Dinosaur red claw. Dinosaur Age Weapons. Deinonychus is a Greek word which means "terrible claw"

results archaeological sites always interesting and often unpredictable. However, sometimes surprise reaches such a limit that one involuntarily thinks: apparently, nature itself mocked these creatures ... Some fossil prehistoric animals had very weird look, equipped with devices such as vaulted skulls or crescent-shaped toenails. National Geographic magazine presented a ranking of the most bizarre dinosaurs that once lived on planet Earth.

1. Amargasaurus

Prominent Feature: Double row of spines along neck and back

Period of residence: 130-125 million years ago

Found: in Argentina

This diplodocid had a very interesting feature: a row of spikes up to 65 cm long each, located on the back and neck. They could form a spiked mane or be covered in skin, creating a structure like a double sail. Whatever form they took, it was a very unusual device, and it probably played a role social life animal or used for protection - a valuable acquisition for an animal that was almost half as long as its relatives.

Amargasaurus had a thin, whip-like tail and blunt teeth adapted for plucking leaves from branches. Like other sauropods, it probably swallowed stones, or gastroliths, to aid in the digestion of food. With its spiked spine, Amargasaurus resembled Dicreosaurus, and some paleontologists separate these two species into a separate family.

2. Carnotaurus

Outstanding Feature: strong legs and small front paws

Period of residence: 82-67 million years ago

Found: in Argentina

The developed front legs of the Carnotaurus give the impression that the beast was conceived as a perfect killing machine, but at the final stage some details were not enough. However, predatory happiness is not in the front legs - the carnotaurus instilled fear in other dinosaurs with strong jaws, long and fast hind limbs. Carnosaurus exhibits features similar to the dinosaurs of the Northern Hemisphere, such as sharp, thin, crooked teeth, characteristic of carnivorous theropods.

Its forelimbs were very short, like those of tyrannosaurs. North America and Asia. However, the carnosaurus also had individual features; it had a horn. Horns were bony outgrowths in the upper part of the skull, directed to the side and up. During life, they apparently were covered with a cornea, like the horns of modern bulls or birans.

Carnosaurus horns most likely played the role of identifying marks, but since only a few skeletons of these dinosaurs have been found, it remains unclear whether only males had horns or females too. The muzzle of the carnosaurus was very narrow, but below the horns, the skull widened sharply, so that the eyes were shifted slightly to the side. thanks to this, the carnosaurus could have had binocular vision, when the visual fields of the left and right vision intersect. A person has the same type of vision. An animal with such vision can accurately determine the distance, which makes it an excellent hunter: carnosaurs looked out for their prey and caught it with dexterity.

3. Parasaurolophus

Prominent feature: tubular comb

Period of residence: 76 million years ago

Discovered: in North America

Parasaurolophus is the most remarkable representative of the duck-billed dinosaurs with hollow crests. The nasal bones of his skull turned into giant long hollow tubes, which, curving, stretched behind his head. What was the purpose of such education? Paleontologists don't yet know for sure, but they think they were some kind of voice amplifiers, similar to the nasal creases on the crestless heads of hadrosaurs. With such an "instrument" the animal could make sounds like a trombone in order to attract females or challenge rivals to a duel.

According to another point of view, such pipes created air circulation in the skull and cooled the brain in the heat. The luxurious crest of a parasaurolophus could also have had another function: to work as a kind of reflector of branches whipping in the face when the lizard made its way through the thicket - note that the crest lies exactly in the notch of the spine, while the shape of the body becomes streamlined. It is possible that all these hypotheses are correct and the crest was a multifunctional structure. And if he had a signal function, then, probably, the tail of the animal also performed the same duties. The tail was broad, laterally flattened, and very much like a plank. It seems that large plots the skins on the sides of the tail were brightly colored. With its help, the parasaurolophus also, probably, challenged the enemy to a duel, or gave signs.

4. Maciakasaurus

Outstanding Feature: Amazing Teeth

Period of residence: 70-65 million years ago

Found: in Madagascar

The fossilized remains of the jaw of Masiakasaurus - a dinosaur the size of a German shepherd - were found in Madagascar in 2001. Translated from the local dialect, the name of the dinosaur is translated as "the wrong lizard."

The main feature of Masiakasaurus is not in its small size, but in specific teeth. The first tooth of the lower jaw protrudes forward at an angle of 90˚. Other teeth are straightened and arranged vertically. The teeth themselves are also unique: in the back of the jaw they are flattened and serrated, the front ones are long, almost conical, with spiky ends and tiny serrations. This testifies to a special way of obtaining food: the Masiakasaurus caught up with the victim, wounded it with its front teeth, and chewed it with its back ones.

