a suit and tie
For fifty-seven million years the dinosaurs ruled the land
But now theyre dead and thats just fine you will conclude —
Now Im not saying they werent real nice,
Once you finally broke the ice,
But some of them were really rude!
Oh, way out in Montana, although not very recently
Where the Stegosaurus grew and grew
Everyone knew he had hips like a bird and bony plates along his back
But he never would admit it was true
Out of his tail grew great big spikes and if you mentioned it he would likely
Whip that tail at you angrily
Cause even though his brain was actually only the size of a walnut
He was just as proud as you and me
Tyrannosaurus Rex had a head four feet long
And it made it tough to buy a toupee
His teeth were seven inches long,
And he had little teeny arms
And it made it hard to brush every day
Triassic period Jurassic period Cretaceous comma
Hey there Mama, where did all the dinosaurs go?
Some say a meteor hit the Earth and killed them all for what its worth
But then again we dont really know
I can now explain at last, it wasnt ice or greenhouse gas
That stopped their little hearts from a-tickin
A caveman who had happened by
Discovered when they were deep-fried
Dinosaurs tasted just like chicken!
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Thank you!
“No s**t? I could’ve used some of those bastards in the war.”
Somehow, I doubt these dinosaurs exploded easily.
That can;t be put together that badly.. the Sherman wasn’t that good a tank.
LOL, gave those tigers lots of target practice. Took a brave damn man to get in one of those and charge a tiger.
They were also called Tommy Cookers for a good reason.
I suspect that this is actually quite an old dinosaur.
Yep, Sherman Tank had really, really, really sh#*y armor...
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Gods |
Looks like we've got some non-fans of the Sherman. :') It may have been the worst tank in WWII, it probably was the worst non-Italian tank in the European/Mediterranean theater -- but the US built 30,000 of them, and the Germans were simply overwhelmed. One of my mom's first cousins rolled across France in one, wound up being (I think) the only survivor from his crew during the Bulge. Thanks NormsRevenge. I didn't even check to see if this is a duplicate topic. :') |
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Now let’s see you find a picture of its mortal enemy, Bazookasaurus.
The size of American tanks was dictated to some degree by shipping parameters. If you built them large and heavy you couldn’t get them to the battle. The German army didn’t have to worry about fitting a Tiger tank into an LST.
Are you sure that’s a reptile?
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