Giganotosaurus

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Scientific name	Giganotosaurus carolinii
Home era	Mid Cretaceous
Creature type	Theropod Dinosaur
Deaths caused	6
Appearances	Episode 3.4 Fire and Water (mentioned) Possibly Episode 3.10 Episode 4.1 (flashback) Episode 4.2 (picture)

"That wasn't a T-rex, that was a Giganotosaurus. Uh, a G-rex if you like, that thing is bigger, it´s faster, it's even more dangerous."

―Connor corrects Jenny.^[src]

Giganotosaurus is a Theropod Dinosaur bigger than T-Rex that lived in the Cretaceous Period.

1 Facts
2 In Primeval
3 Paleobiology
4 Trivia
5 Gallery

FactsEdit

Giganotosaurus is a genus of Carcharodontosaurid dinosaur that lived 100 to 93 million years ago during the Cenomanian and the Turonian stages of the Mid Cretaceous Period. It is the second largest known terrestrial carnivore, being one meter longer than Tyrannosaurus, but smaller than Spinosaurus. Its fossils have been found in Argentina.

In PrimevalEdit

A Giganotosaurus partially appears through an Anomaly in an airport hangar and apparently eats Nigel Marven. Then it turns its attention to the news reporters and the cameramen. The Giganotosaurus eats and kills most of them. Later it comes fully through the anomaly and attacks a Boeing 747 airplane. It also manages to corner most members of the team at different times. Eventually Danny Quinn distracts it with a helicopter which it then chases back through the anomaly. Though it picks up the last two reporters just before it goes through and burps it out on the other side. When Danny returns through the anomaly (minus the helicopter), he warns there is a whole herd heading to the anomaly but Connor locks it before they have the chance to get through. (Episode 3.4)

PaleobiologyEdit

Giganotosaurus was larger than T. rex, but had a brain only about half as big as those of tyrannosaurids. Giganotosaurus was 45 feet long (14 meters) and weigh roughly 8 tonnes. The teeth of Tyrannosaurus were longer and wider, but more variable in size. The teeth of Giganotosaurus were shorter, less variable and narrower than those of Tyrannosaurus, and were more adapted for slicing flesh as to a blade or knife. A well-developed olfactory region means that it probably had a good sense of smell. Its skull, although large, had a slender build. It´s bite force was over more than 3 tons of force. It´s arms were long and powerful, tipped with large claws on each toe, that were used to open huge gashes onto the flesh of it´s prey.

Titanosaur fossils have been recovered near the remains of Giganotosaurus, leading to speculation that these carnivores may have preyed on the giant herbivores. Fossils of related carcharodontosaurids grouped closely together may indicate pack hunting, a behavior that could possibly extend to Giganotosaurus itself. Blanco and Mazzetta (2001) estimated that Giganotosaurus might have been capable of running at speeds up to 14 metres per second (31 mph).

TriviaEdit

This is the first creature encountered after the death of Nick Cutter and the second dinosaur to appear in the television series.
The fourth creature to kill a woman and the first dinosaur to kill a woman.
It is the second largest carnivorous dinosaur and the fourth largest creature the team encounter. It is also the largest creature in the third series.
Giganotosaurus appeared in the area51creatures.com site, made a cameo in Episode 4.1 as flashback, and appeared in new intro in Series Series 4 and Series 5
This is the last dinosaur, that Jenny Lewis encounters.
Giganotosaurus was mentioned in Fire And Water.
Connor Temple nicknamed it G-Rex, in reality its species name would have been Carolinii. It was changed because Connor mentioned Giganotosaurus is more of a threat than Tyrannosaurus Rex, and dubbed it G-Rex to help get the point across. Also it is simply much easier to say than Giganotosaurus Carolinii.
Connor describes the Giganotosaurus as being bigger and faster than Tyrannosaurus, but theevidence for this is little. The fact Giganotosaurus hunted giant sauropods like Argentinosaurus says something about its size, as it had to be huge in order to hunt such massive prey. Also In a recent study, Giganotosaurus was shown to run over 30mph while Tyrannosaurus could run at around 25mph.
Giganotosaurus is the first creature to be mistaken for another species.
The Giganotosaurus in Primeval is larger than in reality, likely done for dramatic effect.
Some paleontologists believe Giganotosaurus and Carcharodontosaurus are of the same Genus but of different Species.
The Giganotosaurus most likely ate or stepped on the Velociraptor since it came through the anomaly as soon as the Velociraptor went through.
In 3.10, some theropods resembling Giganotosaurus can be seen in the background in the Cretaceous Forest. They could be Carcharodontosaurs due to the presence of a Spinosaurus in 4.1(and the fact that Giganotosaurus did not live in Africa).