March 25, 2009
See Tyrannosaurus Take a Bite out of Alamosaurus
A Tyrannosaurus attacks an Alamosaurus. Courtesy of Michael Skrepnick.
Earlier this week, I wrote about how the sauropod Alamosaurus lived alongside and may have been preyed upon by Tyrannosaurus. At the time I could not think of any illustrations of Tyrannosaurus going after the long-necked dinosaur, but a few readers were able to find some.
Reader ian remembered seeing such a restoration in a children’s book, but he also pointed out an obvious example I had missed:
“Also, in the film Jurassic Park, the visitor center has the mounted skeletons of a tyrannosaurus and an alamosaurus fighting.”
I was also glad to hear from professional paleo-artist Michael Skrepnick. He had illustrated a confrontation between Tyrannosaurus and Alamosaurus in conjunction with paleontologist Scott Sampson sometime before the 2005 paper describing the co-occurrence of these dinosaurs. It looks just like I imagined.
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Well the Jurassic Park example isn’t correct. That is a cast of the very commonly casted and displayed skeleton of a juvie Camarosaurus (which has led to the misimpression that Camarosaurs are smaller than they are).
From what I understand the remains of Alamosaurus aren’t all that complete, and wouldn’t make the best skeletal mount without a LOT of fill in bones.
[...] record suggested that they were all but wiped out by the Cretaceous. (Alamosaurus, a sauropod that may have lived alongside Tyrannosaurus, was an exception.) As scientists have continued their research, however, it has come to light that [...]
That is not alamosaurus. There is not a complete skeleton and the posture is too different, the femurs are to narrow, the skull is different shape, neck vertebra is not long or high enough and the tail vertebra is to short so it is defiantly not alamosaurus. I think it fits into the family of vulcanoDonitade and is most likely a barapasaurus or possibly a Tazoudasaurus. This skeleton mount is not an alamosaurus.