Friday
March 10 6:32 PM ET
By SHEILA HOTCHKIN,
Associated Press Writer
Scientists have
discovered the bones of what could be largest meat-eating dinosaur ever to walk
the Earth - a needle-nosed, razor-toothed beast that may have been more
terrifying than even the Tyrannosaurus rex.
A team of researchers
from Argentina and North America unearthed the fossilized bones of as many as
six of the previously unknown species in Patagonia, a desert on the eastern
slopes of the Andes in South America. The dig began in 1997.
The discovery of the
predators' graveyard challenges the theory that the biggest meat-eaters were
loners. It also raises the possibility that they lived and hunted in packs -
which would make them even more menacing to their prey.
``You always think of
these things as being solitary. Now we know they traveled in packs,'' Philip
Currie, one of two scientists to make the discovery, said in an interview
Friday. He works with the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta, Canada.
Currie said the newly
discovered species lived about 100 million years ago, and was heavier and had
slightly shorter legs than the T-rex, which roamed North America. It had a tail
and short front legs that were basically useless.
The dinosaur also was
characterized by a long, narrow skull and a jaw shaped like scissors. That
suggests it could have dissected its prey with almost surgical precision,
``where the Tyrannosaur had a nutcracker skull,'' Currie said.
Researchers estimated
the meat-eating giant was 45 feet long, bigger than the reigning king of the
carnivores, the 41-foot Giganotosaurus. The better-known T-rex was about 40
feet long.
``I think it would
look just as nasty, if not worse,'' Currie said. ``This guy has a long snout,
long skull, incredibly sharp teeth - I think it would have been terrifying.''
Currie said the animal
is apparently related to the Giganotosaurus, but is a new species and genus,
making the two creatures as closely related as a dog and a fox. The dinosaur is
further removed from the T-rex, at least as different as a dog is from a cat.
The researchers have
given their discovery a South American Indian name but are withholding it until
their findings are published. They released some details of the discovery in
conjunction with an exhibit of some of Currie's other findings at the
Riverfront Arts Center in Wilmington, Del. The exhibit opened Friday.
``The bigness of it -
well obviously it gets headlines - but scientifically, it's not that important.
But the fact that they traveled together, that's very interesting,'' said Jack
Horner, a paleontologist from Montana State University in Bozeman.
Horner said he is
awaiting the geological evidence that could determine whether the dinosaurs
really did die together. ``If they all died at the same time and if they died
somewhat catastrophically,'' he said, ``that would lend support to the fact
that meat-eating dinosaurs traveled in groups, perhaps in family groups.''
In 1995, a farmer led
Currie's colleague, Rodolfo Coria of the Carmen Funes Municipal Museum, to the
site in the Andes foothills, 640 miles southwest of Buenos Aires. The region
has yielded a number of discoveries, including the Giganotosaurus.
``There were lots of
animals, and when they died, there was lots of mud and sand to get buried in.
And if you can get buried, you can get fossilized,'' Currie said.
Thinking they may have
found another Giganotosaurus, Coria and Currie began working together on the
site in 1997. They quickly unearthed a number of bones and grew excited as they
realized they had found something new.
They now have remains
from at least a half-dozen dinosaurs, ranging from half-grown to full-grown
animals. That is important because scientists could study how the species grew,
said paleontologist Kenneth Carpenter of the Denver Museum of Natural History.
Now a desert, the area
where the bones were found was probably a forest when the dinosaurs prowled
across it during the late Cretaceous period, Currie said.
Thomas R. Holtz Jr., a
vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Maryland, said researchers are
not likely to come upon carnivorous dinosaurs too much larger than Currie's
find.
``I think we're
getting close to the size limit you could be and still be an effective
meat-eater,'' said Holtz, who has worked with Currie on other projects. ``If
you get too large, you won't be able to hunt down prey because you'll simply be
too ponderous.''