Skull of largest European dino, revealed

Adam Khor

Turiasaurus is the largest European dinosaur- about 30 to 35 meters long. It was found in Spain and is one of the few giant dinos of which the skull is known.



http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/lifestyle/2012/04/03/biggest-dinosaur-skull-in-europe-found-in-spain/

Rubecula

If it is the largest, then it's food must have been smaller. So why is it so big?

I suspect there may be large herbivores that we have yet to discover.

maggy_thatcher

Rubecula wrote: »

If it is the largest, then it's food must have been smaller. So why is it so big?

I suspect there may be large herbivores that we have yet to discover.

According to the article, it was a Sauropod, which is a herbivore.

Adam Khor

Rubecula wrote: »

If it is the largest, then it's food must have been smaller. So why is it so big?

I suspect there may be large herbivores that we have yet to discover.

Turiasaurus was a herbivore. And I think among with its bones, the tooth of a truly gigantic theropod was found.

Rubecula

I stand corrected. For some reason I read it and thought it was a theropod.

I may have been over tired. My apologies folks.

Mickeroo

Its quite interesting that the largest Dinos were all herbivores. Its similar to how the largest animals alive today generally eat krill, or on land, plants. Its a much steadier food supply than meat I suppose, a carnivore might have to go days even weeks without food more often.

I know I'm stating the obvious, just thinking out loud so to speak

stylie

Its teeth to me seem most unusual, any speculation to the plant matter it ate ?

Adam Khor

Mickeroo wrote: »

Its quite interesting that the largest Dinos were all herbivores. Its similar to how the largest animals alive today generally eat krill, or on land, plants. Its a much steadier food supply than meat I suppose, a carnivore might have to go days even weeks without food more often.

I know I'm stating the obvious, just thinking out loud so to speak

It occurs to me that an excesively large predator would probably end up depleting prey populations, maybe? Large prey usually take much longer to recover their populations (as they breed slower than small prey), so if a huge voracious predator ate them faster than they can breed, they would soon go extinct...

stylie wrote: »

Its teeth to me seem most unusual, any speculation to the plant matter it ate ?

Since they seem rather strong and thick I guess it was eating harder stuff than say, diplodocoids?

Rubecula

Could it have been an Omnivore? Eat plants as a choice, but able to scavenge on carcasses? Yes it is a bit way out there I know, however something I learned in Uni is that even reindeer will actively eat lemmings for the extra protein they need at times. (Not common I believe but it does happen apparently) Horses can be and have been fed a mix of meat with their feed for added stamina.

So is it possible a big animal like this could evolve to use meat as a "boost" to their feed, stamina etc?

Adam Khor

Rubecula wrote: »

Could it have been an Omnivore? Eat plants as a choice, but able to scavenge on carcasses? Yes it is a bit way out there I know, however something I learned in Uni is that even reindeer will actively eat lemmings for the extra protein they need at times. (Not common I believe but it does happen apparently) Horses can be and have been fed a mix of meat with their feed for added stamina.

So is it possible a big animal like this could evolve to use meat as a "boost" to their feed, stamina etc?

I was actually thinking the same yesterday. Not only do herbivores today eat meat in occassions, but most of them actually don´t seem as well equiped to do so as some sauropods. I mean, look at Turiasaurus or Jobaria, or even old Camarasaurus; to me they look pretty capable of munching on a smaller animal or a carcass.

The same has been said about prosauropods, too:







Oh and just to add more cool pics, here's a hippo scaring some lions away from their kill- although they later return and they both all feed on the carcass together.
Agreed, the hippo was particularly interested on the stomach contents of the buffalo, but still...

Galvasean

And there was me thinking Lusotitan was Europe's biggest