5. Tuojiangosaurus

Prominent Feature: Shoulder spikes

Period of residence: 161-155 million years ago

Found: in China

In the best traditions of the Jurassic period, the bulky Tuojiangosaurus has a long, spiny tail and spiny plates along its back. But this dinosaur is unique, the remains of which were found in the middle of the twentieth century in China, thanks to the sharp conical spikes that “decorate” its shoulders. Scientists differ on the function of spines. One of the versions: the spikes protected the body of Tuojiangosaurus from attacks by Alosaurs or other predators.

6. Deinocheirus

Prominent Feature: Giant paws

Period of residence: 70 million years ago

Found: in Mongolia

Deinocheirus (translated from Greek - " scary hand”) is one of the theropods, carnivorous dinosaur. Anatomically, Deinocherus probably looked like a modern ostrich, but scientists do not know for sure what the body of this predator with huge arms looked like. Each of the Deinocheirus paws found extends 2.4 m. Such anatomy was especially useful during hunting. It is assumed that thanks to its clawed paws, Deinocheirus could climb trees.

7. Dracorex

Prominent feature: sharp head

Period of residence: 67-65 million years ago

Found: in North America

"Dracorex" is Latin for "king of dragons". His skull, covered with spikes and sharp protrusions, really has a royally menacing look. However, its owner himself, most likely, did not resemble a fire-breathing monster, but a wild pig.

8 Epidendrosaurus

Prominent feature: very long finger

Period of residence: 160 million years ago

Found: in China

The title of the smallest among the most bizarre dinosaurs belongs to the tiny epidendrosaurus, a representative of theropods the size of a sparrow. However, this little creature had prominent forelimbs. Epidendrosaurus was described in 2002 by paleontologists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. This is the smallest of known to science dinosaurs, although scientists cannot say for sure whether young or adult belong to the imprints of bones on the stone. But the object of greatest interest to experts is the function of the limbs of Epidendrosaurus. According to a common version, the epidendrosaurus used its long fingers to search for insect larvae in the trees.

9. Styracosaurus

Prominent feature: horned collar

Period of residence: 75 million years ago

Found: in North America

Styracosaurus is herbivore dinosaur, which got into this rating thanks to its amazing collar. The collar of the Styracosaurus is adorned with six long, pointed spines. In addition, the dinosaur is armed with a 60 cm long horn. No predators are afraid of such an animal.
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Material from National Geographic supplemented by materials and illustrations from dinopedia.ru

Materials used: http://anastgal.livejournal.com/1390092.html#cutid1

Baryonyx (Baryonyx)

It's no surprise that this British dinosaur was nicknamed "the clawed one". The huge claws that grew on the fingers of his forelimbs were almost as long as human hand!

For the first time, the remains of Baryonyx were found next to the fossilized bones of Iguanodon, another dinosaur with claws on opposing fingers. Considering the skeleton of Baryonyx, which the experts assembled from scattered pieces, one can confidently distinguish in the structure of his body a series characteristic features. Such features include, for example, an oblong skull sitting on long neck.

The body of Baryonyx was about 9 meters long, and weighed, respectively, about 2 tons. For comparison, we note that this weight is equal to the total weight of twenty-five adult men of average height and fullness.

fish-eating

The hind legs of the Baryonyx were very powerful, although the forelimbs were practically not inferior to them in strength. Some scientists even believe that Baryonyx could move on all fours, wandering along the river bank and looking for fish.

Imagine a scene like the one below. Such scenes may well have played out about 120 million years ago on that part of the earth's landmass, which is now called England. Was early Cretaceous, and along the banks of numerous rivers and lakes, lush greenery grew violently.

The carnivorous lizard Baryonyx could well find its food in the form of many small living creatures. However, there is evidence that he obtained food in such an unusual way for a dinosaur as catching fish, which can be seen in the figure.

A huge claw on the opposing tallow could be very useful specifically for fishing. The fact that Baryonyx ate fish, scientists learned by finding fish fossils in its remains.

Teeth and claws

Another feature of Baryonyx is the doubled (compared to other carnivorous lizards) number of teeth in its long jaws, reminiscent of crocodiles. The largest teeth were located in the anterior cavity of the mouth, as they moved towards the back, the size of the teeth decreased.

The teeth were conical, slightly serrated - perfect shape in order to grab slippery, writhing prey, such as fish or similar small dinosaur like Hypsilophodon or even a young Iguanodon.

Scientists have come to the conclusion that in Baryonyx, the claws on the hind limbs are not as huge as those on the front. Baryonyx was too heavy to stand on one hind leg and claw the other to try to strike an opponent, as a much smaller and lighter dinosaur like Deinonychus could easily do.

