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Beyond Deinocheirus, other extreme estimates for theropods
Due to damage sustained to my crank after watching too many reruns of JP and
interacting with raptor-philes, it has been retired for the time for
retrofit and overhaul to a more robust and reliable model. At the time, do
feel free to yank on my chain...
Besides Deinocheirus, there have been other theropods that have been
fantastically extrapolated to amazing sizes, most of which don't seem very
credible to me. But what is of interest currently is the unidentified
Tyrannosaurid they have unearthed in Drumheller, Alberta which seems to be
the latest in the line of fantastic size estimates for theropods.
Given the suspiciously gimmicky name of Reelybigosaurus dainjerus
(Really-bigo-saurus-dangerous?), the premaxillary tooth recovered from the
animal was supposed to be 30.5 cm long. And based on other elements
recovered, the skull was estimated to be over 2.4 meters long and the animal
itself 24 meters...some say more.
What I do want to know is...are these estimates credible? 24 meters (just 3
meters shy of Diplodocus length) seems extremely (note, understatement)
large for a theropod, even a Tyrannosaurid. What do we make of it? Does
anybody have anymore information on the subject at hand? Could these
fantastic size estimates been derived from the misclassification of material
due to the poor state of remains or just over-eagerness on the case of the
people who discovered the animal. 24 meters is a huge leap from even the
17-meter Spinosaur estimates (which seem rather ambiguous at that)we are
getting used to...
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