Webosaurs Blog

Hey dinos, Silu here with the Daily Dino Fact! Today’s fact comes from EB and tells the story of a very unique Allosaurus named Big Al. Enjoy!

This is a story of an Allosaurus found in North America. 95% of his Bones were found well preserved. But he died not even full-grown and the bones were found in the same position of which he had died in. He has Many Injuries and some were found even healing. One severe injury was a swollen foot, but overall he had 11 broken bones in total. Rib injuries were thought to have been made by the whip of a diplodocus’ tail, and yet he broke his tail by falling down. Ripped arms could have been cause by fighting a female Allosaur. Females are much large and more aggressive than males. But even though big Al too all these injures he got killed by a drought, dying next to a dried up river bed, but he could have died of starvation because the swollen toe would have ended his hunting days. He died just at the age of six, not even reaching adulthood. This was an extraordinary creature, but a sad story.

-Earthbound

Hey dinos! Today’s Daily Dino Fact comes from Doggy, who wrote this awesome post about the ferocious Megalodon! Take it from here, Doggy. -Silu

Q: What is a Megalodon?

A: Well, to start off the Megalodon was a prehistoric fish. Today, I like to think of a Shark like the Megalodon because all other fish feared them, much like dinos feared the Tyrannosaurus Rex or Allosaurus. The megalodon might have been the most largest and most powerful macro-predatory fish in vertebrete  history.

Most fossil remians of this fish shows that it was the biggest shark that has ever lived back then. So, if you are wondering the name “Megalodon” actually means “Big Tooth” in it’s greek origin. A megalodon could bite down so hard that when it bites it has a much weight over 42,000 pounds! Wow!

Peace in the East!
Doggy

The Pinocchio of Ceratopsians "I'm a REAL Triceratops!" No, no you're not

Q: What did the Ceratopsian Einiosaurus use its bizzare looking horns for? – Regisaurus

A: Great question Regisaurus! Before we get into the horns lets talk about little Einiosaurus here. I call him a little guy but he was a medium-sized Ceratopsian who grew to be about 20 ft (6m) long (Compare to Triceratops who grew up to 30 ft – 9m long). Still.. the funny proportions of his body make him look like a screwed-up Triceratops mini-me. Einiosaurus lived in the Late Cretaceous and fossils have been found almost exclusively in modern day Montana.

As for his horns… who really knows? Ceratopsians were all over the place. So many different species of random frills and horns and armor. Paleontologists are all over the place about what these could have actually been used for. Some say that maybe they weren’t even used for defense! Triceratops could easily have ripped in a hole into a large predator, but other ceratopsians have such strange horns that they couldn’t have been used to deal damage.

Others say they could have been used as a mating device, or a way to determine dominance in the herds. What do you think they were used for?

-Rex

Whats up dinos! Our good friends PrimaryGames and Nitro are coming back to the Island this Friday for what promises to be an amazing Quiz Party! As before, this quiz will be on dinosaur facts… so you better start studying your Daily Dino Facts! For every question asked by PG or Nitro, the first person to get the answer wins a slick Webopedia trophy!

Party starts at 18:00 WST at the Prairie Pool in the Jurassic server. We’re so happy to have our buddies from PG back to chill.. even if you don’t want to compete in the quiz they would love it if you came to say hi!

Btw.. PERcY hooked it up with a cool little study guide you can read. There will be a couple questions from it during the quiz so very much worth reading!

-Rex

Q: I was searching Megalodon on the computer, and it said that the Megalodon wasn’t part of the dinosaurs time. How could this be true if dinosaurs were the first creatures ever? – Screechie

A: Screechie, I am so glad you asked this question! Dinosaurs were definitely not the first creatures ever. In fact, they only make up a portion of the vast history of our Earth. Take a look at the picture above. What you’re seeing is a geologic time table, representing the entire history of the Earth. Dinosaurs only existed during the Mesozoic era,which started 265 million years ago and ended 65 million years ago. Life started in the Cambrian period about 544 million years ago, with dinosaurs existed during 200 of those. Consider that modern humans have only been around for about 200 thousand years.

There was a whole era of abundant life on planet Earth before the time of the dinosaurs, called the Paleozoic era. Initially only bacteria and then plants that grew in the sea, the Paleozoic saw huge bursts of complex life forms in the first 296 million years of life on Earth. Ever heard of a trilobite? The hard shelled crab looking things? They were very abundant during the Cambrian period as one of the first life forms on earth.

Trilobites are surprisingly cute, don't you think?

Each period during the Paleozoic had very unique characteristics. For example, the Devonian period saw the first sea creatures beginning to sprout legs and walk on land. Of course, this is an evolutionary development that occurred over millions of years… didn’t just happen over night! Many of our Webosaurs mods are named after time periods during the Paleozoic.

