What's Your Favorite Dinosaur?

Mr. President · May 15, 2002, 21:52

I've always like tyrannosaurs, ever since I was very, very young. I was impressed, I suppose, by their sheer size and power. And now they're trying to make us believe that Tyrannosaurus Rex was a scavenger. Please!

Lemmy · May 16, 2002, 04:22

i like the birds, yep, the birds are my favorite dinosaur.

Skanky Burns · May 16, 2002, 04:35

I like the Diplodocus.
They are big, peaceful, but don't get bullied around too much by scavengers.

Jac de Molay · May 16, 2002, 16:46

Anklyosaurus with the turtle shell and the clubbed tail. That must've been one bada$$ dinosaur

Dave

St Leo · May 16, 2002, 20:09

Parasaurolop(h?)us of the duck-billed kind used to be my favourite.

Skanky Burns · May 17, 2002, 03:40

I like this one too

Mr. President · May 17, 2002, 03:55

Is that a tyrannosaur?

Jethro83 · May 17, 2002, 06:45

I'd probably say that my favourite dinosaur is the velociraptor. Small, fast, near impossible for its prey to escape.

chronocrator · May 17, 2002, 07:53

I used to like the Triceratops since it could often defeat Tyrannosaurs and they were only attacked when those big carnivores were really hungry.
Yet somewhere I recently read that those long horns they had were no weapons instead they were used to attract mates, in this case Triceratops would not be all that cool anymore.

BTW many Anklyosaurus skeletons have been found laying upside down, which suggests that bigger dinosaurs could sometimes turn them over and eat them then when they were pretty much defenseless.

Mr. President · May 17, 2002, 20:05

Quote:

Originally posted by chronocrator
I used to like the Triceratops since it could often defeat Tyrannosaurs and they were only attacked when those big carnivores were really hungry.
Yet somewhere I recently read that those long horns they had were no weapons instead they were used to attract mates, in this case Triceratops would not be all that cool anymore.

BTW many Anklyosaurus skeletons have been found laying upside down, which suggests that bigger dinosaurs could sometimes turn them over and eat them then when they were pretty much defenseless.

Ceratopsians are pretty cool. The one I like best (I can't remember its name) is smaller than the Triceratops and has spikes on the top of its head shield.

Do you notice that they seem now to want to downplay the degree to which dinosaurs used their attributes for hunting and fighting? Tyrannosaurs are now scavengers, Velociraptors are not efficient hunters but thinking animals, Triceratops uses its horns for "peaceful" purposes.

Just the fact that Ankylosaurus skeletons have been found on their backs doesn't automatically imply that they were turned that way by predators, but I'm sure that did happen since so much of their weight would have been on their back like a modern turtle.

Skanky Burns · May 18, 2002, 00:05

Quote:

Originally posted by Mr. President
Is that a tyrannosaur?

Yep, tyrannosaurus rex.

chronocrator · May 18, 2002, 06:57

Quote:

Originally posted by Mr. President
Ceratopsians are pretty cool. The one I like best (I can't remember its name) is smaller than the Triceratops and has spikes on the top of its head shield.

I believe you are talking about the styracosaurus.

Quote:

Do you notice that they seem now to want to downplay the degree to which dinosaurs used their attributes for hunting and fighting? Tyrannosaurs are now scavengers, Velociraptors are not efficient hunters but thinking animals, Triceratops uses its horns for "peaceful" purposes.

Maybe it isn't a downplay but rather actual scientific research. Before, scientits who found a horn on a dinosaur might just have assumed that it is for fighting and the dino with the biggest, sharpest teeth was the greatest hunter of course.
I still think dinosaurs are cool, though.

edit: found the picture here: http://taggart.glg.msu.edu/isb200/dino.htm

Apocalypse · May 27, 2002, 12:48

I always liked the Dionycus. I don't know why.

Skanky Burns · May 28, 2002, 07:30

My father-in-law really likes dinosaurs.

Mr. President · May 29, 2002, 03:42

Oh my! Did he make that!

Apocalypse is a cool screen name, congratulations on beating me to it.

Skanky Burns · May 29, 2002, 22:47

Yes. This he painted on the neighbours shed. The T-Rex (posted previously) is out the front, inside a wire fence. (not electrified though)

Mr. President · May 30, 2002, 03:48

Oh wow, those are so cool!

