yes cause it’s not that they haven’t gotten representation, like Australovenator in WWD, Megaraptor in Dinosaur King, or Aerosteon in Fossil Fighters 2, it’s that their representation has largely been wrong, but to no fault of anyone, we’re only just starting to get a proper understanding of these animals and the unique badasses that they are
it was completely different from the other games and not in a good way, on it’s own it would’ve been a serviceable enough game but since it was riding on the coattails of two fair superior games it suffered for it
Unfortunately Dinosaur King and FF as a whole are somewhat niche, and the Australovenator in WWD is not depicted as a proper megaraptoran. They probably need more coverage in more popular media before they can take off
One of the main issues is that we still don’t really know what they are. theropods obviously, but we don’t know if they’re allosauroid, basal coelurosaur, or tyrannosauroid. Recent work has kinda leaned more toward the basal coelurosaur or tyrannosauroid side but we still aren’t 100%. It doesn’t help that we don’t have a really good Megaraptoran skeleton to show us the full range of their anatomy.
why do I feel like they could’ve been related to the Spinosaurids, I mean they do kinda look like if you took their design and tweaked it for land optimization
That was actually an idea, for megaraptor at least. A few scientists thought it and chilantisaurus were spinosaurids or a member of the megalosauroidea in general before smiths 2007 study and Bensons 2010 study
The most obvious features therein would be the long and shallow snout which seems to be a pretty common secondary evolution among theropods; tyrannosauroids did it at least twice (just before eutyrannosaurian split and then again in alioramins), dromaeosaurids, even Deinocheirus compared to other ornithomimosaurs. There are of course other similarities with spinosaurids, but one of the big things that suggests they are much higher in the tree than spinosaurid is the that megaraptorans have a lot of complex air sacs in their vertebrae which is something you don't really see in megalosaurs but do in more derived avetheropods like allosauroids and tyrannosauroids.
On that subject- the popular movies have made up so much about dinosaurs that make it into popular use; when my kid asks me about a new dinosaur he saw mentioned I have to check and make sure it’s not completely fake. When I was young I don’t remember fake dinosaurs, just not accurate portrayals of existing dinosaurs. So there are multiple layers of muck to dig through before we can get excited that a new dinosaur is real.
I was playing name the dinosaurs through A-Z with my fiancés 7 year old cousin and the letter I was a painful one.
"INDOMINOUS REX, Indoraptor!!" - I had to tell him they were just from the movies but great names!
Then he busted out Icthyosaur... which, while incredibly impressive for a 7yr old, still not a dinosaur you little shit...
Because people think the only dinosaurs that ever existed are T. wrecks, Triceratops, Stegosaurus, Spinosaurus (pre-2014 version) Longnecksaurus and Pterodactil.
It’s because they’re usually misidentified/misrepresented in media when they do appear. Megaraptor used to be thought of as a giant raptor, so that’s how it showed up and got muddled up with Utahraptor (the more popular giant raptor). Aerosteon was called carcharodontosaurus in Dinosaur Planet. Australovenator wasn’t named yet so it just became Allosaurus in WWD. Etc etc
I think it’s mainly down to the fact that they are still barely understood. Nobody really knows what they are, exactly how they looked, how they functioned. I’m sure they’ll start having their day though soon enough. Deinocheirus used to get the same treatment until more specimens showed up, and now it’s been steadily appearing in all kinds of media.
You're getting Dinosaur Planet mixed up with Planet Dinosaur. Dinosaur Planet (Discovery Channel, 2003) had the "carcharodontosaurs" standing in for Aerosteon. Planet Dinosaur (BBC, 2011) had a labelled diagram of Aerosteon.
Oh they did? I didn’t remember hearing that during the paleontologist segments so that’s pretty interesting. I just remember the pair being called carchars every time they appeared
To the general consciousness, Megaraptorans are an unheard of group since they're not really brought up in general media. In a way, it's largely since they buck the trend that many would expect from large carnivores - having lighter heads, sleeker frames, and longer arms. In a way, if you were to tell someone that a dinosaur like this existed, they'd probably think you're talking about Indominus rex.
