Europe's Largest Predatory Dinosaur Discovered in Portugal
39 replies, posted
[url=http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014/03/06/remains-europe-largest-predatory-dinosaur-discovered-in-portugal/]Source[/url]
[quote]Scientists in Portugal have discovered a new species of dinosaur -- possibly the largest land predator of any kind ever found in Europe.
Paleontologists Christophe Hendrickx and Octávio Mateus of Universidade Nova de Lisboa and Museu da Lourinhã in Portugal say the 33-foot-long dinosaur called Torvosaurus gurneyi was the scourge of Jurassic Europe, Reuters reported.
"It was indeed better not to cross the way of this large, carnivorous dinosaur," Hendrickx said. "Torvosaurus gurneyi was obviously a super predator feeding on large prey like herbivorous dinosaurs."
Remains of the species were unearthed by an amateur fossil hunter in 2003 in rock cliffs near Lisbon, Hendrickx told Reuters. He said fossilized embryos possibly belonging to the same species were identified last year in Portugal.
The predator, which roamed Europe 150 million years ago, weighed four to five tons, had a nearly 4-foot-long skull, possessed powerful jaws lined with blade-shaped teeth four inches long, and may have been covered with an early type of feather, Hendrickx said.[/quote]
[t]http://a57.foxnews.com/global.fncstatic.com/static/managed/img/660/371/dinofind12.jpg?ve=1&tl=1[/t]
I like how the article mentions how massive this thing is and then the accompanying image has some sauropods in the background towering over it like they just don't give a fuck.
Sauropod master race.
I'm re-reading Jurassic Park and The Lost World right now, so my love for dinosaurs is in full gear.
[QUOTE=sltungle;44175808]I like how the article mentions how massive this thing is and then the accompanying image has some sauropods in the background towering over it like they just don't give a fuck.
Sauropod master race.[/QUOTE]
If sauropods are so great, then how come they aren't around anymore?
Checkmate
Mammals: 1
Sauropods: 0
New dino news always makes me wish I could read Jurassic Park for the first time again ;-;
Shouldn't it have feathers?
[QUOTE=Katatonic717;44176157]Shouldn't it have feathers?[/QUOTE]
Only the children and teenagers had feathers.
[QUOTE=Katatonic717;44176157]Shouldn't it have feathers?[/QUOTE]
The article says it might have had early feathers, so probably.
I really wish there was some sort of updated Walking With Dinosaurs made with modern knowledge, feathers and all.
[QUOTE=cardfan212;44176013][t]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/34238144/dinosaurs.jpg[/t]
Going dino crazy.[/QUOTE]
Pfft. Wheres your pocket book?
[img]http://i.imgur.com/CdCiJX2.gif[/img]
Best thing I ever got from an airport.
If they just discovered this thing how do they know it was the scourge of Europe?
[QUOTE=Katatonic717;44176157]Shouldn't it have feathers?[/QUOTE]
There's no evidence of this, Torvosaurus was a Megalosaurid, as far as I know there's no evidence for feathers outside Coelurosauria (T. rex, Velociraptor, all modern Birds, just to name a few).
Pterosaurs and some Cerapods had hair-like filaments, but these were not feathers.
[QUOTE=ZombieWaffle;44176171]Only the children and teenagers had feathers.[/QUOTE]
Adult animals had them too, even big Tyrannosaurs like Yutyrannus had feathers over almost the entire body, it's very likely T. rex had feathers as well but there's no record of how much if any it had due to the conditions in the sediments that Tyrannosaurus fossils are preserved in. Feathers provide excellent insulation against heat, big animals benefit from them in hot climates, Emus are an excellent example of feathers used to direct heat away from the body.
[QUOTE=Thlis;44176461]Pfft. Wheres your pocket book?
[img]http://i.imgur.com/CdCiJX2.gif[/img]
Best thing I ever got from an airport.[/QUOTE]
Fuck, when I was a kid, I got one of those shitty pocket books which shows T-rex standing upright. Eventually got the walking with dinosaurs one.
I get all giddy when another dinosaur is discovered.
[QUOTE=cardfan212;44176013][t]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/34238144/dinosaurs.jpg[/t]
Going dino crazy.[/QUOTE]
Oh man, I have that same Encyclopedia. It's great.
If this news is reuniting your love for dinosaurs, you should watch the new Walking with Dinosaurs film that was released a few months back!
