Best. Name. Ever.

September 4, 2014 1:22 PM

Scientists at Drexel university have discovered and described the most complete supermassive dinosaur ever found. According to paleontologist Kenneth Lacovara, the titanosaur "weighed as much as a dozen African elephants or more than seven T. rex. Shockingly, skeletal evidence shows that when this 65-ton specimen died, it was not yet full grown. It is by far the best example we have of any of the most giant creatures to ever walk the planet." It's name? Dreadnoughtus .
posted by brundlefly (106 comments total)

D R E A D N O U G H T U S

Roar!
posted by Iridic at 1:24 PM on September 4, 2014 [11 favorites]

Sounds like a supervillain, doesn't it?
posted by brundlefly at 1:25 PM on September 4, 2014

Sounds like a supervillain, doesn't it?

"No, Mr. Velociraptor, I expect you to die."
posted by Noms_Tiem at 1:26 PM on September 4, 2014 [36 favorites]

Wow. Awesome. Cool.
posted by emmet at 1:28 PM on September 4, 2014 [1 favorite]

We are pretty sure that this is not a SyFy movie viral thing, right?

Either way, how long can it be before we get Megashark vs. Dreadnoughtus. ?
posted by Naberius at 1:31 PM on September 4, 2014 [4 favorites]

Sounds like a supervillain, doesn't it?

Or a metal band...a dinosaur-themed metal band.
posted by Sangermaine at 1:32 PM on September 4, 2014 [5 favorites]

Sounds more like a doughnut from the Doughnut Vault to me.
posted by srboisvert at 1:33 PM on September 4, 2014 [3 favorites]

I don't know, it strikes me as a little heavyhanded (the name, I mean). It's like calling it Whoadudeus Waylargeus.
posted by Sing Or Swim at 1:33 PM on September 4, 2014 [28 favorites]

“Imagine a life-long obsession with eating,” Lacovara said

I will, if I can ignore my own life-long obsession with eating long enough to do so.
posted by Rock Steady at 1:34 PM on September 4, 2014 [15 favorites]

I thought there was some theory that these huge dinosaurs were semi-aquatic which is how they held up all that bulk - they just let it all float. I never seem to see that mentioned anymore. Is it discredited somehow?
posted by GuyZero at 1:35 PM on September 4, 2014 [4 favorites]

I feel very sad that I can never see one in person. How cool would that be?
posted by yarly at 1:35 PM on September 4, 2014 [2 favorites]

Sangermaine: "Or a metal band...a dinosaur-themed metal band."

Starting this.

Naberius: "We are pretty sure that this is not a SyFy movie viral thing, right?"

I've always thought that Giraffatitan sounds like a scraping-the-bottom-of-the-barrel SyFy movie idea. Giraffatitan vs. Mecha-zebra.
posted by brundlefly at 1:36 PM on September 4, 2014 [1 favorite]

Starting this.

At the very least, you're guaranteed a gig opening for Mastodon.
posted by griphus at 1:37 PM on September 4, 2014 [10 favorites]

GuyZero: "I thought there was some theory that these huge dinosaurs were semi-aquatic which is how they held up all that bulk - they just let it all float. I never seem to see that mentioned anymore. Is it discredited somehow?"

Yeah, that's been discredited for a long time now. It's actually pretty much impossible for them to have done so. Their bones were mostly hollow and they may have floated.
posted by brundlefly at 1:38 PM on September 4, 2014 [2 favorites]

Oh, I just noticed you mentioned floating in particular. But, yeah. They were solidly terrestrial.
posted by brundlefly at 1:40 PM on September 4, 2014

brundlefly: "Yeah, that's been discredited for a long time now."

I have a theory that I could accurately predict someone's age within a couple of years by asking them a series of true/false questions about dinosaurs, as most people learn everything they are ever going to know about dinos from age 5-10.
posted by Rock Steady at 1:42 PM on September 4, 2014 [62 favorites]

Not just hollow: filled with helium. In fact today it's still primarily how we mine for the stuff, and why it is getting scarer. A sufficient breeze might have blown these beasts along like giant unwieldy balloons.
posted by 2bucksplus at 1:44 PM on September 4, 2014 [46 favorites]

Their roars were actually quite high pitched.
posted by brundlefly at 1:45 PM on September 4, 2014 [32 favorites]

I don't know, it strikes me as a little heavyhanded (the name, I mean). It's like calling it Whoadudeus Waylargeus.

