Although it kind of looks like a chicken with teeth, it would have been the chicken from hell
(Mirror Daily, United States) – South Dakota is celebrating as we speak, because a new type of raptor with feathers was discovered there, and it kind of looked like a giant chicken with teeth.
Researchers who have found the new type of dinosaur have also released to the public a rendering of what the animal might have looked like, based on the fossils they found. And we mean no offense, because we love dinosaurs as much as the next guy, but this one really looked like a giant chicken with teeth. And a long tail.
Of course, it would have been the chicken from hell, because this guy measured a whopping 17 feet, which makes it one of the largest dinosaurs with wings ever found. The feathers, however, were vestigial, because the guy would have been simply too big and too heavy to fly.
Scientists uncovered a partial skeleton in South Dakota and quickly realized they are dealing with a whole new raptor species, so they dubbed it the Dakotaraptor. It is believed to have lived some 65 to 70 million years ago.
Excitement is big, because the discovery of the Dakotaraptor means that have scientists found their missing link between smaller theropods and the giant tyrannosaurs that lived back then, as David Burnham, a co-author of the paper that details the find states.
The new Dakotaraptor, although very big, would have been just as agile as its more famous brother, the Velociraptor. But much, much scarier, mostly because of its size. For us to understand, while the Velociraptor was roughly the size of a turkey, the Dakotaraptor was over seven feet tall. So it was even taller and bigger than the raptors in Jurassic Park. So just think those guys, but only bigger, meaner and with feathers, in your kitchen. Of course, the raptors in Jurassic Park, weren’t really raptors. As mentioned, a Velociraptor was only the size of a turkey. Those were Deinonychuses. Real raptors had feathers too and are believed to be one of the ancestors of modern day birds.
But back to the Dakotaraptor, it would have been big and dangerous. Scientists say his only competitor in the food chain would have been a cousin of his, the Utahraptor, which was even bigger.
The find and its details were published on October 30th, in Paleontological Contributions. Dakotaraptor’s skeleton will be made available to the general public, as soon its studying is finished.
Image Source: www.wikipedia.org
Melissa Gansler
