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Massive, meat-eating 'cannibalistic monster' dinosaur unearthed in Utah

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alr1ght

bish gets all the credit :)
http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/22/us/siats-meekerorum-dinosour-discovered/

131122191930-siats-meekororum-story-top.jpg


(CNN) -- It lived about 100 million years ago, weighed four tons and likely was at the very top of its prehistoric food chain.

Researchers from Chicago's Field Museum, the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and North Carolina State University announced Friday the discovery of Siats meekerorum, a dinosaur that stretched more than 30 feet long, in eastern Utah.

Given its size and other characteristics, they believe this creature ruled its ecosystem in the middle of the Cretaceous, a period known as the last in the so-called "Age of Dinosaurs."

It's not known if Siats meekerorum existed alongside Tyrannosaurus rex; fossils found from the same patch of Utah's Cedar Mountain Formation shows it did share the land with tyrannosaurs. But relatively speaking, these tyrannosaurs were much smaller (and below the 7 or so tons of later T. Rexes) and definitely down on the predatory food chain.

"At least 98 million years ago, we know that (tyrannosaurs) were small and somebody else was top dog in the neighborhood," said Peter Makovicky, The Field Museum's dinosaur curator.

Name means 'cannibalistic monster'

"This dinosaur was a colossal predator second only to the great T. rex and perhaps Acrocanthosaurus in the North American fossil record," said Zanno, the lead author of the study in Nature Communications announcing the discovery, in a press release.

read the comments :)
 

Camp Lo

Banned
ThisIsNot4U2 • an hour ago −
Massive, meat-eating predatory dinosaur unearthed (in Utah)
SO THAT'S WHERE LIMBAUGH HAS BEEN HIDING!
 
I'd like to see you people calling those feathers stupid if one of these things were stomping around today.

Might as well make fun of big cats for having fur.
 
What sensationalist reporting.

It's a Neoventorid.

30 feet long is hardly the most impressive even by North American standards. I can count at least 5 other theropods bigger than it.
 
Probably just an evolutionary precursor to T-Rex.

"It's not known if Siats meekerorum existed alongside Tyrannosaurus rex; fossils found from the same patch of Utah's Cedar Mountain Formation shows it did share the land with tyrannosaurs. But relatively speaking, these tyrannosaurs were much smaller (and below the 7 or so tons of later T. Rexes) and definitely down on the predatory food chain."

Where did you get the idea that it was a "precursor"? There are other dinosaurs similar to the T rex.
 
Why do none of the other dinosaur have badass names like Tyrannosaurus REX? Its name is probably a third of the reason its so popular.
 
So this was half the size of T Rex? Why is this a big deal?

Who exactly said this is a big deal? It's not rare for an article to get posted when a new dinosaur is found even if it's not some huge record breaking thing.

Also ffs it's still one of the biggest land predators to ever walk the Earth.
 

Toxi

Banned
That's some pretty big scientific news; it was assumed that large allosaurids were pretty much gone from North America by that time. Really cool to see that they held on.

Why do none of the other dinosaur have badass names like Tyrannosaurus REX? Its name is probably a third of the reason its so popular.
I think Carcharodontosaurus saharicus is pretty cool. Means "Jagged-toothed reptile of the Sahara," and "Carcharodon" is the family of sharks that includes the great-white.
 
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