I really don't see why this is a problem. "Whoa, dude. Way large" is a pretty reasonable reaction to this creature.
posted by Tomorrowful at 1:47 PM on September 4, 2014

Isn't it also now thought that most dinosaurs had feathers? I hope this one was colorful!
posted by rtha at 1:49 PM on September 4, 2014 [2 favorites]

All I'm saying is what if we find a more tyrannical lizard king? T. Rex isn't even a lizard, really. We've kind of painted ourselves into a corner there.
posted by 2bucksplus at 1:50 PM on September 4, 2014 [2 favorites]

Was "Big McLarge Huge" already taken?
posted by mosk at 1:52 PM on September 4, 2014 [9 favorites]

"This is surely the biggest, put a cap on dino size cause we are done-zo"-saurus
posted by 2bucksplus at 1:53 PM on September 4, 2014 [3 favorites]

All I'm saying is what if we find a more tyrannical lizard king?

Then we name it Tyrannosaurus Imperator.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 1:54 PM on September 4, 2014 [6 favorites]

Crunch Beefsteak is an awesome dinosaur name what are you saying?
posted by The Whelk at 1:54 PM on September 4, 2014 [2 favorites]

One T. Rex please, to go.

Supersize that for ya?
posted by chavenet at 1:54 PM on September 4, 2014 [2 favorites]

I'm actually always a little disappointed when I see a real elephant, because in my mind they are like the elephants from Lord of the Rind, and in the real world they're just big animals. I guess I need something that I can't completely conceive us. Like, if I were to see it, I wouldn't believe that there are things that big.

Blue Whales are pretty good, but I guess I expect big things in the ocean. I want to see a factory grow legs and walk around. I guess something like that once existed.
posted by maxsparber at 1:55 PM on September 4, 2014 [6 favorites]

See one? I want to ride one!
posted by Lesser Shrew at 1:55 PM on September 4, 2014

Their weaponized tail segments were topped with barbs of ingested quartz secreted much in same way calcium is for teeth - and had the unusual side effect of diffracting sunlight into beautiful scintillating rainbows of colour.

As they floated along in puffs of wind.

Squealing like hungry tapirs.
posted by CynicalKnight at 1:56 PM on September 4, 2014 [18 favorites]

please travel back in time to rename this thread sic semper tyrannis, thank you.
posted by elizardbits at 2:01 PM on September 4, 2014 [8 favorites]

Not just hollow: filled with helium. In fact today it's still primarily how we mine for the stuff, and why it is getting scarer. A sufficient breeze might have blown these beasts along like giant unwieldy balloons.

Ancestors to our modern-day safari animals.
posted by phunniemee at 2:01 PM on September 4, 2014

Dr. Ken Lacovara shows special enthu for the 30-ft tail in the video. (I'm picturing that tail smashing through my office right now.) "The most powerful tail, ever." Good stuff.

The video is eye-opening, makes me miss childhood and the dinosaur video games, where you'd navigate a maze as a velociraptor, trying to win before the end of the Cretaceous period hit along with a massive, life-annihilating meteor. Talk about game over.

Makes me want to work in a museum. The idea of the largest, most massive land walking creature ever is also kinda cool, come on, despite the giggle-inducing name.

For some reason, the image of massive landstalkers reminds me of Milton's Satan in Paradise Lost :

"He scare had ceased when the superior Fiend
Was moving toward the shore; his ponderous shield,
Ethereal temper, massy, large, and round,
Behind him cast. The broad circumference
Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb
Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views

[...]

His spear—to equal which the tallest pine
Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast
Of some great ammiral, were but a wand—"

_{I also want to see it fight a T-rex}
posted by niphates at 2:04 PM on September 4, 2014 [2 favorites]

I also want to see it fight a T-rex

What if instead they were motocross rivals?
posted by elizardbits at 2:06 PM on September 4, 2014 [2 favorites]

Also, this is clearly a family of absurd names.

In the Titanosaurus family so far we have:

- Argentinosaurus
- Futalognkosaurus (dukei) (<----sez Wikipedia)
- Dreadnoughtus
posted by niphates at 2:08 PM on September 4, 2014

I think Dreadnoughtus is a pretty cool guy. Eh eats plants and doesn't afraid of anything.
posted by onehalfjunco at 2:10 PM on September 4, 2014 [6 favorites]

I didn't mean literally float like ducks, just that the water supported their weight. But apparently not even that.

