Masiakasaurus Fact
File
Name Of Dinosaur: Masiakasaurus knopfleri
Pronounciation Of Name: Mah-see-uh-kuh-sore-us nop-flur-ee
Meaning Of Name: Knopfler’s Vicious Lizard (Named for guitarist
Mark Knopfler, whose music was listened to by the discoverers of Masiakasaurus)
Diet: Fish, lizards, snakes, and small mammals
Length: 7 feet
Height: 3 feet
Weight: 75 pounds
Time It Lived: Cretaceous Period, 70 million years ago
Fossils Found In: Madagascar
Information: Located more than 500 miles off the southeastern
coast of Africa, Madagascar is well known for being home to some of the
most unusual animals on Earth. And apparently that rule was no different
during the age of the dinosaurs. 70 million years ago, Madagascar was inhabited
by such weirdos as pug-nosed, land-dwelling, plant-eating crocodiles, flying
raptors, giant, thick-skulled carnivorous dinosaurs, and one small carnivorous
dinosaur that would make anyone today glad that braces and retainers were
invented; Masiakasaurus. Approximately the size of a German shepherd, this
strange little dinosaur might have superficially resembled Velociraptor
(Vel-aw-sih-rap-tore), except for one difference; its teeth. The six foremost
teeth in Masiakasaurus' upper and lower jaws protruded outward, making this
dinosaur look like it seriously needed a good orthrodontist. Some Pterosaurs
(Tare-oh-sores), the flying reptilian contemporaries of the dinosars, possessed
this type of dental structure, but Masiakasaurus is the only dinosaur known
to science whose teeth "stuck out" like this. This strange adaptation, which
evolved separately in Pterosaurs and Masiakasaurus, is an example of a process
known as convergent evolution. And since the pterosaurs with this type of
dentition were fish-eaters that prevented their slippery prey from wriggling
out of their mouths by impaling them on their teeth, Masiakasaurus likely
used its teeth to catch fish as well. It's easy to imagine a Masiakasaurus
standing on the shore of a trickling forest stream, darting its head into
the water every now and then to grab a hapless fish in its spiky teeth. This
is my favorite mental depiction of Masiakasaurus, and shown here is my favorite
visual depiction of what Masiakasaurus looks like. I colored it greenish-brown
(good camouflage in a dimly-lit forest), with some red stripes for color.
The brown "vest" on the Masiakasaurus' torso is a covering of primitive feathers,
which many carnivorous dinosaurs are now thought to have. Finally, I put
an iguana-like ridge of spines down the back, a feature that is known to
be shared by some of Masiakasaurus' relatives.
For Further Information, E-Mail Bryan Or Visit…
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/DailyNews/dinosaur_knopfler010124.html
http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s237427.htm
http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/template.cfm?name=knopfler
http://www.jpinstitute.com/dinopedia/dino_card_az.jsp
http://dinosauricon.com/genera/masiakasaurus.html
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©2004 by Bryan Bongey