That last one seems familiar to me for some reason. When I have time, I'll look at the covers of some of my old dinosaur books and get back to you.

Straybow · June 2, 2002, 21:38

Yes, Victorian era paleoarcheologists made a whole lot of assumptions that have been dismissed after careful examination. I believe the story on Tyrannosaurus is that the teeth are the wrong shape for a big game hunter. Any twisting action of the T's head or the live, large prey would tend to break the teeth. Or something like that.

tniem · June 2, 2002, 23:46

Quote:

Originally posted by Straybow
Yes, Victorian era paleoarcheologists made a whole lot of assumptions that have been dismissed after careful examination. I believe the story on Tyrannosaurus is that the teeth are the wrong shape for a big game hunter. Any twisting action of the T's head or the live, large prey would tend to break the teeth. Or something like that.

I also heard it had to do with the way they know believe his bone structure went and that to have chased down animals at high speeds would have expended so much energy that it would not have been worth it. But I might be wrong with that.

DinoDoc · June 3, 2002, 17:13

Mamenchisaurus

I just love the name.

Mr. President · June 3, 2002, 18:48

That is a cool name.

Another cool name (for me, anyway) is "Saichania", which they dug up in Mongolia.

DinoDoc · June 3, 2002, 23:38

Do you have any info on the species Mr. President? I haven't heard of it before.

Mr. President · June 3, 2002, 23:48

From The Dinosaur Society Dinosaur Encyclopedia (Don Lessem and Donald F. Glut, Random House 1993):

Saichania

Type Species: chulsanensis

Order: Ornithischia

Suborder: Ankylosauria

Family: Ankylosauridae

Name: Mongolian saichan = beautiful

Size: 7 meters (24 feet) long

Period: Late Cretaceous, 79 million to 75 million years ago

Region: Mongolia

Diet: Herbivorous

"Saichania was an ankylosaurid, an armored dinosaur with small spikes on its flanks and a clubbed tail. It was unique among armored dinosaurs in that both its back and its belly armor were discovered. Others may have had such extensive protection, but their armor was not preserved.

"Saichania and Pinacosaurus differed from most of the other known Mongolian ankylosaurs in the structure of their nostrils and nasal cavities. The nasal cavity was divided into left and right passages. Within these passages were thin, spiralling bones. In living mammals, similar bones are covered with membranes that warm, moisten, and filter the incoming air. Similar nasal bones were recently discovered in Nanotyrannus, a newly named tyrannosaurid.

"If Saichania had a keenly developed sense of smell, it could have compensated for its slowness by warning it of approaching predators, and by helping it locate food sources in the semi-arid environment of the ancient Gobi."

tomcat ha · July 3, 2002, 14:40

Sorry for Rzz this topic
Me likes Megaraptor very much
why?
9 meter big Raptor
Smart, big and gunting in packs

Dr. Stiby · July 8, 2002, 11:56

I remember having this book on dinos when i was a kid (yup this was before Jurassic Park). My theory by that time was "the bigger the better". So I kinda liked the Brontosaurus, which I believe was the biggest in that book!

Jac de Molay · July 12, 2002, 11:26

I think there's one even bigger than the Bronto, isn't there?

Dave

Dr. Stiby · July 12, 2002, 17:02

Quote:

Originally posted by DetroitDave
I think there's one even bigger than the Bronto, isn't there?

Dave

I'm pretty sure there are couple of species bigger than Bronto, but I don't recall them from that book I once owned. My dino interest has severely slumped away since then (only to be boosted again by the release of jurassic Park and the announcement of Sid Meier's Dinosaurs

..)

Mr. President · July 12, 2002, 21:25

I think Brachiosaurus is bigger than Brontosaurus / Apatosaurus. Diplodocus is longer, I believe due to its tail, but around the same height and weight. I read a while ago that they discovered fossil fragments from a couple of species in Montana that they dubbed "Supersaurus" and "Ultrasaurus" (I don't know if those were the official names or what) because the vertebrae were around eight feet long or something like that.

Jac de Molay · July 16, 2002, 14:15

You are correct sir. Ultrasaurus would be the largest land mammal discovered so far, with Supersaurus a distant. Both were discovered in Colorado in the 80's

Dave

MattyBoy · July 17, 2002, 00:39

Triceratops is my favourite - cannot explain why.