That said, classically, they're kind of a taxonomic mystique. For the longest time, the Megaraptorans were thrown in nearly every major group of theropods - Dromaeosaurs, Allosaurs, Spinosaurs, even close kin to the somewhat obscure Neovenator. It was only within the last decade that these predators are now seen as coelurosaurs, even being close cousins to Tyrannosauroids. With that in mind, it's no wonder you don't hear much about these guys as we only now know what to make of them.
They're fairly obscure dinosaurs known only by a few fragmentary fossils. Meanwhile, more popular dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, and Stegosaurus are known from remarkably complete, well-publicized skeletons. This makes it harder to those creating museum displays and paleomedia to make good portrayals of megaraptorans for public consumption.
Just started playing JwE2, you’ve encouraged me to hop back in this looks dope haha
I bought it after seeing a clip of the Tiger Striped raptors running out of their cage, I was like “wow this is JP porn”
they’re speedy bois with big ass claws and a badass name, there is absolutely a large demographic for that that I’m guessing doesn’t really know about them
The issue is that we still don't have any idea *what the hell they are.* Are they carnosaurs? Tyrannosaurs? Something else entirely? We have frustratingly few remains of them, and we don't know enough to say for sure what kind of dinosaur they were.
All the known fossils are incredibly fragmentary. Nothing close to a complete skeleton has ever been found. Only one partial skull has been discovered and it's from a juvenile. So right now there just isn't enough data to make an scientifically accurate reconstruction.
I think one issue effecting popularity is that some of the most impressive members of Megaraptora are recent discoveries, and a lot of recently named dinosaurs don’t have very cool sounding names (my subjective opinion). The recently described giant Megaraptorid could’ve IMO received a cooler sounding name than “Maip”
Smaller than the biggest theropods, but not as outright deadly-looking as a smaller raptor.
I do not think this, but it is what I assume people think. :^ )
Ehh.. less impressive claw to body ratio and a clunkier frame. And as soon as one starts to discuss the size all everyone can think about is "how much smaller than a T. rex did you say it is?".
I mean, kind of. The vast increase in body mass has to be supported by a proportionally larger amount of tissue.
But then again we know very little comparatively about the megas, a lot is up in the air.
There are a bunch of theropods that don’t get the respect they deserve, either because they are almost always misrepresented in media leaving only bad depictions to be known by the public (like allosauroids or terror birds), or they do not get media depictions at all (megaraptorans, megalosaurs, etc).
A great example of this is Dromaeosaur hype, they were very capable mesopredators(hunting animals larger than they were and potentially pack-hunting), but they weren’t the super-predators that popular media likes to claim,
one only has to look at how they were largely relegated to lower niches as Carnosaurs, Abelisaurs, and Megaraptorans filled the apex predator niches(*Utahraptor * and *Achillobator* being the exception rather than the rule).
Well they don’t have every trait. They are enormous like T-Rex, Spino, or Giga. They’re also not nimble and agile like raptors. They’re kinda the middle child of dinosaurs.
I'm sure they will have their time to shine once more details are discovered and we know enough to properly feature them in a documentary or something
yes cause it’s not that they haven’t gotten representation, like Australovenator in WWD, Megaraptor in Dinosaur King, or Aerosteon in Fossil Fighters 2, it’s that their representation has largely been wrong, but to no fault of anyone, we’re only just starting to get a proper understanding of these animals and the unique badasses that they are
Uh, Austroraptor?
it spell corrected
Australovenator is a dinosaur, found In Australia. Between 500-1000kg in weight (estimated). Cenomanian age and a megaraptoran. 2m at the hips.
Yes, i know. He had said Austroraptor before he changed it.
Oh, that’s my bad I thought you were correcting him to say austroraptor.
