Gigantoraptor vs Sonidosaurus

Gigantoraptor vs Sonidosaurus

Gigantoraptor was a surprising find.  It was a clear relative to Oviraptor, but it was hundreds of times larger.  It was big.  35 times bigger than any other Oviraptorian.  In fact, its huge eggs were found first.  No one knew that a Oviraptorian could get that big.   

Gigantoraptor was 26 feet or 8 meters long.  It weighed around 1,400 kg or 3,086 lbs.  AND the holotype or first fossil found of this monster was thought to be a sub-adult.  So Gigantoraptor was probably at least somewhat larger.  .   .  possibly 30 feet long or more.  No evidence was found of feathers on Gigantoraptor, but since the smaller members of its family had feathers it is thought that it possibly had feathers or at least arm feathers for sexual display.  

Sonidosaurus was a Titanosaur, but a smaller one.  It was only about 30 feet or 9 meters long.  This is much smaller than other Sauropods or the Titanosaur Family.  Sonido means sound so the name Sonidosaurus means "sound lizard" or maybe "sound reptile."  So I was thinking that maybe they thought that it was still big enough to make a pretty big boom when it walked. . . or maybe the paleontologist that named it thought it could whip its tail to make a loud cracking sound like a whip.   At least that is what I thought.  Then I found out that Sonidosaurus was found in the Banner of Sonid in Mongolia.  A sonid is an administrative district.   Personally, I liked my explanation better.  But the truth is that the fossils were found in the Banner of Sonid.

Gigantoraptor and Sonidosaurs lived in what is now Mongolia and they did indeed live at the same time.  That time period would be the late Cretaceous around 80 million years or so.  A funny story about these two dinosaurs. . . Xu Xing, who had discovered Sonidosaurus, was re-enacting the discovery for a TV show and was surprised that the bone he pulled out of the quarry while being filmed was of a huge raptor.   They stopped the filming to secure the new find, but the discovery of Gigantoraptor is now probably the only discovery of a dinosaur fossil of a new species of dinosaur to ever be filmed.

As you look at this drawing consider that the dinosaurs are not in the foreground.  They are a bit further back.  Remember that these were both about 30 feet or 9 meters long.  

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