I have a theory that I could accurately predict someone's age within a couple of years by asking them a series of true/false questions about dinosaurs, as most people learn everything they are ever going to know about dinos from age 5-10.

Yeah, what's up with dinosaurs changing so much in the last 30 years?
posted by GuyZero at 2:12 PM on September 4, 2014 [1 favorite]

GuyZero: "Yeah, what's up with dinosaurs changing so much in the last 30 years?"

Evolution
posted by niphates at 2:14 PM on September 4, 2014 [26 favorites]

Lord of the Rind

Is that safe for work?
posted by juiceCake at 2:18 PM on September 4, 2014 [2 favorites]

"I have a theory that I could accurately predict someone's age within a couple of years by asking them a series of true/false questions about dinosaurs, as most people learn everything they are ever going to know about dinos from age 5-10."

False! Some of us have small children and are forced to watch Dinosaur Train and read dinosaur books endlessly and thus have a MUCH MORE RECENT store of random dinosaur facts. Like that dinosaurs had train and time-travel technology, and had to "buy" tickets for the dinosaur train, but oddly had no other evidence of a complex economy. FACTS!
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 2:18 PM on September 4, 2014 [40 favorites]

Is it described as "supermassive" because "really big" doesn't sound scientific enough? Because to be honest the latter actually sounds more descriptive of the quality being called out.
posted by George_Spiggott at 2:28 PM on September 4, 2014

Eyebrows McGee: "False! Some of us have small children and are forced to watch Dinosaur Train and read dinosaur books endlessly and thus have a MUCH MORE RECENT store of random dinosaur facts."

I'll just blame my own obsession on my nonexistent child.
posted by brundlefly at 2:29 PM on September 4, 2014 [1 favorite]

So I'm guessing there was a schload more O2 in the atmosphere then for land animals to reach such sizes. The arthropods were monster sized too. Where did that oxygen go?
posted by Renoroc at 2:31 PM on September 4, 2014 [3 favorites]

The problem with the name is that it sounds awkward as hell. The researchers just shoehorned an "-us" onto the end of their favorite word, despite the fact that it doesn't get much more Germanic than "dreadnought" and it makes for cringe-inducing Fake Latin. I realize that "all names must be in Fake Latin" is a super-dumb naming rule, but that's how it is and people need to learn to work within that format.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 2:38 PM on September 4, 2014 [4 favorites]

Apparently not:

The scientists determined that changes in sauropod body size do not track changes in atmospheric oxygen content, carbon dioxide content or changes in temperature, all of which had been hypothesized as driving sauropod body size. Instead it appears that some traits sauropods inherited from their ancestors, such as swallowing large amounts of food without chewing, allowed the beginnings of increased body size, which was further allowed by the development of evolutionary novelties along the way (i.e. a bird-like breathing system that would have allowed oxygen to be supplied to their bodies more efficiently). To put it another way, there was no single cause for the observed trend in body size, but rather an intertwined mass of pressures and constraints which shaped the evolution of these dinosaurs—a constant interplay between what was evolutionarily possible and what was advantageous to local conditions at a given time.

posted by brundlefly at 2:39 PM on September 4, 2014 [7 favorites]

"Whoa, dude. Way large" is a pretty reasonable reaction to this creature.

Yeah, but nomenclature should be obscure and important-sounding. Naming stuff after Carl Sagan or easily recognized words is going a little too easy on the layman for my tastes.
posted by Sing Or Swim at 2:52 PM on September 4, 2014 [1 favorite]

a dinosaur-themed metal band

When death metal won't cut it any more, it's time for extinction metal.
posted by mr. digits at 2:56 PM on September 4, 2014 [13 favorites]

"The mega beasts were united by only one thing: their size."
posted by Iridic at 2:57 PM on September 4, 2014 [3 favorites]

I feel very sad that I can never see one in person. How cool would that be?

We have an answer to that, actually. It would be about this cool.
posted by officer_fred at 3:23 PM on September 4, 2014 [1 favorite]

> I knew exactly what the link was without clicking it, but I opened the video anyway because goddam if that isn't some of the best 3 minutes of film ever. Maybe the best 3 minutes of my childhood, come to think of it.
posted by DGStieber at 3:33 PM on September 4, 2014 [6 favorites]

Is it described as "supermassive" because "really big" doesn't sound scientific enough?

