Its brain was the size and shape of a banana, but it had arrow-tipped teeth, a bottomless-pit appetite for meat, powerful jaws and eight tons of driving weight behind it.
Somewhere on the primordial valley floor during the Cretaceous period, an Argentinosaurus, part of a small herd, has wandered off from the others while grazing. Suddenly there is a stirring in the air as birds begin to take flight. The ground shakes rhythmically. Tree bows begin to move aside, and finally crashing into view is the ferocious sight of an eight-ton monster with rows of scissor-like teeth opened wide and slavering and bearing down at full speed on its momentarily paralyzed prey.
The second largest predator (after the Spinosaurus) ever to walk the earth, the Giganotosaurus reigned supreme in what is now South America roughly 95 to 100 million years ago. The first fossil remains of a Giganotosaurus, or "giant southern reptile," were not unearthed until 1994, after which several others have been unearthed. Also found near the first Giganotosaurus were the remains of 23-meter (75-foot) plant-eating dinosaurs known as Titanosaurs that were probable victims of the Giganotosaurus.
The Giganotosaurus´ measurements are impressive. From head to tapering tail it measured 13.5 to 14.3 meters (44 to 46 feet), and from feet to head, it stood 3.9 meters (13 feet). Its skull was the length of a tall man.
Like the T-rex ("Tyrant lizard king"), which lived 10 to 30 million years later, the Giganotosaurus was a theropod, meaning, for example, that it was a bipedal; had short, clawed hands used for grasping prey; a long tail for counterbalancing the rest of the body; was carnivorous; and had long, powerful, clawed legs built, presumably, for speed. It is believed that the Giganotosaurus held its tail erect rather than drag it.
There is some debate among dinosaur experts as to whether theropods such as the Giganotosaurus could run fast or were lumbering behemoths. The theory is that if they were to run fast and fell, they might kill themselves from the impact, bearing in mind the enormous weight they carried. Additionally, they would be unable, with their short arms, to break a fall. All of which would seem to dictate the necessity for the Giganotosaurus to take things slow and easy to at all costs avoid a potentially life-threatening belly-flop.
Then again, as has been noted, the Giganotosaurus' brain was a tiny thing, seemingly lost in a supremely immense bulk, so it may well be that the Giganotosaurus lacked the brain power to concern itself with anything not related to slashing, slicing and gorging on freshly killed meat.
Giganotosaurus illustration: www.luisrey.ndtilda.co.uk/html/gigan256.htm
