#GRAWR

[Pyrrho]

Awesome.

GRAWR! Finally, some actual dinosaur facts | Not Exactly Rocket Science | Discover Magazine (http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2011/11/08/grawr-finally-some-actual-dinosaur-facts/)

[Jerome]

Dimetrodon sails absorbed energy that could be redirected into its laser-eyes.

[Doctor X]

Thus was born the #GRAWR hashtag on Twitter, a collection of trivia about prehistoric animals based solely on how awesome they would be, and leaving aside silly notions like evidence.

:awesome:

And Pluto has moons. . . .

--J.D.

[The Lone Ranger]

On a not-unrelated note, it always kind of bugs me when I see one of those "fun packs" of plastic dinosaurs in a toy store -- or worse, a museum. Especially if the box or bag suggests that they're educational.

Why? Because they almost inevitably contain a Dimetrodon. Often there will be a little plastic plesiosaur as well. Sometimes, there will be a mosasaur. Occasionally, there's even an ichthyosaur.

None of these animals were dinosaurs. Heck, Dimetrodon was a lot more closely related to mammals than it was to dinosaurs.



Here's a fun dinosaur fact. You know the distinctive array of tail spikes at the distal end of stegosaurid dinosaurs' tails? It really is known as a "thagomizer," after the famous Gary Larson cartoon. Apparently, some paleontologists liked the cartoon so much that they started referring to the structure as a "thagomizer" in formal papers, and so it has now become semi-official.

Pretty neat, if you ask me.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/65/Thagomizer.png

[Qingdai]

Also "Ankylosaurus was unarmoured and just happened to be buried under a patio every time" and "Torosaurus not adult stage of Triceratops: Triceratops could transform into Torosaurus at will" is awesome.

[Doctor X]

. . . and how can anyone argue with the photographs*:

http://cache.thisorth.at/00000/00288/199.460x325.jpg

--J.D.

*Artist's rendition.

[Ymir's blood]

My favorite things to find in dino fun packs are the rust monster and bulette.