I have no problem with this.
posted by supermassive at 3:35 PM on September 4, 2014 [3 favorites]

"The mega beasts were united by only one thing: their size."

and their love for SLAYER

/stubby-armed air guitar
posted by elizardbits at 3:40 PM on September 4, 2014 [13 favorites]

My new goal in life is to name my first born "Dreadnoughtus"...I don't have a lot of goals in life.
posted by ilama at 3:51 PM on September 4, 2014 [1 favorite]

and their love for SLAYER

Fuck you everyone knows dinos were Priest all the way.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 3:55 PM on September 4, 2014 [6 favorites]

I knew exactly what the link was without clicking it, but I opened the video anyway because goddam if that isn't some of the best 3 minutes of film ever. Maybe the best 3 minutes of my childhood, come to think of it.

That scene captures the emotion of wonder in an amazing way.
posted by Pope Guilty at 4:09 PM on September 4, 2014 [5 favorites]

It's not so tough.
posted by echocollate at 4:10 PM on September 4, 2014

Crunch Beefsteak

Thank you, The Whelk, for naming every one of my future RPG characters.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 4:20 PM on September 4, 2014

Hevisaurus, for all your dino-themed metal band needs.
posted by Devonian at 4:23 PM on September 4, 2014

Now we only need to get Benedict Cumberbatch to pilot one.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 4:39 PM on September 4, 2014

what kills me is that some people still think that dinosaurs are lies

WHY WOULD YOU NOT WANT TO LIVE IN A WORLD WITH DINOSAURS

this particular one looks TOTALLY AWESOME even if, with measurements like "a femur over 6 feet tall" it was probably against reclining seats on airplanes. Also, "They have made a “virtual mount” of the skeleton that is now publicly available for download from the paper’s open-access online supplement as a three-dimensional digital reconstruction" -- this is really great and I hope it allows for great research in the future.
posted by jetlagaddict at 5:08 PM on September 4, 2014 [3 favorites]

I hate to be a party-pooper, but the first thing this made me think of was Beatles 3000
posted by rhizome at 5:16 PM on September 4, 2014

Can we Jurassic Park these, please? I think there's room in Wyoming.
posted by dgaicun at 5:21 PM on September 4, 2014

I was hoping a "virtual mount" would mean I could 3D print one to ride on. :(

Preferably with the Jurassic Park theme blaring.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 5:28 PM on September 4, 2014 [1 favorite]

False! Some of us have small children and are forced to watch Dinosaur Train and read dinosaur books endlessly and thus have a MUCH MORE RECENT store of random dinosaur facts.

You should also listen to the Aaron's World Podcast. You can be all grown up and "aww little kid making up a story arc" and your kids can be all "DINO FACTS!"

But yeah, my son completely got me hooked on dinosaurs again (although he's moved on, now he wants to be a paleontologist that studies invertebrates).

Isn't it also now thought that most dinosaurs had feathers? I hope this one was colorful!

Yes.
posted by Gygesringtone at 5:34 PM on September 4, 2014 [1 favorite]

Ok but have you considered how much more awesome the CHiPS theme song would be for majestic dino riding.
posted by elizardbits at 5:34 PM on September 4, 2014 [2 favorites]

I absolutely misread the name as "Dreaddoughnuts" and then got bonkers excited. "Dreadnoughtus" is still pretty great, though.
posted by ausdemfenster at 5:44 PM on September 4, 2014 [3 favorites]

Dinosaur Sr.
posted by davebush at 5:51 PM on September 4, 2014 [10 favorites]

I think its kinda cool that this big discovery came not from Harvard or Stanford but a middle tier school where the lead author has a PhD from another middle tier school. You don't see that too often.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 6:00 PM on September 4, 2014 [6 favorites]

I'm just picturing dinosaur Michael Caine socking it and saying "you're a big dinosaur, but you're out of shape."
posted by George_Spiggott at 6:02 PM on September 4, 2014

Rtha wrote: Isn't it also now thought that most dinosaurs had feathers? I hope this one was colorful!

Totally. If you visit a reptile house in a zoo, it looks like a jewel box. There's a bit of a selection effect going on, but the range of colors is still impressive. The same goes for birds; if we were reconstructing them from skeletons I bet most birds would be shaded brown-grey, and peacock tails would be designed for some boringly utilitarian function like catching fruit.

