[D] Giganotosaurus carolinii [Su] [sG] [T]
Describer
Coria & Salgado, 1995
Time
Cretaceous Late Turonian
Classification
Saurischia Theropoda Tetanurae Carnosauria Carcharodontosauridae
Diet
Carnivore
Fossilsite
Rio Limay Formation, Provincia de Neuquen, Argentina
Length
14 meter
Info
Genus - Typespecies - Skull
(MUCPv-Ch1) (12.5 m, 4.16 tons) (skull- ~1.8 m) premaxilla, maxilla, nasal, lacrimal, postorbital, quadrate, braincase, anterior dentary, teeth, most cervical vertebrae (including axis and eighth cervical), most dorsal vertebrae, dorsal ribs, first caudal vertebra, caudal vertebrae 7-21, two distal caudal vertebrae, eight chevrons, scapula (727 mm), coracoid, ilium (1.54 m), pubes (1.11 m), ischia (1.2 m), femora (1.43 m), tibia (1.12 m), fibula, metatarsi, pedal elements (Calvo and Salgado, 1996) (MUCPv-95) (13.5 m, 5.2 tons) (skull ~1.95 m) incomplete dentary, teeth (Calvo and Coria , 2000) The dentary is from a larger individual than the already huge type, often said to be the largest theropod.[M.Mortimer]
Giganotosaurus was 42 foot-long and weigthed 6 to 8 tons predator. The first bones on the new king of the prehistoric beasts, which lived 90 million years ago, were found in 1993 by an amateur fossil hunter, Reuben Carolini. Its skull, backbone, pelvis and leg bones were subsequently excavated by two Argentine paleontologists, who described the find in the report.
The report says the predator is the \\\\\\\"largest therapod ever recorded from the Southern Hemisphere and is probably the world\\\\\\\'s biggest predatory dinosaur.\\\\\\\".The skull alone was more than 1.53 metres (five feet) long.The teeth of Giganotosaurus are typical theropod teeth. The tibia/femur ratio scales along the same curve as the typical nonavian theropods: i.e., it follows the Allosauroid trend. Living as it did in a sauropod-dominated environment, it wouldn\\\\\\\'t need the elongated limbs of tyrannosaurids.
The tibia/femur ratio of typical neoceratosaurs, \\\\\\\"megalosaur-grade\\\\\\\" and allosauroid theropods is greater than 1.0. Giganotosaurus also had huge olfactory bones, indicating a keen sense of smell that it most likely relied on the greatest.