“The fossils of M. gigas show previously unseen complete sections of the skeleton, such as arms and legs, which helped us understand some evolutionary trends and the anatomy of Carcharodontosaurids, the group to which M. gigas belongs,” says Juan Canale, project leader at The Ernesto Bachmann Paleontological Museum in Neuquen, Argentina.
The authors first set the record straight; T. rex did not get its short arms from M. gigas or vice versa. Not only did M. gigas go extinct almost 20 million years before T. rex became a species, but they are also very far apart on the evolutionary tree. “There is no direct connection between the two,” says Canale. Rather, Canale believes that having small hands somehow gave the two dinosaurs some sort of survival advantage.
Add Comment