Random crazy fact: There was an extinction event at the end of the Paleozoic that was even MORE devastating than the one at the end of the Mesozoic that killed all the dinosaurs. This extinction event killed over 96% of all marine life and 70% of all life on land.

As far as Megalodon goes, he didn’t show up until the Oligocene epoch, which was after the time of the dinosaurs.

There is so much history during the Paleozoic, I hope you guys have more questions!

-Rex

"Hey Rexxy?" "Yeah Rex?" "Let's just stick with prairie dogs, okay?"

Q: Did T-rex Ever Battle an adult Sauropod or come across one? -sKAC

A: Really great question sKAC! So great that I seriously spent about an hour and a half trying to track the answer down yesterday. Unfortunately, like so many dinosaur questions, couldn’t find a definite answer. However, there is some good food for thought.

Remember that Tyrannosaurus Rex was only around during the Late Cretaceous. Many species of sauropod (including some of the biggest) had gone extinct by that point but there were certainly others that roamed the same lands as the famous T-Rex. T-Rex would have encountered sauropods like Alamosaurus and Dsylocosaurus during the Late Cretaceous in North America.

Still the question remains – did they do battle? Probably not. While the Late Cretaceous sauropods were not as big as earlier species, they were still huge. He may have been the most dangerous predator of his time, but T-Rex would have had a tough time taking down a sauropod. One well placed stomp would have crushed T-Rex, either killing it immediately or leaving an injury that would slowly kill it. Sauropods also likely traveled in groups – making it all that much harder. Even if a sauropod went down, T-Rex couldn’t eat the whole thing by itself in one meal and most would go to waste or other scavengers.

More likely, T-Rex would prey on smaller animals like hadrosaurs, making for a more efficient and easier meal.

What do you think?

-Rex

Baryonyx - Cute? No. Terrifying? Yes.

Q: How big was the Baryonyx’s claws? -Sherepta1

A: Great question, Sherepta1. I absolutely love this dinosaur. The very name Baryonyx itself means “Heavy Claw.” This unique beast of a dinosaur lived during the Early Cretaceous and stood about 28 ft (8.5 m) long. Baryonyx was unique in that it was one of the few piscivorous (fish-eating) dinosaurs. It’s long flat jaws were able to snap on fish like the best prehistoric fisherman you ever saw.

Anyway, you want to know about the claws. Yes, these guys had big ol’ claws that rivaled the dromaeosaurs (except they were on their hands). Baryonyx had a big claw on the thumb of each hand measuring over 14 inches (35 cm long). Yikes! Paleontologists are not sure what they were used for, but I can guess they made for some very expensive manicures.

-Rex

Skull from the largest triceratops ever found - Royal Tyrrell Museum

Q: What was the biggest ceratopsian? -Doulas1

A: Ah, the ceratopsians. Big frills, big horns and big attitudes. The ceratopsians were like the armored cows of the Mesozoic, except they were way waaaaay cooler than cows. The most famous of the ceratopsians also happens to be the biggest, generally speaking. Reaching lengths of 30 ft (9m), Triceratops is regarded as the largest ceratopsian of them all.

Back in 2001, paleontologists found the remnants of the skull of an old relative of Triceratops (called Eotriceratops) in Canada. It took them five whole years to piece it back together. You can see in the picture above how massive this head was, measuring about 10 ft (3m) long. That is almost twice the size of an average human being! Paleontologists say the entire dinosaur was probably around 40 ft (10m). Do you know how big that is??? Let me show you.

About this big

Wow! That is one dinosaur you don’t want to be standing in front of. Whoever said the T-Rex had it easy?

-Rex

Utahraptor - still the king of the Dromaeosaurs

Q: What was the biggest raptor? -Repticore5 (I believe it was Sinraptor – Shadowflyer)

A: Heyyy… very good call Shadowflyer. Standing nearly 10 feet tall (3 meters) and roughly 25 feet (7.6 meters) in length, it would appear that Sinraptor is actually bigger than the other raptors. After all, Utahraptor is only 23 feet (7 m) long. Could this be the new biggest raptor of them all?

Sorry Charlie

Turns out that Sinraptor isn’t actually a raptor. Sure, it’s called a raptor (which means “thief” in latin) and it kind of looks like a raptor. However, it isn’t a member of the Dromaeosaurids. If you remember, Dromaeosaurs are what we usually refer to as “raptors.” Sinraptor was just your regular ol’ theropod, but we bet he was still pretty scary to cross.

So there you go… Utahraptor with his giant claw and menacing reputation still remains the king of the raptors!

-Rex