Today – 3/8Today – 3/8

• Finish up clade Allosauroidae

Last time

Tetanurae – diverse, three or less fingers

Allosaurus – Cleveland-Lloyd quarry, best known theropod, kinetic skull designed for impact – slash-and-dash predator, brain more croc-like than bird-like

DTE3

Dinosaur Valley State Park,

Texas

www.kurtjohnson.net

North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh(October 26, 2007-July 5, 2008)

Paluxy River tracks

Early Cretaceous, 110 Ma

Glen Rose Formation, a low-energy shoreline deposit, limestone and clay

Many tracks at many stratigraphic levels – the famous one from last slide, photo to left, shows three theropods paralleling a dozen sauropods moving in the same direction

Theropods likely were Acrocanthosaurus

Creation Evidence Museum

www.cretaceousfossils.com

http://paleo.cc/paluxy/glenrose.htm

Acrocanthosaurus

www.naturalsciences.org

Skeleton of “Fran”, the most complete Acrocanthosaurus

Rich’s head

Acrocanthosaurus – “high-spined lizard”

Mid-Cretaceous, 110 Ma, 38 ft long, 2.5 tons, 13 feet tall

Found in a channel with numerous small petrified woody stems and a turtle

CT-scan of skull again indicates brain similar to Allosaurus, more like modern crocodiles than birds

http://frankdenota.blackhydra.com

Clade Carcharodontosaurus

www.luisrey.ndtilda.co.uk

http://prehistoricsillustrated.com

5.5 foot skull!

Carcharodontosaurus – “shark-tooth lizard”

Mid-Cretaceous, 95 Ma, 45 ft long, 12 ft tall at the hips, 8 in teeth, 8 tons, 5.5 ft skull!

Bahariya Formation

Typical croc-like brain

Bahariya Formation

~95 Ma

Shore of the Tethys Ocean at high sea level

Stromer’s bones destroyed in WWII

Fish, lizards, plesiosaurs, clams, snails, leaves, fruit, and of course dinos!

Mangrove coastline, highly productive and diverse ecosystem

Mummies!

Giganotosaurus – the biggest of them all!

http://home.att.net/~sl.schofield3/dinosaurs/dinosaurs.html

Giganotosaurus – “giant southern lizard”

Mid-Cretaceous, 95 Ma, 6.5 ft skull, 47 ft long, close to 9 tons!Brain scan done – usual Allosauroidae storyClosely related to CarcharodontosaurusDiscovered by a car mechanic who loves fossils, Ruben CaroliniMaintained constant body temperature – oxygen isotope analysisPack of 9 or more Mapusaurus individuals including juveniles found!

T. rex, Carcharodontosaurus, Giganotosaurus