I will admit it, I am obsessed with dinosaurs and have been since I was six. I watched Jurassic Park for the six hundredth time like two days ago. I'll watch it again really soon too, but apparently, there's quite a bit of exciting dino-related news going on in the real world. It seems recently paleontologists have been making some pretty awesome discoveries. The most recent of these finds might make you laugh a little, but the big guy was probably horrifying.
According to The Telegraph , researchers in Ganzhou, in southern China, have found a a skeleton that appears to be a cousin to the Tyrannosaurus Rex. The biggest and most obvious difference between the two lizards is this new fellow has an unusually long nose and much smaller, thinner teeth. In fact, scientists have nicknamed it the Pinocchio Rex because of the ridiculously long snout. I'm not exactly sure if this dinosaur was a known fibber, but the evidence seems to point to that.
All joking aside, this dinosaur would have been fierce and a huge problem for its prey. This species would have roamed the planet about 66 million years ago and chowed down on meaty treats. Hey, the real world is a lot more cruel than the Land Before Time films. It was probably one of the more major predators in the region of China where it was dug up. Back in dinosaur times, it was really important to be at the top of the food chain otherwise you were going to end up someone's dinner.
Scientists began piecing together the skeleton one bit at a time until they got a clearer picture of this giant lizard. Apparently there had been skulls found that were similar to Pinocchio, or Qianzhousaurus sinensis, but because they were from younger dinosaurs they thought it was just Dino puberty that eventually got rid of the long schnoz and thin chompers. The paleontologists think that while both this guy and the T. Rex lived at the same time and region, they ate different dinosaurs. So, they didn't compete or challenge each other very often, if at all.
So yes, a long snouted, horned back tyrannosaurus sounds pretty comical, but if I saw one on the street I would run and hide. I'm sure that the creature was not only majestic but a fierce fighter, even if he was probably covered in feathers.
I hope someday in all sincerity that Jurassic Park is a thing, but done in a safe way. It would be amazing to see ancient creatures walking around and to observe their behavior. Just don't let Newman be the computer coder.
