Extreme Dinosaurs - The Giants of Patagonia - Part 5

Amazing new discoveries in South America are revolutionising what we thought we knew about the dinosaur world. It now seems that South America was home to both the largest meat-eater - so new it's still without a name - and the largest herbivore - the enormous long-necked Argentinasaurus. And what's more, these dinosaurs lived at the same time in the same place. So it's possible that like in a science fiction movie, in this prehistoric world these two giants of their kind fought each other in a spectacular clash of the Titans.

Horizon follows the scientists to Argentina as they unearth one of these giants - a brand new species of dinosaur; the biggest carnivore ever discovered. Not yet named, this new creature is even bigger than T. rex, the so-called 'king' of the carnivores. The new giant South American predator had a skull bigger than a man that was full of serrated, knife-like teeth and long powerful jaw muscles. They could dissect their prey with almost surgical precision.

But even this formidable killing machine couldn't alone have taken on the massive long-neck, Argentinasaurus, which was the height of a five-storey building. It must have hunted in a pack. The problem is, the mega-meat-eaters have always been assumed to have been solitary creatures. The evidence shows that they lived and hunted alone. If they weren't pack hunters, then they would never have attacked Argentinasaurus. So it looked like the idea of a mighty battle between these two giants was simply science fiction. But extraordinary new clues are proving otherwise.

Palaeontologist Phil Currie had long suspected that the giant carnivores might indeed have hunted in packs and he set out to find the proof. Only now after many years' work have Currie and his team unearthed the clues that are beginning to convince other palaeontologists that the huge carnivorous dinosaurs hunted in groups. With the help of his colleague Rodolfo Coria, Currie has discovered not one but two fossil bone-beds showing packs of massive carnivorous dinosaurs that have lain buried for millions of years. Each pack - one found in the badlands of Alberta, Canada and the other in Patagonia, Argentina - contains a whole range of individuals, from young through to fully mature adults indicating that they lived alongside in a herd. He's convinced that these dinosaurs were buried together because they were living together.

These new finds are good evidence that these creatures really did hunt as a team. And that means a ferocious pack of enormous carnivorous dinosaurs roaming the lands of South America may indeed have taken on a huge Argentinasaurus in a fight to the death. So it may not just be science fiction - the Clash of the Titans could have happened after all.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• Giganotosaurus
• Argentinasaurus
• Trannosaurs
• Rex

[Thulgore]

Awesome vid, I still think of Tyrannosaurus Rex as the king.

That skull is something else. Allosaurs and ceretasaurs had fairly weak skulls. Tyrannosaurs skulls sturdy and thick.

[Denden971]

I really like these vidéos! Very interesting!

[tklarenb]

@AznNinja96 That's because the images they show are just recolors of the Walking With Dinosaurs Allosaurs.

[AznNinja96]

those new giant meat eater looks like a giant allosaurus

[Hentarded]

@faisalindustry164u8 wait the dinosaur in part 5 was really bigger than giganotasaurus, didn't they say it was to big due to extra bones? if i'm wrong do you know its name yet?

[gamesbok]

@WayneWiblin As the film came out they found the Utahraptor, which fits the portrail in the film. Other Dromaeosauridae were even bigger, Achillobator seems to be 20ft long.

Interesting that every animal in the park was Cretaceous, not Jurassic.

[gamesbok]

There are other ways of hunting. A Kimodo Dragon will give you a quick nip, then follow you around for a week while you die of septicemia.

Are these carnivors taking live prey?

Whole eco-systems, lasting millions of years, and all we have are these tiny clues.

[WayneWiblin]

@olliemad Yes it is real but the movie Jurassic Park is still far from a perfect example of how Dinosaurs once were. Jurassic Park came out in 1993 and this video was made around 1995. The dinosaur in that movie that they called Valosaraptor did hunt in packs and live together but that dinosaur has another name because for the movie they just gave it the name Valosaraptor. The real Valosaraptor was just abit bigger than a turkey and had feathers.

[olliemad]

so that large predator they discovered at the end was bigger than the 1st one, but it didnt seem that big compared to the tyrannosaurus. is that dinosaur from Jurassic park real ?

[MrDBarch]

@TheLogankahle "how large predators behaved" i know why you are confused, the word large wasn't referring to the word how, it was referring to the word predators; read this: how 'large predators' behaved - get it, small predators, or large predators. he didn't mean large behavior, he meant large predators. i had to figure it out too LOL....

[MrDBarch]

(in part 5) Given that currie says its too RARE to have been the result of a flood washout, and too co-incidental that only they, and no other species were found there. then WHAT could possibly have KILLED 12 tyrannosaurs (albertasaurus) all at the SAME TIME? I'm curious as to why he didn't present THAT as one of his questions. It certainly wasn't the meteor, that was a completely different time period. Does anyone have any idea what could have killed 12 of these ferocious beasts all at once?