Who’s the deadliest of them all?
It’s been a long time — 66 million years to be exact — since anyone saw a real-life dinosaur. But even though they are extinct, we do get a glimpse of them in movies. But how close is it to reality? What Hollywood has got right is the size of the dinosaur and how dangerous it was. However, there’s so much more. Here’s a glimpse of five deadly dinosaurs.
Allosaurus
Of all the predators, an Allosaurus — meaning ‘different lizard’ — despatched its prey in the most horrible way imaginable: by using its skull as an axe. Scientists have revealed that the Allosaurus would swing its skull with a heavy force, making other animals fall to its attack.
Interesting fact: With a bite force that was 30 times less a T-Rex’s force, an Allosaurus was still an equal match to other deadly dinosaurs not because of its tools but because of its technique.
Tyrannosaurus Rex
The name Tyrannosaurus Rex, also known as T-Rex, literally means “king of the tyrant lizards”. It was about 13 metres long and was one of the largest predators to have ever walked on Earth. True to its name, it used its massive size, dagger-like sharp teeth and a strong jawline to chomp down other animals, maintaining a reputation of being the deadliest of all.
Interesting fact: No other animal could stand a chance against the bite strength of a T-Rex due to its set of 60 teeth and six-tonne force — enough to crush a car!
Velociraptor
A Velociraptor was comparatively small in size — it stood no more than a metre tall and weighed just 15 kg. However, it used its speed — going up to 40 miles an hour — and its sharp claws, to hunt. The claws served as a Velociraptor’s stabbing tool, as it used these to punch through the skin of a prey and puncture a major artery.
Interesting fact: All in all, a Velociraptor looks nothing like what is shown in the Jurassic movie series. The movie was right only about its speed. Velociraptors worked as a ruthless team and never alone.
Argentinosaurus
One of the most enormous species of dinosaurs, the Argentinosaurus was so huge that every step it took could have caused a mini earthquake. Even though it was a plant-eater, the Argentinosaurus was a threat to other animals, simply because its foot could squish animals like crocodiles, turtles and other smaller dinosaurs while it walked. Funnily, and unintentionally, animals would also get buried in its poop!
Interesting fact: The Argentinosaurus was longer than a blue whale. Around 35 metres high from head to tail and at 70 tonnes in weight, it was as heavy as 10 double-decker buses put together!
Gigantoraptor
Gigantoraptor, an eight-metre-tall giant, isn’t technically a “raptor” — the Greek term for ‘thief’ used by palaeontologists to identify dinosaurs like Velociraptor and Buitreraptor that were true raptors.
It is believed to have laid the largest egg in the natural world, about 60 centimetres long and weighing up to five kilos. With a sharp bird-like beak, strange wing-like appendages, and a huge size, it was one of the scariest species of dinosaurs.
Interesting fact: Gigantoraptor was the mother of all mothers as it sat on its super-sized egg for as many as 80 days to protect it! That kind of weight on an egg? An ostrich egg is the largest egg in the animal kingdom today and can withstand about 130 kg of weight. In comparison, it takes about 380 kg to break a Gigantoraptor egg.