Prehistoric Life/Dinosaurs/Large Theropods: Difference between revisions

* We can also mention two virtually-unknown animals which have had nonetheless a great relevance in the past, but have lost it due to [[Science Marches On]]. ''Teratosaurus'': (“monster lizard”) lived in Europe during the Triassic period. Discovered as early as the middle of the XIX century, it was 6 m long, and has long detained the record of “the first giant meat-eating dinosaur”. In old books, ''Teratosaurus'' was portrayed as a generic-looking “carnosaur” which hunted the neighboring prosauropod ''[[Stock Dinosaurs|Plateosaurus]]''. Then, in the mid 1980s, it was discovered that ''Teratosaurus'' was actually reconstructed upon very fragmentary remains mixed with bones belonging to ''Plateosaurus'': these new studies showed it was ''not even a dinosaur'', but a four-legged, non-dinosaurian archosaur related to ''[[Useful Notes/Prehistoric Life /Non Dinosaurian Reptiles|Postosuchus]]'', and now has totally gone out of fashion. The other example is "Deinodon" (“terrible tooth”). Few people today are aware of this pratically unknown dinosaur, described only from teeth. Nonetheless, “Deinodon” has been the ''very first'' carnivorous dinosaur described in North America, in 1856, when dinosaurs were still only-European things. Its describer, Joseph Leidy, didn’t realize that he named the first tyrannosaur. Now scientists think the “Deinodon” teeth pertain to another better-known tyrannosaurid, perhaps ''Albertosaurus''. However, “Deinodon” has left one memory: once, the tyrannosaurid family used to be called “deinodontids”. Or rather, this ''should'' be the correct name for tyrannosaurids, but is obscured by how ingrained the term "tyrannosaurid" now is.