Today's post is about the often confused dinosaurs: Gigantosaurus and Giganotosaurus. Some people mispronounce the name: Giganotosaurus as Gigantosaurus. (The two names really do look a lot alike.) I hope to clear things up with today's post.
The first drawing is the original Gigantosaurus. This was a medium-sized Sauropod from England that was found over a hundred and fifty years ago. Paleontologists only found a few bones and those bones have since been attributed to being from a previously named dinosaur. In any case... with so few bones Gigantosuarus was still quite large. The full scientific name is Gigantosaurus megolonyx.
It was either a type of Brachiosuur or a type of Titanosaur. But it was still bigger than several elephants. The flying animal, in the drawing, is a member of the Rhamphorichid Pterosaurs. As you can see from the drawing, Gigantosaurs was a Sauropod or four-legged big herbivore that only ate plants. In this drawing, Gigantosaurus is eating leaves from a Cycad Tree. I decided to give the dinosaur a pattern similar to a modern Giraffe. Afterall, Brachiosaurs were the Giraffes of the Mesozoic Era.
Gigantosaurus (the original)
(new drawing)
If you have ever watched the kid's show Gigantosaurus then you will see a very different type of dinosaur. Gigantosaurus is a French-made pre-school series that is now playing on Netflix. I have been watching it with my grandkids. It is SO well done. I am very impressed with this TV show. The little dinosaurs are juveniles who love science etc. One of them is a little female Ankylosaur who REALLY loves science. In one episode she was looking at a comet with a telescope she had made. It was really cute and now my three-year-old grandson keeps wanting to look at the NEOWISE comet through my telescope. Today we looked at the moon with my telescope. By the way, on American television, the Gigantosaurus series is in English. I highly recommend this TV show! And this is coming from a retired Science Teacher. I like how both boys and girls (boy and girl dinosaurs) are trying to solve problems. And it is cool how the little girl Ankylosaur loves science so much. She even uses science to solve problems.
In the Gigantosaurus series, the Gigantosaurs is a Theropod or meat-eating dinosaur. (Although he also seems to eat coconuts in the show... and he never eats the kid dinosaurs either.) I drew a similar cartoon fan art drawing of this Gigantosaurus, although I told my grandkids that the Gigantosaurus on the show was really a Giganotosaurus. My drawings are cartoon drawings that are similar (but not exactly the same) as the Gigantosaurus on the show.
Gigantosaurus cartoon
(new drawing)
Gigantosaurus on the Prowl cartoon
Since the dinosaur from the show REALLY looks more like a Giganotosaurus I drew that too. Below is a new drawing of the South American dinosaur called Giganotosaurus. It was a huge carnivore... it ate meat. It was 43 feet long and had knife-like teeth that could bite slices of meat out of the side or leg of a huge Titanosaur Sauropods like Argentinosaurs or Patagotitan. I also added a drawing or two from older posts... of Giganotosaurus. By the way, T. rex and Giganotosaurus never met. T. rex lived several million years after... and they lived on different continents. T. rex was in North America. Giganotosaurus was in South America. But if they DID meet, I would think that T. rex had the advantage, because T. rex had a much more powerful bite. (T. rex jaws could crush bone... not just slice meat.) T. rex may have been slightly shorter in length but possibly a bit heavier than Giganotosaurus. By the way, the Pterosaur or flying reptile is Argentinadraco. The name means "Argentina Dragon." It was a Pterosaur from Argentina. The two animals are near an erupting volcano. There WAS a lot of volcanic eruptions in Argentina at the time these two animals lived. The Argentinadraco had an unusual lower jaw and it may have had a pouch for holding fish that it caught.
NOTE: These new drawings are found, in printable form, by clicking on the button at the top of the page that is labeled: Paleontology. You will need to scroll down to get to the new drawings. The new drawings are at the bottom of the list. Again, click on. . . . . . Paleontology
(new drawing)
Giganotosaurus by a River
(older drawing)
Giganotosaurus on the Prowl
(older drawing)
(Notice the prey species... the gigantic Argentinosaurs in the background.)
Giganotosaurus Skull
(older drawing)
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