Gigantoraptor!!!

As our regular readers know, I sometimes like to share stuff that has nothing whatsoever to do with nanotechnology, just because it's so damn interesting.

Like this...

Gigantoraptor erlianensis [CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE]
Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology & Paleoanthropology, Beijing

One of the world's top fossil hunters unveiled a previously unknown gigantic, chicken-like dinosaur Wednesday. The remains of the animal, thought to have weighed 3,100 pounds, was discovered by Xing Xu in the Erlian basin in Inner Mongolia, an area rich with fossils. The new species, named Gigantoraptor erlianensis, is the biggest bird-like dinosaur ever found, and at a height of 17 feet is comparable in size to the famous Tyrannosaurus, Xing said.

The 85 million-year-old creature was 35 times heavier than other known similar species, and is thought to have had a beak and sporadic patches of feathers, according to a paper to be released in the journal Nature on Thursday. "If you saw a mouse as big as a pig you would be very surprised, it is the same when we found the Gigantoraptor," Xing told reporters.

Holy T-Bird, Batman!

Mike Treder

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Comments

[colin]

I wonder how many Dinosars actually existed?
There are so many types.....
I really like the Duckbill Dinosaurs
Anatotitan that looks like a 40 foot duck,
Olorotitan- a 40 foot swan like Dino and Corythosaurus a 33 foot Cassowary!
Besides them my favourite has always been Stegosaurus!

I hope that someone produces a model kitset of these new dinosaurs- I have the AIRFIX model set (T Rex, Triceratops, Stego, Corythosaurus, Ankylosaurus, Dimetron) and the BANDAI set (T Rex, Iguanodon, Brontosaurus, Ankylosaurus, Triceratops, Styracosaurus and Stegosaurus)
TAMIYA (Triceratops,Stegosaurus, T Rex, Dioramas T Rex Parasaurolophus and Chasmosaurus)

What we need is : Gigantoraptor, Polacanthus, Baryonyx, Pachyrhinosaurus, Trachodon, Carnotaurus, Allosaurus, Amargosaurus...

wahoooo!

[Mike Treder, CRN]

I'm with you, Colin. It's kind of humbling to realize that dinosaurs -- in all their variations -- dominated their landscape for a hundred and fifty million years, while we homo sapiens have trod the earth for about 1/750 as long...