Posted on 04/17/2006 4:56:51 PM PDT by Pharmboy
AP - In an undated photo provided by Professor Rodolfo Coria,
a dog sits by a replica of the head of a Mapusaurus roseae at
the Carmen Funes Museum in Plaza Huincul, Argentina. The dinosaur
was discovered in the Patagonia region of Argentina and
appears to be one of the biggest meat-eating dinosaurs known.
(AP Photo/HO/Prof. Rodolfo Coria)
Scientists are learning more about what appears to be one of the biggest meat-eating dinosaurs known, a two-legged beast whose bones were found several years ago in the fossil-rich Patagonia region of Argentina.
One expert called the discovery the first substantial evidence of group living by large meat-eaters other than tyrannosaurs like T. rex.
The creature, which apparently measured more than 40 feet long, is called Mapusaurus roseae.
The discovery of Mapusaurus included bones from at least seven to nine of the beasts, suggesting the previously unknown animal may have lived and hunted in groups. That hunting strategy might have allowed it to attack even bigger beasts, huge plant-eating dinosaurs.
The find was reported in 2000 by The Associated Press. It is described in the latest issue of the journal Geodiversitas by paleontologists Rodolfo Coria of the Carmen Funes Museum in Plaza Huincul, Argentina, and Philip Currie of the University of Alberta in Canada. They oversaw the excavation of the dinosaur's remains about 15 miles south of Plaza Huincul from 1997 to 2001. Mapusaurus is estimated to have lived about 100 million years ago.
Currie, in an e-mail, said it's hard to say how long the biggest specimen was because no complete skeleton was found. He estimated it may have measured about 41 feet from the snout to the tip of the tail.
It may have been about a foot longer than Giganotosaurus, also found in Patagonia, but without a complete skeleton "you will never know," he wrote.
The Field Museum in Chicago says its T. rex skeleton, Sue, is 42 feet long.
Thomas Holtz Jr., a University of Maryland dinosaur expert, said that Mapusaurus clearly joins Giganotosaurus, T. rex and a huge African beast called Spinosaurus as among the biggest carnivorous dinosaurs. But he said it's impossible to know exactly how they rank in overall size. The fossil record is too fragmentary, and unlikely to capture the biggest individual of each species, he said.
Spinosaurus was probably the longest species, but length is a poor indicator of overall size because tails can be shorter or longer without affecting a creature's weight very much, he said. Still, Spinosaurus was probably the biggest in overall bulk as well, he said.
Coria noted the dig showed evidence of social behavior in Mapusaurus. The excavation found hundreds of bones from several Mapusaurus individuals but none from any other creature. That suggests the animals were together before they died, Coria said.
Perhaps they hunted in packs, though there is no direct evidence for that, he said in an e-mail. Currie, in a statement from his university, speculated that pack hunting may have allowed Mapusaurus to prey on the biggest known dinosaur, Argentinosaurus, a 125-foot-long plant-eater.
Holtz called the finding the first substantive evidence of group living by giant two-legged carnivores other than tyrannosaurs. It's not clear whether the animals cooperated in hunting, as wolves or lions do, or simply mobbed their prey or just gathered around after one of them made a kill, he said.
"Mapusaurus" comes from the word for "Earth" in the language of the Mapuche tribe of western Patagonia, while "roseae" refers both to the rose-colored rock that yielded the specimens and to the name of a sponsor of the excavations.
I wonder how they knew what color to paint it.
Mega-dinosaur ping...
Whatever they had leftover when they renovated the cafeteria...
:)
That thing must have really rocked the Ark.
Think it could swim?
A two-legged dinosaur?
I'd hate walking into the stable and seeing this thing inside.
"Hey, honey! Roll out the howitzer. There's a Spinosaurus in the barn eating the horse."
The same two legged dino? - bottom LHS.
http://www.bible.ca/tracks/tracks-acambaro-dinos.htm
Q. What's harder than getting a pregnant Mapusaurus onto the ark?
A. Getting a Mapusaurus pregnant on the ark!
[Noah! Make them stop! I'm getting seasick!]
Some details about huge old dinosaurs are best not revealed!!
Oh geez...am I glad I saw that an hour after I ate.
| Godzilla | A real Dinosaur |
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Please pick up a basic children's biology book before the next time you try and plant something
There's no need to take that insulting tone. I simply posted the second pic of the figurine to act as a comparison to the illustration of a two-legged 'dinosaur' on the Ica Stone. Take it or leave it. The question remains open. How old are the stones and who created them?
Your response is insulting and below the standard of enquiry one expects from a Freeper.
Correctly drawn today
Now we know much more. For example, ossified tendons in the tail indicate that the tail did not droop but stood out straight.
Correctly sculpted by ancient peoples.
The clay figurine (below right) is from the Pre-classical Chupicuaro Culture (800 B.C. to 200 A.D.) found near Acambaro, Guanajuato, Mexico. It seems obvious these people knew how Iguanodons appeared in life.
Wrong number and kind of toes for a dinosaur, among other things. One of the other things is that the critter in the image has no hind legs. It would be walking on its hands.
?????
Scientific evidence for creation and co-existence of humans and dinosaurs? Young earth evidence? Sorry, some tens of thousand scientists say you are wrong.
Radiometric dating? Give me a break! Radiocarbon dating alone disproves the young earth claims; no need for dating rocks, fossils, or any of the rest. Lets just talk about dating soils and what lies in them. If you have a problem with this, go to your creation websites and see if you can find some examples of why the radiocarbon dates I have personally obtained, going back some 13,000 years, on western US soils are incorrect. I have dates on human populations nearly that old. And my colleagues go back even older.
ps. The creation sites are not going to help much, as they are still fighting the wrong battles, arguing about fossils and geology. We are talking soils here! You're on your own, kid; think or swim!
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