Basically, every dinosaur diorama or documentary (say that three times fast!) I grew up with was something like this:

Title: A MILLION YEARS AGO
Title: OR MAYBE A BILLION

SCENE: A swamp. MIST obscures the walls of the studio. DRABODONTS root listlessly in the mud.
Suddenly we see a shape through the mist! It is a family of BROWNOSAURS, with young ones at their heels. Not many creatures will tackle a grown Brownosaur, but infants are vulnerable to hungry GREENOSAURS, or speedy herds of KHAKIRAPTORS.

Suddenly! (again) one of the Brownosaurs lifts its head and gives a dull bleat. It has seen something! The Brownosaurs nudge together to protect their young, but it is no use. Through the sickening marsh stalks the mighty TANOSAURUS REX, fiercest and most colorful of all ancient predators! The battle will not end until one of the Brownosaurs is down, its oddly-bloodless carcass sinking in the swamp, one day to be unearthed and exhibited in a diorama of its own.
posted by Joe in Australia at 6:19 PM on September 4, 2014 [24 favorites]

Godzilla!

Raymond Burr and I always knew he was real!
posted by CrowGoat at 6:22 PM on September 4, 2014 [1 favorite]

Whopperus
Junkinthetrunkus
Monstertruckmadnessus
posted by Kabanos at 6:53 PM on September 4, 2014 [1 favorite]

Badonkadon
posted by rhizome at 6:55 PM on September 4, 2014 [27 favorites]

body size: it was radio-active spider bites.
posted by mule98J at 7:08 PM on September 4, 2014

Dreadnoughtus is a pretty good name.

But I learned tonight that the best name ever is actually Ha Ha Clinton-Dix. Someone should name a dinosaur after THAT guy. That would be awesome.
posted by Dr. Wu at 7:21 PM on September 4, 2014 [2 favorites]

“Every day is about taking in enough calories to nourish this house-sized body. I imagine their day consists largely of standing in one place,” Lacovara said.

No kidding.
posted by rosswald at 7:30 PM on September 4, 2014 [2 favorites]

I don't know if any of you noticed but, that dino is hella big.
posted by latkes at 8:06 PM on September 4, 2014 [2 favorites]

Hellasaurus
posted by Rock Steady at 8:21 PM on September 4, 2014 [4 favorites]

"It essentially had a weaponized tail that was 30 feet long, in other words, the Ultimate Thagomizer."
posted by FelliniBlank at 8:48 PM on September 4, 2014 [2 favorites]

maxsparber: "I'm actually always a little disappointed when I see a real elephant, because in my mind they are like the elephants from Lord of the Rind, and in the real world they're just big animals."

Tolkien pedanty: Middle-Earth oliphaunts or mûmakil were considerably bigger than modern day elephants:

To his astonishment and terror, and lasting delight, Sam saw a vast shape crash out of the trees and come careering down the slope. Big as a house, much bigger than a house, it looked to him, a grey-clad moving hill. Fear and wonder, maybe, enlarged him in the hobbit’s eyes, but the Mûmak of Harad was indeed a beast of vast bulk, and the like of him does not walk now in Middle-earth; his kin that live still in latter days are but memories of his girth and majesty.

posted by Chrysostom at 8:48 PM on September 4, 2014 [1 favorite]

Lord of the Rind

That was a cheesy book.

I have a theory that I could accurately predict someone's age within a couple of years by asking them a series of true/false questions about dinosaurs, as most people learn everything they are ever going to know about dinos from age 5-10.

Other than half of the occasional article in an old issue of National Geographic in a waiting room, I probably haven't learned a single dinosaur fact since I was eight. I'm only now realizing that my knowledge might be a bit outdated, which is a sobering thought.
posted by Dip Flash at 8:54 PM on September 4, 2014

Abehammerb Lincoln: "Crunch Beefsteak

Thank you, The Whelk, for naming every one of my future RPG characters"

Oh, you'll like this.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 9:03 PM on September 4, 2014

Best name? Lacovara is a pretty good name, but I don't know if it's the best.
posted by sevensixfive at 9:06 PM on September 4, 2014

I probably haven't learned a single dinosaur fact since I was eight. I'm only now realizing that my knowledge might be a bit outdated, which is a sobering thought.

We can help! Did you know that we've learned, by x-raying their skulls and suchlike, that dinosaurs were substantially smarter than we'd previously thought, but that for reasons we don't yet understand they were all named Boris?