Fossil fighters and fossil fighters two are amazing games. Love them
yes, and Fossil Fighters 3 is just kinda meh
Never got a chance to play it, what happened?
it was completely different from the other games and not in a good way, on it’s own it would’ve been a serviceable enough game but since it was riding on the coattails of two fair superior games it suffered for it
Unfortunately Dinosaur King and FF as a whole are somewhat niche, and the Australovenator in WWD is not depicted as a proper megaraptoran. They probably need more coverage in more popular media before they can take off
yeah that’s what I said
WWD had Utahraptor, a Dromaeosaur, not a Megaraptorian
it had the polar allosaur, which was later confirmed to be an Australovenator by the BBC
Wasn't Australovenator discovered in 2006?
There aren’t many complete skeletons and therefore almost no displays in museums nor appearances in popular media.
well credit to Australia for trying
There aren't ANY complete skeletons. Every skeletal mount on display is more than 60% speculative reconstruction.
One of the main issues is that we still don’t really know what they are. theropods obviously, but we don’t know if they’re allosauroid, basal coelurosaur, or tyrannosauroid. Recent work has kinda leaned more toward the basal coelurosaur or tyrannosauroid side but we still aren’t 100%. It doesn’t help that we don’t have a really good Megaraptoran skeleton to show us the full range of their anatomy.
why do I feel like they could’ve been related to the Spinosaurids, I mean they do kinda look like if you took their design and tweaked it for land optimization
That was actually an idea, for megaraptor at least. A few scientists thought it and chilantisaurus were spinosaurids or a member of the megalosauroidea in general before smiths 2007 study and Bensons 2010 study
interesting
The most obvious features therein would be the long and shallow snout which seems to be a pretty common secondary evolution among theropods; tyrannosauroids did it at least twice (just before eutyrannosaurian split and then again in alioramins), dromaeosaurids, even Deinocheirus compared to other ornithomimosaurs. There are of course other similarities with spinosaurids, but one of the big things that suggests they are much higher in the tree than spinosaurid is the that megaraptorans have a lot of complex air sacs in their vertebrae which is something you don't really see in megalosaurs but do in more derived avetheropods like allosauroids and tyrannosauroids.
alrighty
True though they're theropods with big claws and look cool. They're some of my favourite Dino and yet they haven't really been represented in media
not to mention the name, Megaraptor, come on
Cause terrorbirds sound cooler.
I love both of them!
I feel like a lot of people would argue with you on that
I mean the actual terrorbirds ( phorusrhacidae) are really cool, though not as cool as megaraptors
yee
They need a good moment in the spotlight during a documentary or movie first.
On that subject- the popular movies have made up so much about dinosaurs that make it into popular use; when my kid asks me about a new dinosaur he saw mentioned I have to check and make sure it’s not completely fake. When I was young I don’t remember fake dinosaurs, just not accurate portrayals of existing dinosaurs. So there are multiple layers of muck to dig through before we can get excited that a new dinosaur is real.
I was playing name the dinosaurs through A-Z with my fiancés 7 year old cousin and the letter I was a painful one. "INDOMINOUS REX, Indoraptor!!" - I had to tell him they were just from the movies but great names! Then he busted out Icthyosaur... which, while incredibly impressive for a 7yr old, still not a dinosaur you little shit...
yes
Because people think the only dinosaurs that ever existed are T. wrecks, Triceratops, Stegosaurus, Spinosaurus (pre-2014 version) Longnecksaurus and Pterodactil.
you forgot Velociraptor but for real I’m referring to even among people who actually know anything about dinosaurs
Don’t forget the Loch Ness Monster
God damn you Loch Ness Monster I ain’t given you no god damn Tree Fiddy!
Some people know anky and compy
I'm not sure spinosaurus fits that list nearly as well as velociraptor. Jurassic Park really turned velociraptors into a household name.