Yet the forelimbs of the Baryonyx were powerful enough to carry such formidable weapon. Probably had a hard time marine fish, even the most nimble, when Baryonyx went hunting!

• Class: Reptilia = Reptiles or Reptiles
• Subclass: Archosauria = Archosaurs
• Superorder: Dinosauria † Owen, 1842 = Dinosaurs
• Order: Saurischia † Seeley, 1888 = Lizard-hipped dinosaurs
• Family: Dromaeosauridae † Matthew et Brown, 1922 = Dromaeosauridae
• Genus: Deinonychus Ostrom, 1969 † = Deinonychus
• Species: Deinonychus antirrhopus Ostrom, 1969 † = Deinonychus

Genus: Deinonychus = Deinonychus "Terrible Claw"

In 1963, an amazing dinosaur was found in the Lower Cretaceous rocks in the USA, which clearly cannot be considered a giant. In height, he reached only one and a half meters, although his body reached a length of 3-4 meters. At the same time, more than half of its length fell on the tail. The tail of Deinonychus in the back was quite stiff and served as a balance when running. When running, the dinosaur's body was parallel to the ground. The tail, flexible at the base, was used as a rudder, which allowed the animal to quickly change the direction of the run, cutting off the victim's escape route. On its hind legs, it had one especially large and strongly curved claw, which leaned upwards during the run.

Deinonychus, despite its relatively small size, was a very dangerous predator. His jaws were armed sharp teeth, and its main weapon was large and sharp claws, which were armed with both the front and hind limbs of Deinonychus. When attacking animals, Deinonychus with lightning speed, with all its strength, plunged all its claws into the body of a pre-doomed victim. Strongly hitting the victim with the claws of the hind legs and firmly holding it with long forelimbs, which ended in three fingers with sharp claws bent down, the deinonychus quickly bit into its body with its jaws. The lower jaw was attached to the back of the skull, so the pangolin could open its mouth wide, and strong muscles provided a stranglehold. And since his teeth were located in the jaws at an inclination back, the victim could no longer free himself from the death grip of Deinonychus, even if she violently pulled out, because the teeth stuck even deeper.

The sickle-shaped claw of the second finger reached 13 cm in length. Pointing upwards, he always remained sharp and ready to attack. Therefore, Polish researchers gave the name "terrible claw" to Deinonychus for its claws - this is how its name "Deinonychus" is translated.

The victims of Deinonychus were most likely young dinosaurs of various kinds, most often herbivorous - hypsilophodon and iguanodon.

Scientists suggest that the hunting habits of Deinonychus resemble a modern leopard, comparable to it in size. Like the leopard, he could take prey larger than himself. It is possible that Deinonychus hunted in packs. The unusually large cranial cavity for dinosaurs may also speak in favor of the fact that Deinonychus was capable of complex group relationships and living together in a society of its own kind.

Currently, some researchers consider this species to the genus Velociraptor, rejecting the independence of the genus Deinonychus † = Deinonychus, considering it a member of the genus Velociraptor: V. antirrhopus (Ostrom, 1969) Paul, 1988. (see genus:

It's not as famous as its Asian relative, the Velociraptor, made famous by the films Jurassic Park and Jurassic World, but Deinonychus certainly had a significant impact. greater influence to paleontology. Numerous remains of these dinosaurs helped to figure out how the raptors looked and lived. Below we present 10 amazing facts about Deinonychus.

02. Deinonychus is a Greek word that means "terrible claw"

The name Deinonychus is due to the fact that each paw of this dinosaur had a large curved claw. This feature is common to all raptors of the Middle and Late Cretaceous. Deino in Greek is the same as dino (“terrible, terrible”), and the word dinosaur is translated as “terrible lizard”.

03 Deinonychus gave rise to the theory that birds evolved from dinosaurs

In the late 60s and early 70s of the last century, the American paleontologist John Ostrom noted the similarity between Deinonychus and modern birds. He first put forward the idea that birds evolved from dinosaurs. The theory, which in those days was perceived as very bold, today is practically not questioned in scientific community. Many scholars promoted and popularized it, including Ostrom's student Robert Bakker.

04. Deinonychus (almost everyone is sure of this) was covered in feathers

Today, paleontologists believe that most theropods (including raptors and tyrannosaurs) on certain stage lives were covered with feathers. Currently, there is no direct evidence that Deinonychus had feathers, but it has been proven that other raptors were feathered (for example, Velociraptor). It can be assumed that this North American raptor looked like big bird, if not in adulthood, then at least at the beginning of life's journey.

