Torvosaurus gurneyi Europes new/old dinosaur.

Gregster · 6 Mar 2014 at 09:03

Fossilised remains of what scientists believe is the largest land dinosaur ever to have roamed Europe have been found in Portugal.

The dinosaur, a new species named Torvosaurus gurneyi, was up to 10m (33ft) long and weighed between four and five tonnes.

Its head measured 1.15m (3.75ft) from front to back and was filled with blade-shaped teeth up to 10cm (4in) long, suggesting it may have been near the top of the food chain and eaten other large dinosaurs.

Scientists found the bones north of Portugal's capital, Lisbon, and originally thought they belonged to a species from North America, Torvosaurus tanneri.

But comparisons of the shin bone, upper jawbone, teeth, and partial tail vertebrae suggested it was a new species, making it one of the largest carnivorous dinosaurs of the Jurassic Period found in this area, living around 150 million years ago.

The new dinosaur is the second species of Torvosaurus to be named, and scientists believe recently-discovered embryos from Portugal also belong to it.

The number of teeth, as well as the size and shape of the mouth, are though to differentiate the European and the American Torvosaurus.

The fossil of the upper jaw of Torvosaurus tanneri has 11 or more teeth, while Torvosaurus gurneyi has fewer than 11, and the mouth bones have a different shape and structure.

Fossilised remains of other closely related dinosaurs suggest Torvosaurus gurneyi may have been covered with "protofeathers", the precursors of bird feathers.

The findings were published in the online journal Public Library Of Science ONE.

Report co-author Christophe Hendrickx said: "This is not the largest predatory dinosaur we know. Tyrannosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, and Giganotosaurus from the Cretaceous were bigger animals.

" With a skull of 115 cm, Torvosaurus gurneyi was however one of the largest terrestrial carnivores at this epoch, and an active predator that hunted other large dinosaurs, as evidenced by blade shape teeth up to 10 cm."

Amazing that they are still digging up these new inhabitants. Awesome animals.

TheMightyTen · 6 Mar 2014 at 09:07

That's a picture of a demnon :eek:

I can tell from the pixels and my dad used to kill them for a living,

Bunka · 6 Mar 2014 at 09:10

TheMightyTen said:
That's a picture of a demnon I can tell from the pixels and my dad used to kill them for a living,

I hate to be the miserable one here but god this **** is getting old.

Awesome dinosaur though! Who knows what hasn't been discovered yet. :eek:

TheMightyTen · 6 Mar 2014 at 09:13

Bunka said:
I hate to be the miserable one here but god this **** is getting old.

errrrrrrr...................
That's the point or are you so miserable that sarcasm is to far above you to understand.

Orionaut · 6 Mar 2014 at 09:21

Gregster said:
Amazing that they are still digging up these new inhabitants. Awesome animals.

And People have been digging them up for quite some time!

This site, while dedicated to Woo creationism nevertheless has multiple images of "Dinosaurs" found in ancient art. The Greek vase about 1/4 of the way down is particularly interesting since it clearly depicts a skull weathering out of a rock.

It is a huge mistake to assume that the Victorians were the first people to dig up dinosaur bones and piece them together to get an idea as to what the original living animals might have looked like!

TheMightyTen · 6 Mar 2014 at 09:27

Orionaut said:
And People have been digging them up for quite some time!

This site, while dedicated to Woo creationism nevertheless has multiple images of "Dinosaurs" found in ancient art. The Greek vase about 1/4 of the way down is particularly interesting since it clearly depicts a skull weathering out of a rock.

It is a huge mistake to assume that the Victorians were the first people to dig up dinosaur bones and piece them together to get an idea as to what the original living animals might have looked like!

Who said the Victorians were the first??????? (well apart from you apparently) the difference is that Victorians started to combine the finds with advances in knowledge of other areas of Science to formulate a more accurate hypothesis of what the creatures were and how they existed in the timescale of the Earth rather than just deciding they were Dragons or Demons which seems to be what most older cultures classified them as.

*** Edit
Also please take your nonsense websight and shove back in the cesspit of pseudo-knowledge where it belongs, utter, utter tripe :mad: