Gigantoraptor Fossil Found in China

Giant Bird-Like Dinosaur Fossil Found in China

gigantoraptor.jpg

Scientists have uncovered a huge surprise in the Inner Mongolia region of northern China: the fossil skeleton of an unusually robust bird-like dinosaur that lived 70 million years ago. The animal appeared to be a young adult 25 feet long and weighing 3,000 pounds and, if it had lived longer, would probably have grown even larger.

Paleontologists said the discovery contradicted widely-held theories that carnivorous dinosaurs got smaller as they evolved more bird-like characteristics. But they emphasized that the new specimen did not challenge the theorized dinosaur-bird link.

The Chinese scientists who made the discovery, being reported today in the journal Nature, said the skeleton belonged to a dinosaur family that included the beaked, bird-like Oviraptor. This family was not closely related to the dromaeosaurid dinosaurs generally thought to be ancestors of modern birds.

h/t: Tim F. at Balloon Juice

Comments

  1. Dreggas wrote:

    Oh C’mon Commie, we all know this is a planted plaster-of-paris skeleton put there by the aethiestic Red Horde that is the Chinese government working in tandem with the minions of Satan and the Democrats.

    [ / snark ]

    Seriously that’s a pretty cool find. It is funny that the most direct relative of the Tyranosaurus is the modern Turkey, then again with how mean a turkey can be it’s not THAT suprising.

    Posted 14 Jun 2007 at 4:45 pm

  2. CDR Salamander wrote:

    Tastes like chicken.

    Posted 14 Jun 2007 at 10:12 pm

  3. canuckistani wrote:

    I saw an outstanding display of feathered dinosaurs brought over from China to our local museum. It is suspicious that they have the best fossils, isn’t it?

    Posted 15 Jun 2007 at 10:09 am

  4. dreggas wrote:

    canuckistani wrote:

    I saw an outstanding display of feathered dinosaurs brought over from China to our local museum. It is suspicious that they have the best fossils, isn’t it?

    Not really considering where they’ve been found in the Gobi. That area used to be quite tropical from what I understand.

    Posted 15 Jun 2007 at 10:22 am

  5. canuckistani wrote:

    I was thinking more in the sense of China being a source of godless materialist atheism. Snark aside, it was a very cool display of what can be fossilized in very fine sandstone, and I went home quite convinced that birds are for all intents and purposes dinosuars.

    Posted 15 Jun 2007 at 11:21 am

  6. Dreggas wrote:

    canuckistani wrote:

    I was thinking more in the sense of China being a source of godless materialist atheism. Snark aside, it was a very cool display of what can be fossilized in very fine sandstone, and I went home quite convinced that birds are for all intents and purposes dinosuars.

    Oh, now that I am awake and read it, I see that, I got mine in yesterday :D.

    I am also pretty convinced with regard to the dinosaur = modern birds evolutionary paths. To me it makes sense given the evolutionary track of mammals post dinosaur, one of them being the evolution of a prehistoric “Rat” which the modern Blue Whale is thought to be evolved from.

    It also fits the model of “The largest rule the earth”. Mammals in the age of the dinosaur were lowest on the food chain, exit the dinosaurs and mammals can evolved in relative safety given the ease of which they would have adapted to the climate shift.

    Posted 15 Jun 2007 at 12:08 pm

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