How temporary is fame, even for beasts that trod the Earth for millions of years.
Skulls of Carcharodontosaurus saharicus (see below), and Homo sapiens (see mirror). Courtesy of University of Chicago.
| Dinosaur-diggers have unearthed a number
of amazing carnivorous (defined) dinosaurs in
recent years. Two of the finds have deposed T. rex from its title as history's
largest land-dwelling meat eater.
How temporary is fame, even for beasts that trod the Earth for millions of years. Skulls of Carcharodontosaurus saharicus (see below), and Homo sapiens (see mirror). Courtesy of University of Chicago. |
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In Sept., 1995, Argentine researchers found Gigantosaurus carolinni in Argentina. This two-footed carnivorous nightmare weighed an estimated 9 tons, half-again as much as T. rex. The 100-million year old Gigantosaurus was more primitive, heavier, and slower than T. rex, its crowd-pleasing relative.
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In 1996, scientists reported finding fossils from a giant predatory dinosaur from the Saharan sands in Morocco (see "Fossil of a Terror ..." in the bibliography) . The jumbo skull of the "shark-toothed reptile from the Sahara" (Carcharodontosaurus saharicus, if you love binomials -- defined) was 5 feet 4 inches long. From end to end, the monster measured a good 45 feet. And its teeth were virtual Moroccan daggers, measuring five inches long. The fossil was found in an area that was a giant flood plain back in dino times, and presumably had plenty of prey for the shark-toothed reptile.
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Also in 1996, a smaller version of T. rex was found in Thailand (see "Oldest Tyrannosaur, Discovered in Thailand" in the bibliography)
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The cascade of discoveries of these related animals show how well animals could travel before the continents finally split up about 100 million years ago. (When dinos first appeared about 230 million years ago they were a global phenomenon, since there was essentially just one continent for them to fight over.)
"Fighting over" is exactly what happened to poor Sue. Not long after Larson's crew began prying her from her stony grave, the federal government began expressing its interest in her. |
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