The dinosaur thread

according to the other wiki, the current champion is Amphicoelias 122.4 ton, 40–60 m (130–200 ft)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaur_size#Heaviest_dinosaurs

Jurassic Park (1993)

Wise-Ass Little Boy: "[Velociraptor's] not very scary. More like a six-foot turkey."
Me, 18 years later: "HE WAS RIGHT O.O"

Seriously, feathered dinos are just...silly, somehow. It's just not as awesomely terrifying than when we originally equated them more with dragons than birds. I mean, they are still quite scary, and I wouldn't hesitate to run for my life if I were to encounter one...but while they chased me down I would be thinking, "In soviet Russia, turkey eat you for Thanksgiving!"

It certainly gives modern birds some extra street cred, though...Official animal of the United States? The bald eagle—A motherfucking DINOSAUR!

edited 5th Oct '11 10:34:52 PM by sketch162000

Yeah... they ruined raptors with the whole "they look like a turkey-chicken!" discovery.

Boring...

They're boring right up until they decide to hunt you and you realize that size is about all they have in common. Also, they might have hunted in packs. They'd be like a prehistoric killer rabbit or something.

Still. JP raptors were fucking boss. They were all up in your shit, fucking you up.

Then... chicken raptor.

Fucking Hollywood, hyping up the expectations...

Well, those are an actual species, if I recall correctly. They're just not the velociraptors. They're... some larger subspecies that starts with a D?

Relevant (though only BARELY)

Deinonychus.

Later on they found the "Utah raptor," which was basically like the JP raptors...

Jesus Christ, I'm laughing so hard I'm afraid I'll wake up my mom.

Yes. Deinonychus, that's what I was thinking of. I wouldn't want to have to face those things down.

To be fair, it seems that dromeosaurs might not had been pack hunters, so they're even less badass. But again, their behaviours and appearence where to allow them to survive, not to look cool.

Pack hunters or no, feathers or no, I still wouldn't particularly want that lethal-looking sickle claw opening my belly like a bag of crisps.

Utahraptor especially◊, that thing is huge.

edited 6th Oct '11 2:37:59 AM by pagad

Jurassic Park's Velociraptors were actually supposed to be Deinonychus. Michael Crichton was simply considered Deinonychus to be a species of Velociraptor. Plus, Velociraptor is a cooler name.

according to the other wiki, the current champion is Amphicoelias 122.4 ton, 40–60 m (130–200 ft)

But Amphicoelias is only known from a single vertebra, which has since gone missing. The dinosaur with the largest confirmed size is Argentinosaurus, at 95-118 feet in length and 80-100 tons in weight.

There's also Bruhathkayosaurus, but like Amphicoelis, it's only known from limited remains.

To elaborate, the current theory that raptors were pack hunters came from a group of Deinonychus fossils discovered around a Tenontosaurus skeleton. Some have suggested, however, that this isn't evidence of pack hunting but rather a feeding frenzy, similar to that of modern sharks or Komodo Dragons.

edited 6th Oct '11 5:49:40 AM by RL_Nice

Am I the only one here who had a bunch of dinosaur toys when they were a child? I even named some of mine and played out stories. Which were a little more like Dinotopia or some shit than vicious feeding frenzies, but still, I preferred those over the Barbies.

I had some dinosaur toys. Not too many, though, because the ones I really wanted were the super-accurate museum model-quality figures, which were too expensive.

I have a 3x3 foot box filled with dinosaur toys. Fuck yeah!

I just ordered First Flight from Barnes&Noble.com. And I was editing the shit out of our page here on TV Tropes.

Bit of Fridge Logic - isn't it quite convenient that every animal involved died on the spot as it was feeding/being fed upon?

Some fossil sites (or parts of fossil sites) do involve mostly just a single species. If Deinonychus is considered a pack hunter just because only they were found on a specific area around another dinosaur, then I am well justified in thinking Pteranodon was also a pack hunter

The theory is that they were caught by a sudden mudslide. The prey animal was already dead, of course.

Well, if we're judging hunting behavior with current modern animals as a base, it makes more sense for Deinonychus and Velociraptor to be a pack hunter than Pteranadon. Not many birds hunt together, but they do flock together; imagine hundreds of Pteranadons just chilling out on the beach... I wouldn't want to get too close to that.

The thing is, the closest analogues to dromeosaurs are felines and birds of prey; both did produce pack hunting species, but they are the minority, because their hunting style in general works very well without external help.

Between hunting larger prey and having more mouths to feed, most animals find the latter too expensive.

"...not very scary. More like a six-foot turkey."

Sure, kid. Tell me, what would you do if you saw a six-foot turkey chasing you? I bet you'd run.

Dinosaurs are awesome. Daspletosaurus and Albertosaurus are two of my favorites. Almost as big as a T. Rex...and they hunted in packs. Carcharodontosaurus was awesome too. And, of course, Velociraptor.

You can't get much more awesome than Predator X, though. So awesome it doesn't have a name yet. Personally, I don't think it needs one.

edited 6th Oct '11 2:42:14 PM by LoganLocksley

Shit, I say it's name should be Predator X. Rule of Cool, bitches.

Speaking of ancient terrors of the deep, Liopleurodon gave me nightmares as a child thanks to the "Cruel Sea" episode of Walking With Dinosaurs.

Now Predator X appeared in Planet Dinosaur. And the battle of public awareness with Liopleurodon begins.