GIGANOTOSAURUS
Giganotosaurus carolinii
Meaning: "Giant Southern Lizard"
📊 STATS
Size comparison:
As long as a large school bus!
📖 ABOUT GIGANOTOSAURUS
Meet Giganotosaurus, the 'Giant Southern Lizard'! This massive meat-eater roamed Argentina long ago, and it was HUGE!
Giganotosaurus (say: guy-GAN-toe-SORE-us) was one of the biggest meat-eating dinosaurs that ever lived! Its name means 'Giant Southern Lizard,' and it definitely lived up to it. Imagine a dinosaur longer than a school bus – that's Giganotosaurus! It walked on two powerful legs, using its strong tail for balance. Found in Argentina, this giant theropod lived during the Late Cretaceous period.
Giganotosaurus was a fearsome predator, using its huge jaws and sharp teeth to hunt other dinosaurs. Scientists believe it may have hunted large herbivores like Argentinosaurus. Although its arms were small, its massive head and powerful bite made it a formidable hunter. It could run up to 50 kilometers per hour, making it super speedy for such a big dinosaur! Giganotosaurus was related to other big meat-eaters like Carcharodontosaurus, and studying its fossils helps us understand more about the dinosaurs that roamed South America millions of years ago.
🔬 CLASSIFICATION
- Group
- Theropoda
- Family
- Carcharodontosauridae
- Period
- Late Cretaceous (100-66 Ma)
- Era
- 99.0 - 95.0 million years ago
🗺️ DISCOVERY
- Year
- 1993
- Discovered by
- Rubén Carolini
- Location
- Patagonia, Argentina
- Fossils found in
- Argentina
🎨 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATION
Artistic reconstruction of Giganotosaurus based on fossil evidence
🗺️ WHERE FOSSILS WERE FOUND
Argentina
🤓 FUN FACTS
- ✨ Giganotosaurus's teeth were as big as bananas!
- ✨ It lived in South America, way before people were even around!
- ✨ Giganotosaurus was discovered in 1993 by a car mechanic named Rubén Carolini!
- ✨ Even though it was huge, Giganotosaurus's brain was about the size of a banana!
- ✨ Scientists think Giganotosaurus might have hunted in packs, like wolves!
💡 DID YOU KNOW?
Get this! Even though Giganotosaurus was bigger than T-Rex in some ways, its bite wasn't as strong. Scientists think it might have used its teeth like serrated knives to slice meat off its prey!
