The discoverers reported on Monday that the dinosaur, the size of a gigantic turkey, was a meat-eating creature that lived more than 65 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous period. They named it Balaur bondoc, which means “stocky dragon.”
Romanian scientists and other experts said that Balaur is the first reasonably complete skeleton of a predatory dinosaur from Europe at that time. Of perhaps surpassing importance, they said, the discovery may provide insights into the development of dinosaurs and other animals in a long-ago European ecosystem much different from that of today.
– John Noble Wilford, New York Times.
OK first of all, it’s funny to say something is “about the size of a gigantic turkey.” Why not say it’s the size of a small rhea or a tiny ostrich or a freakishly large chicken?
Second, it’s described as something of “a kickboxer” later in the article, so it’s good to know there was European precedent for Jean Claude Van Damme.
The dinosaur scientists maintain that this is a new breed of predator, different from any they have previously identified, but then they’re probably reserving the right to do a complete 180 and announce that this is discovery is complete B.S. and the Balaur bondoc is exactly the same as some other dinosaur we’ve already known about for years, because that’s something dinosaur scientists do sometimes.
They’re also using the discovery to make reasonably interesting extrapolations about dinosaur evolution in isolation, but those seem like pretty bold claims considering how much we all know about how little we really know about dinosaurs.
And I mean no disrespect, dinosaur scientists. Seriously. But make with the cloning or stop acting like you’ve got dinosaurs all figured out.
Tedquarters 