05. The first remains of Deinonychus were discovered in 1931

The famous American "dinosaur hunter" Barnum Brown discovered the remains of Deinonychus when he was looking for a completely different species in Montana - a hadrosaurus (aka duck-billed dinosaur). Brown was not very interested in a small raptor, which he accidentally dug up, since the sensation from this find was not expected at all. The researcher called the found species daptosaurus and forgot about it.

06. Deinonychus used claws to kill prey

Paleontologists still haven't fully figured out exactly why the raptors needed claws on their feet, but there is no doubt that they had some kind of attacking function. They also supposedly helped ancient reptiles climb trees to escape larger theropods, or to impress members of the opposite sex in mating season. Deinonychus may have inflicted deep wounds on prey with his claws, and then retired to a safe distance and waited for her to die from blood loss.

07. Velociraptors were based on Deinonychus in Jurassic Park

Remember those fearsome, human-sized Velociraptors that hunted in packs in Jurassic Park and their counterparts in Jurassic World? Deinonychus served as a model for their creation, although this word does not sound in the pictures, apparently too complex and unusual for a wide audience. By the way, one should not think that he or any other dinosaur was smart enough to turn doorknobs, and they also did not have green scaly skin.

08 Deinonychus May Have Hunted Hadrosaurs

The remains of Deinonychus were found along with the remains of hadrosaurs (they are also duck-billed dinosaurs). This means that both of them lived in North America on the same territory in the middle Cretaceous period. One would like to conclude that Deinonychus hunted hadrosaurs, but the problem is that an adult hadrosaur weighed about two tons, and representatives of a smaller species could only defeat it together.

09. The jaws of Deinonychus are weak, as it is not surprising

Studies have shown that Deinonychus could not bite anyone hard, unlike other, larger Cretaceous theropods, such as Tyrannosaurus Rex and Spinosaurus. These could grab no worse than a modern crocodile. Seem to be, strong jaws our hero was not particularly needed, since two claws and long front paws were quite enough.

10 Deinonychus Wasn't The Fastest Dinosaur

There is another mistake in Jurassic Park and Jurassic World about Deinonychus (or Velociraptor in the movies). He's moving way too fast. In fact, it was much slower than other theropods such as ornithomimus, although recent research suggests that Deinonychus could run at about 10 kilometers per hour in pursuit of prey. If it seems slow, try it yourself...

The first Deinonychus egg was found only in 2000.

Although scientists have found eggs of other North American theropods, especially Troodon, they have practically no eggs of Deinonychus. The only (but not one hundred percent) candidate was found in 2000. Analyzes show that Deinonychus hatched offspring in the manner of a chitipati feathered dinosaur similar in size. Citipati was not a raptor in the full sense of the word, but a type of theropod known as an oviraptor.

Deinonychus or Deinonychus is a carnivorous dinosaur of the theropod suborder. The species name comes from the Latin word Deinonychus, which means " terrible claw».

Species: Deinonychus "Terrible Claw"

For the first time this amazing dinosaur was discovered in 1963 in North America in sediments dating back to the middle of the Cretaceous period. With a height of 1.5 meters and a length of 3-4 meters, this animal could not be attributed to the giants of its time. Moreover, the length of the tail was half the entire length of the animal. This tail was rigid at the back and supported the stability of the body when running. Deinonychus ran parallel to the surface of the earth.

The same flexible tail at the base helped the animal to quickly change the direction of its run. Deinonychus used it as a rudder and this allowed him to quickly change direction, preventing the victim from escaping. On the hind limbs there was one large curved claw. During the pursuit of prey, the animal could take it up.

It was a very dangerous predator, although its size was small. The body of the lizard was ideally suited for bloody hunting. Its jaws were equipped with sharp teeth.

But his main weapon was large and sharp claws, both on the front and on the hind legs. If the victim was overtaken by Deinonychus, she was doomed to death. The predator quickly, with all his strength, plunged all his claws into the body of the victim. And then, tenaciously holding the unfortunate animal with its forelimbs with sharp claws bent down, Deinonychus beat the victim with strong hind legs and at the same time dug into it with his jaws and gnawed out pieces of prey.

The stranglehold of the jaws of the predator was ensured by the structure of its skull: the lower jaw was attached to the back of the head, while it could open its mouth wide. Plus, the teeth of Deinonychus were located at an inclination into the jaw and there was no way for the victim to free himself from his grip. Even if the unfortunate creature resisted furiously, with each movement, the predator's teeth sank deeper and deeper.

Polish paleontologists came up with the name "Deinonychus", which means "terrible claw" for a reason. The reason was the sickle-shaped claw of the second finger, which grew up to 13 cm in length. He was directed upwards and the predator was ready at any moment to put him into action.

Who were the victims of Deinonychus? Apparently, these were cubs and young dinosaurs of the most various types. But most often they were herbivorous lizards, for example, gypsilophodon.