Last time
Tetanurae – diverse, three or less fingers
Allosaurus – Cleveland-Lloyd quarry, best known theropod, kinetic skull designed for impact – slash-and-dash predator, brain more croc-like than bird-like
North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh(October 26, 2007-July 5, 2008)
Paluxy River tracks
Early Cretaceous, 110 Ma
Glen Rose Formation, a low-energy shoreline deposit, limestone and clay
Many tracks at many stratigraphic levels – the famous one from last slide, photo to left, shows three theropods paralleling a dozen sauropods moving in the same direction
Theropods likely were Acrocanthosaurus
Creation Evidence Museum
www.cretaceousfossils.com
http://paleo.cc/paluxy/glenrose.htm
Acrocanthosaurus – “high-spined lizard”
Mid-Cretaceous, 110 Ma, 38 ft long, 2.5 tons, 13 feet tall
Found in a channel with numerous small petrified woody stems and a turtle
CT-scan of skull again indicates brain similar to Allosaurus, more like modern crocodiles than birds
Carcharodontosaurus – “shark-tooth lizard”
Mid-Cretaceous, 95 Ma, 45 ft long, 12 ft tall at the hips, 8 in teeth, 8 tons, 5.5 ft skull!
Bahariya Formation
Typical croc-like brain
Bahariya Formation
~95 Ma
Shore of the Tethys Ocean at high sea level
Stromer’s bones destroyed in WWII
Fish, lizards, plesiosaurs, clams, snails, leaves, fruit, and of course dinos!
Mangrove coastline, highly productive and diverse ecosystem
Mummies!
Giganotosaurus – the biggest of them all!
http://home.att.net/~sl.schofield3/dinosaurs/dinosaurs.html
Giganotosaurus – “giant southern lizard”
Mid-Cretaceous, 95 Ma, 6.5 ft skull, 47 ft long, close to 9 tons!Brain scan done – usual Allosauroidae storyClosely related to CarcharodontosaurusDiscovered by a car mechanic who loves fossils, Ruben CaroliniMaintained constant body temperature – oxygen isotope analysisPack of 9 or more Mapusaurus individuals including juveniles found!