Don't click this spoiler until you've seen it!
[sp]That film might be the closest I've ever come to seriously considering suicide.[/sp]
[QUOTE=Grenadiac;44176479]If they just discovered this thing how do they know it was the scourge of Europe?[/QUOTE]
I think this just means that they have confirmed it is a new species and when it was alive.
[QUOTE=Thlis;44176461]Pfft. Wheres your pocket book?
[img]http://i.imgur.com/CdCiJX2.gif[/img]
Best thing I ever got from an airport.[/QUOTE]
so much of the info in this is hilariously wrong and out-of-date now
[QUOTE=Ray-The-Sun;44176940]If this news is reuniting your love for dinosaurs, you should watch the new Walking with Dinosaurs film that was released a few months back!
Don't click this spoiler until you've seen it!
[sp]That film might be the closest I've ever come to seriously considering suicide.[/sp][/QUOTE]
What's wrong with it?
[QUOTE=ChestyMcGee;44178364]so much of the info in this is hilariously wrong and out-of-date now[/QUOTE]
Every dinosaur book made before the 2010s is very out of date now, but yeah, 90s books now feel ancient.
I have a 90s dinosaur book (one among many others) that STILL considers Spinosaurus's skull to be a standard big theropod skull, and it's hilarious how it stills classifies theropods as either Carnosaurs or Coelurosaurs, as in big ones in one corner and tiny ones in another respectively.
Paleontology has come a long way.
Same with those mammal-themed books printed before all those bio-molecular studies done during the late 2000s that fixed all the phylogeny inacurracies (like: where do cetaceans fit in the tree? where do we fit bats and pangolins? etc...)
Dinosaurs are teh shit. I really wish we could have more media centered around them. Talking about Books/Movies and Games. It's not like they are a boring subject just look at Jurassic Park, Walking with Dinosaurs etc.
Turok was good but the new one fucked it up. Primal Carnage is actually quite neat.
And that's where the list stops :c
[QUOTE=Sgt-NiallR;44178399]What's wrong with it?[/QUOTE]
[sp]Talking with dinosaurs[/sp]
[url]http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/walking_with_dinosaurs_3d/[/url]
that film got pretty rotten reviews
is it worth seeing...?
take that, spain!
I think the coolest thing about dinosaurs is that the way we imagine them is probably utterly wrong. Cracked did an article recently, and they showed how a baboon would look if it was drawn based solely on its skeleton. It was absolutely terrifying, and I'm just wondering if dinosaurs really just looked like massive lumpy birds or something.
[QUOTE=Jamsponge;44179404]I think the coolest thing about dinosaurs is that the way we imagine them is probably utterly wrong. Cracked did an article recently, and they showed how a baboon would look if it was drawn based solely on its skeleton. It was absolutely terrifying, and I'm just wondering if dinosaurs really just looked like massive lumpy birds or something.[/QUOTE]That's actually from a book called All Yesterdays, which involves Darren Naish (from TetZoo) and C. M. Kosemen (Author of Snaiad). They also just released a book called Cryptozoologicon which reimagines legendary monsters and cryptids in a realistic way.
And there's also a spinoff called "All Your Yesterdays" which is a compilation of fanart that you can download it for free in the Irregular Books website
[QUOTE=Smasher 006;44178952][sp]Talking with dinosaurs[/sp][/QUOTE]
The person responsible deserves an asteroid hitting them square in the fuckin' face.
[QUOTE=Sgt-NiallR;44179983]The person responsible deserves an asteroid hitting them square in the fuckin' face.[/QUOTE] The producers did it. The movie was supposed to be silent, with just dinosaur grunts and music, but they decided kids would only like it if they added voices that say poop jokes.
Even the paleontologists involved in the movie were pissed about it.
[QUOTE=Jamsponge;44179404]I think the coolest thing about dinosaurs is that the way we imagine them is probably utterly wrong. Cracked did an article recently, and they showed how a baboon would look if it was drawn based solely on its skeleton. It was absolutely terrifying, and I'm just wondering if dinosaurs really just looked like massive lumpy birds or something.[/QUOTE]
The baboon:
[img]http://i.imgur.com/6TZSpTM.jpg[/img]
Also swans:
[img]http://i.imgur.com/P95I3ER.jpg[/img]
Horrifying creatures.
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