Random Craziest Dinosaur Facts That Have Been Discovered Since You Were In School (25 items)

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  (#20) Instead Of Roaring, Dinosaurs Probably Honked Like Ducks And Geese

  The image of the Tyrannosaurus rex letting out a mighty, bellowing roar is one of the most memorable scenes from the Jurassic Park series - but it's also something a real T. rex wouldn't do. Dinosaurs would have had a syrinx like birds, not a larynx like mammals, and thus would have been incapable of producing a roar.

  A 2016 study of a preserved voice box from a duck-like bird ancestor provided paleontologists with a good idea of what sounds dinosaurs could have produced, which include clicks, hisses, and honks similar to that of modern ducks and geese.
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  (#9) The Biggest Animal In The World Was Actually The Ledumahadi Mafube - A 26,000-Pound Dinosaur Twice The Size Of An African Elephant  

   

   

   

   

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  In September of 2018, a new dinosaur claimed the top spot as largest animal on Earth. Researchers in South Africa revealed a new, giant relative of the brontosaurus estimated to have been nearly twice the size of the massive African elephant, based on its restored fossil. Named “Ledumahadi mafube” - or “a giant thunderclap at dawn” in the local language of Sesotho - researchers now believe this dinosaur was one of the largest animals on Earth during the early days of the planet’s existence, about 200 millions years ago. These 26,000-pound creatures were most likely related to the giant dinosaurs inhabiting what is modern-day Argentina, when Pangaea made overland transport more accessible.
  
  Reportedly, the Ledumahadi is closely related to sauropod dinosaurs - similar to the brontosaurus. But unlike the famous four-legged, plant-eating bronty, the Ledumahadi is believed to have been what researchers call a “transitional” dinosaur, or what CNN described as “an evolutionary experiment… during the early Jurassic period [in which] the forelimbs of this dinosaur are more ‘crouched,’ while being very thick to support its giant body.”

  This presumably means the dinosaur may actually have evolved from two-legged ancestors, but scientists posit the way in which it evolved to four legs helped its digestive system handle a more vegetarian-based diet.
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  (#3) The Reaper Of Death Is The First New Tyrannosaur Discovered In Canada In 50 Years

  Introducing the first new species of tyrannosaur discovered in Canada in 50 years. Meet Thanatotheristes degrootorum, the ‘reaper of death’! Read all about it on our blog: https://t.co/hIQZkxdACk #Thanatotheristes #ReaperOfDeath #RTMPResearch pic.twitter.com/WYNmsMuUFY

  — Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology (@RoyalTyrrell) February 10, 2020

  Researchers with the University of Calgary and the Royal Tyrrell Museum revealed what they claim to be the first new tyrannosaur species discovered in Canada in 50 years, called the Thanatotheristes degrootorum - which combines the Greek translation for "reaper of death" with the name of the couple who found the fossils, the DeGroots. Jared Voris, a PhD student, found the skull fragments at the Royal Tyrrell Museum, and he concluded they did not match any known species of tyrannosaur, in part because of unique "vertical ridges along the upper jaw line." 

  The fragments Voris discovered were found near the Bow River by in 2010. Voris' thesis advisor, Darla Zelenitsky, said the new species predates the T. rex by 12 million years, and is therefore the "oldest known tyrannosaur discovered in Canada." 

  This Thanatotheristes appears to be its own distinct species, rather than an ancestor to the T. rex, and Voris speculates it could have been "8 meters long with an 80-centimeter skull." 
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  (#22) Scientists Discovered The Patagotitan, The Largest Animal Ever To Walk On Land

  Scientists have discovered several new dinosaurs species in recent years. Some consider our current era the “golden age” of dinosaur discovery, especially since unique creatures are popping up frequently. Most notable is the Nanuqsaurus, an Arctic tyrannosaur. Scientists are finally tapping the fossil resources of some continents like Australia, revealing all sorts of new species.

  These discoveries aren't insignificant, either - in 2013, they discovered the Patagotitan, which is the largest animal to ever walk on land.
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  (#8) The Archosaur Lizard King Ruled Antarctica Long Before The T. Rex 

  Millions of years before the T. Rex took on the title of the "lizard king," an iguana-sized archosaur reigned over Antarctica. Scientists discovered a 250 million-year-old fossil that allowed them to identify that the reptile was likely four to five feet long and ran along the ground. They call it the Antarctanax shackletoni which means "Antarctica King." 

  Brandon Peecook, head researcher at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, told Live Science that the creature "doesn't have any adaptations in its feet that would make [him] think it lived in the trees or that it's a burrower."

  The discovery of the Antarctanax shackletoni allows paleontologists more insight into the evolution and ultimate extinction of the dinosaurs because it suggests "all these other crazy lineages must have existed." 
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  (#5) A Well-Preserved Fossil Provides New Information About The Evolution Between Dinosaurs And Modern Birds

  Paleontologist Takuya Imai and colleagues discovered the well-preserved fossil of an Early Cretaceous bird in Japan in 2013. The skeleton, called the Fukuipteryx prima, or F. prima, is the first modern bird recorded outside northeastern China, according to a study published in Nature in November 2019. The study further suggests finding a modern bird skeleton outside China "increases our understanding about the complex morphological evolution in early birds with the presence of particularly primitive features in young individuals," given the animal's assumed age of about 1 year. 

  Imai told Smithsonian magazine researchers "were not expecting to find such good material from a fossil bird." Similar fossils discovered in China were often squished and incomplete, whereas this one was three-dimensionally preserved. And though the F. prima skeleton is assumed to be nearly 120 million years old, it looks similar to birds that evolved 30 million years earlier in the Jurassic period.

  One of the most important features of the F. prima fossil might be its tailbone, also seen seen in birds today and thought to be a marker of birds' evolution from dinosaurs.  

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