EA Photo Essay: Melbourne Museum Dinosaur Walk (2)Featuring @franzanthMeet the theropods! Also
EA Photo Essay: Melbourne Museum Dinosaur Walk (2)Featuring @franzanthMeet the theropods! Also known as “cousins of Tyrannosaurus rex”.As much as I cringe at that overused phrase, Tarbosaurus bataar is a literal Mongolian close relative to the American tyrant king. Some people have argued that Tarbosaurus should be clumped under the name Tyrannosaurus, due to how closely related they are. At least one paleontologist has even suggested that Tyrannosaurus could have originated in Asia—making America’s beloved tyrant king, basically, an immigrant. Take that, xenophobes. Anyway, this particular specimen is a cast from a subadult specimen, measuring about 8m from snout to tail.Deinonychus antirrhopus is a dromaeosaurid, related to another movie star Velociraptor. Its sleek, light body, and oversized claws on its feet hint at the lifestyle of a swift predator. In the 60s, Deinonychus challenged the old notion that dinosaurs were slow-moving, tail-dragging, cold-blooded reptiles, kickstarting the movement known as “The Dinosaur Renaissance”. It has been suggested that dromaeosaurids would have used their claws like today’s hawks—a method called “Raptor Prey Restraint” (RPR)—which involves pinning down a still-alive prey and eating them fresh until they die of blood loss and organ failure. Ouch.Lastly, Gallimimus bullatus a.k.a. the “Chicken Mimic” is my personal favorite of the batch (I like chicken in case you haven’t heard). Unlike most theropods, it likely was an omnivore. Its flexible arms, equipped with long fingers and claws, would be useful for digging dirt and grabbing plant matter and small prey animals. Its long legs suggested that it was likely a strong runner, which would’ve been crucial to outrun Late Cretaceous Mongolian predators like Tarbosaurus. The most important lesson our friend Gallimimus here wants to teach you is that the taller you are, the less photogenic you get.Seriously. Just wait for tomorrow’s post.- - -EA Photo Essay is a series of photographic posts about interesting things featuring interesting people in the field of Earth science and natural history. New guest stories start on Mondays. -- source link
#dinosaurs#theropods#tarbosaurus#gallimimus#deinonychus