You can trust me. I have a PhD. In science.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:14 PM on September 4, 2014

Calvinosaurus is still best dinosaur.
posted by arcticseal at 10:23 PM on September 4, 2014 [1 favorite]

Here's a life-sized outline of Dreadnoughtus.
posted by brundlefly at 10:35 PM on September 4, 2014 [1 favorite]

Tetrapod Zoology: "The changing life appearance of dinosaurs"
posted by brundlefly at 10:43 PM on September 4, 2014 [3 favorites]

Godzilla.

That's the best. name. ever.

That's what they should have called it.

I would also have taken gigantisaurus
posted by jshare at 11:37 PM on September 4, 2014

Nah, Godzilla is clearly a theropod.
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:32 AM on September 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

Cool.
posted by homunculus at 1:23 AM on September 5, 2014

and to think, it's less than 7000 years old.
posted by mattoxic at 3:45 AM on September 5, 2014 [2 favorites]

jshare: "I would also have taken gigantisaurus"

Giganotosaurus is already a real thing.
posted by Chrysostom at 5:33 AM on September 5, 2014

Is there a tree of life for dinosaurs, showing how they evolved and what they evolved from? How does it relate to fish? Are dinosaurs related to fish and birds? Yet another whose last dino fact was learnt at age 10.
posted by marienbad at 5:38 AM on September 5, 2014

Dimetrodon isn't a dinosaur? My childhood books lied to me!
posted by Pope Guilty at 6:05 AM on September 5, 2014

Other than half of the occasional article in an old issue of National Geographic in a waiting room, I probably haven't learned a single dinosaur fact since I was eight.

This is exactly why I have National Geographic in my RSS feed. Seems like once I week I lean about a new cool dinosaur or dinosaur fact.

Is there a tree of life for dinosaurs,

There's a good reference for where they stand in the greater scheme of things a little ways down the article. This one's just the dinosaurs.
posted by Gygesringtone at 6:06 AM on September 5, 2014

"[a digital model] doesn’t decay over time like bones do in a collection"

No, it decays way faster through obsolescence and lack of support.

Whenever a larger sauropod is discovered, I wonder about heart size and circulatory system issues.
posted by plinth at 6:50 AM on September 5, 2014 [2 favorites]

One day, far into the future, when chimpanzees, orangutangs, and gorillas have evolved and dominate the Earth, they will dig up the bones of humans and a movie will be made, called Republican Park, where a mad orangutang will have produced a park full of Republican humans, not appreciating the peril he has put the world into by doing so.
posted by juiceCake at 7:24 AM on September 5, 2014

I'm pretty enthusiastic about the name, but mostly because it's an anagram of "Dear Doughnuts"
posted by mrjohnmuller at 7:30 AM on September 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

Pope Guilty: "Dimetrodon isn't a dinosaur? My childhood books lied to me!"

Previously. :)
posted by brundlefly at 9:02 AM on September 5, 2014

Now I don't personally buy into the theory that there's a divine being who put Dinosaur bones into the ground just to fuck with us, but if I did I would think waiting until someone finds the biggest one yet you've planted and goes around proclaiming "This is pretty much as big as they get guys" would be a great opportunity to just plant one twice as big and guide a new guy there.

20 years from now someone realized all of Rhode Island is one big dinosaur bone the paleontologists would probably just give up.
posted by DynamiteToast at 10:54 AM on September 5, 2014

"Giganotosaurus is already a real thing."

And she rides in the observation car because she's too big for the passenger coach!

(Giganotosaurus is my husband's favorite.)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 12:24 PM on September 5, 2014

Wait till Biggus Dickus hears of this!
posted by Omnomnom at 10:55 PM on September 5, 2014

Speaking of Biggus Dickus, that's what I always idly wonder: How did such huge, cumbersome animals have sex?
posted by paleyellowwithorange at 11:01 AM on September 11, 2014

How did such huge, cumbersome animals have sex?

Very carefully.
posted by Gygesringtone at 11:06 AM on September 11, 2014

Heh.

How did such a gargantuan animal have sex? Giddy and tired, I envisioned a pair of amorous Brachiosaurus standing in a clearing in a conifer forest some 150 million years ago during the Jurassic period, each one waiting for the other to make the first move.
posted by paleyellowwithorange at 11:12 AM on September 11, 2014

How did such huge, cumbersome animals have sex?

$5, same as in the Triassic.
posted by maxsparber at 12:20 PM on September 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

Past Mefi favorite Dinosaurs WTF weighs in on the name.

(Praetereoceratops “Totally Skippable Horned Face” is great though)
posted by jetlagaddict at 12:04 PM on September 29, 2014 [2 favorites]