| Tarascosaurus | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||
| Name | Tarascosaurus | |||
| Order | Saurischia | |||
| Suborder | Theropoda | |||
| Class | Sauropsida | |||
| Name Translation | Tarasque Lizard | |||
| Period | Late Cretaceous | |||
| Location | Europe | |||
| Diet | Carnivore | |||
| Size | 9 ft (2.7 m) long, 198 pounds | |||
Tarascosaurus (tar-ASS-koh-SORE-us) was a large abelisaurid theropod from Europe. It was the apex predator of its time, and lived during the Late Cretaceous Era. It was discovered 1991 in France by a French paleontologist named Eric Buffetaut.
Description[]
Tarascosaurus was a large theropod closely related to Majungasaurus of Madagascar, Rugops of Africa, Carnotaurus and Abelisaurus of South America. It had very short five-fingered fore-limbs that would make even Tyrannosaurus rex feel better about itself, but it had long, strong legs with three toes with razor sharp talons designed for ripping flesh off carcasses. It had a large head with long, blade-like teeth, suggesting a powerful bite-force. It also had large eyes with a big snout out in front, also suggesting a good sense of smell and sight. It was 9 feet (2.7 meters) long and weighed around 198 pounds. It lived alongside predators like Pyroraptor, and its prey were dinosaurs like Rhabdodon and a type of sauropod called Ampelosaurus.
In the Media[]
Tarascosaurus was in the Discovery Channel documentary Dinosaur Planet, where a mated pair of it first attacked a Pyroraptor named Pod, and the male was injured when an earthquake caused it to trip on an upturned root. Pod later finds three smaller versions of them, 2 females and a male, feasting on the carcass of a dead Magyarosaurus on a small island and kills one of them, scaring the other two away, and then eats the remains of the dead sauropod & sharing it with a pack of Elopteryx, which are referred to as a Dwarf Troodon.
Gallery[]
Tarascosaurus/Gallery
References[]
Websites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarascosaurus
http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/species/t/tarascosaurus.html
http://www.scoopweb.com/Tarascosaurus
http://www.dinochecker.com/dinosaurs/TARASCOSAURUS
Documentaries:
Dinosaur Planet
When Dinosaurs Ruled