We do keep adding to our inventory of known dinosaurs. Considering
the real speciation existing today among birds and the time duration
of dinosaur dominance, I suspect that we have only begun.
This is another T.Rex like meat eating land shark that everyone loves
to be extinct. Of course, we may still have an example or two hiding
out in remnants of the Sahul.
We know little of their life way so cannot comment well on likely
populations. They seem to get caught in flash floods rather often.
There may have been very specific reasons for that behavior such as
stalking a water hole.
We had the same problem with Giant sloths who get caught in tar pits
far too easily. Turns out that they scavenge maggots from trapped
corpses and got caught of course. Still pretty selective.
New "Sauron"
Dinosaur Found, Big as T. Rex
Forty-foot predator
stalked North Africa about 95 million years ago.
James Owen
for National
Geographic News
Published November 6,
2012
Named after the
demonic Eye of Sauron from the Lord of the
Rings films, a new species of flesh-ripping dinosaur
terrorized North Africa some 95 million years ago, a new study says.
The species—Sauroniops
pachytholus, or "eye of Sauron" in Greek—was identified
from a single fossil unearthed in southeastern Morocco in
2007.
That fossil included only part the upper skull—including the eye
socket, study leader Andrea Cau, of the Museo Geologico Giovanni
Capellini in Bologna, Italy, said by email.
"The idea of a
predator that is physically known only as its fierce eye reminded me
of Sauron, in particular as depicted in Peter Jackson's movies,"
Cau explained. (See a picture of an alien planet that resembles the
Eye of Sauron.)
A Match for T.
Rex
As
a carcharodontosaur—a type of huge theropod, or two-legged
meat-eater—Sauroniops likely had "a long and deep skull
bearing dozens of bladelike teeth," he said. (See pictures
of bizarre dinosaurs in National Geographicmagazine.)
Comparisons of the
skull fossil with those of related species suggest the creature
measured up to 40 feet (12 meters) in length.
"The skull bone
of Sauroniops is very broad and particularly thick: This
suggests an animal as big as Tyrannosaurus [rex]," Cau
said. But without more fossils, "a more precise estimation
of its size is currently impossible," the paleontologist added.
(See "Meat-Eating Dinosaur Was Bigger Than T. Rex.")
The fossil also
revealed that the dinosaur had a distinctive bump on its forehead,
which sets Sauroniops apart from other carcharodontosaurs,
according to the study, published recently in the journal Acta
Palaeontologica Polonica.
This lumpy growth may
have been used for head-butting clashes during male mating displays,
the team speculates.
Sauron Dinosaur Was a
Giant Among Giants
As the fourth
carcharodontosaur known from Africa, Sauroniops shared its
Moroccan stomping ground with the equally
ferocious Carcharodontosaurus saharicus. (Related: "Massive
New Meat-Eating Dino Had 'Steak Knife' Teeth.")
Though these top
predators may have given each other the evil eye, it's quite possible
they targeted different prey and weren't direct competitors, Cau
said.
"Sauroniops lived
along the banks of a large delta, under a hot and warm climate, very
rich of fishes and crocodiles," he added. "The abundance of
food may explain the abundance of predatory dinosaurs."
No comments:
Post a Comment