Two 110-million-year-old fossils of meat-eating dinosaurs that once ruled the southern continents have been found in Africa, scientists announced.
First discovered in 2000, the new species are theropods—two-legged carnivores—that lived in the same habitat and grew to about 25 feet (7.6 meters) long.
Eocarcharia dinops, or "fierce-eyed dawn shark," was likely an ambush predator armed with massive, shark-like teeth. Kryptops palaios, or "old hidden face," is thought have been a hyena-like scavenger that feasted on carcasses.
The dinosaurs were discovered in Africa's Sahara Desert by Paul Sereno, a paleontologist at the University of Chicago and a National Geographic Society Explorer-in-Residence. (National Geographic News is part of the National Geographic Society.)
The bizarre-looking dinosaurs are described in the latest issue of the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica.
Those are some really impressive renderings. I wonder if we'll set Zach off on rendering too much from too little. ;)
The images are from National Geographic.
It's very tempting to go off on another rant, but ever since I became guilty of that same sin (Julia's Cetiosauriscus), I can no longer complain about it. Also, I can't complain about Mike Keesey's work--it's some of the best and most evokative in the biz.
ReplyDelete(that is his stuff, right?)