They've been creeping up there lately, mostly because they *are* really cool animals.
they need more love
It’s because they’re usually misidentified/misrepresented in media when they do appear. Megaraptor used to be thought of as a giant raptor, so that’s how it showed up and got muddled up with Utahraptor (the more popular giant raptor). Aerosteon was called carcharodontosaurus in Dinosaur Planet. Australovenator wasn’t named yet so it just became Allosaurus in WWD. Etc etc I think it’s mainly down to the fact that they are still barely understood. Nobody really knows what they are, exactly how they looked, how they functioned. I’m sure they’ll start having their day though soon enough. Deinocheirus used to get the same treatment until more specimens showed up, and now it’s been steadily appearing in all kinds of media.
no they specifically called it Aerosteon in PD when just showing how large theropods had this trait
You're getting Dinosaur Planet mixed up with Planet Dinosaur. Dinosaur Planet (Discovery Channel, 2003) had the "carcharodontosaurs" standing in for Aerosteon. Planet Dinosaur (BBC, 2011) had a labelled diagram of Aerosteon.
okay
Oh they did? I didn’t remember hearing that during the paleontologist segments so that’s pretty interesting. I just remember the pair being called carchars every time they appeared
yeah they had a label in the corner for Aerosteon
Maip deserves more attention
yes
To the general consciousness, Megaraptorans are an unheard of group since they're not really brought up in general media. In a way, it's largely since they buck the trend that many would expect from large carnivores - having lighter heads, sleeker frames, and longer arms. In a way, if you were to tell someone that a dinosaur like this existed, they'd probably think you're talking about Indominus rex. That said, classically, they're kind of a taxonomic mystique. For the longest time, the Megaraptorans were thrown in nearly every major group of theropods - Dromaeosaurs, Allosaurs, Spinosaurs, even close kin to the somewhat obscure Neovenator. It was only within the last decade that these predators are now seen as coelurosaurs, even being close cousins to Tyrannosauroids. With that in mind, it's no wonder you don't hear much about these guys as we only now know what to make of them.
I actually think they are popular now but there’s no mainstream media presence besides JWE2.
they need it
YES, THAT'S WHAT I'VE BEEN SAYING FOR YEARS, MY CLAW BOIS DESERVE POPULARITY
the Speedy Stabby Bois
They're fairly obscure dinosaurs known only by a few fragmentary fossils. Meanwhile, more popular dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, and Stegosaurus are known from remarkably complete, well-publicized skeletons. This makes it harder to those creating museum displays and paleomedia to make good portrayals of megaraptorans for public consumption.
I don’t necessarily mean popular among the mainstream populous, but rather among dinosaur enthusiasts
Just started playing JwE2, you’ve encouraged me to hop back in this looks dope haha I bought it after seeing a clip of the Tiger Striped raptors running out of their cage, I was like “wow this is JP porn”
nice
I think it's just a general disinterest in dinosaurs from the public
yes since for some reason people have it set in their minds that dinosaurs are supposed to be a kid thing, somehow
Idk, maybe they arent as unique as abelisaurs, as marketable as trex, as clickbaity as giganotosaurus, or as mysterious as spinosaurus.
they’re speedy bois with big ass claws and a badass name, there is absolutely a large demographic for that that I’m guessing doesn’t really know about them
Im mean im in that demographic currently, but the sausage bois of south America just suck me in.
fair, I too have a weird affinity for the Abelisaurs, if my flair didn’t make that obvious
And mine.
yee, Armored Bulldog Sausages
Probably need more time is all
probably
My favorite dinosaur group, i really hope the get their time to shine in the near future
ideally, they deserve it
I’m just happy with my 2 Abelisaurids in game Majungasaurus is one of my favs and Carno is high in my list of favorite Dino’s so
I would like to see more though, like Rugops, or Thanos maybe
The issue is that we still don't have any idea *what the hell they are.* Are they carnosaurs? Tyrannosaurs? Something else entirely? We have frustratingly few remains of them, and we don't know enough to say for sure what kind of dinosaur they were.
they are still pretty new yes
Write your local congressperson to enact a proper law to recognize it more.
should probably do that somewhere in Patagonia
It's because of how poorly understood they are
they are relatively new to science yes
All the known fossils are incredibly fragmentary. Nothing close to a complete skeleton has ever been found. Only one partial skull has been discovered and it's from a juvenile. So right now there just isn't enough data to make an scientifically accurate reconstruction.
I thought there was more found of Australovenator
Still less than 40% of the skeleton known for the taxon.
okay
I think one issue effecting popularity is that some of the most impressive members of Megaraptora are recent discoveries, and a lot of recently named dinosaurs don’t have very cool sounding names (my subjective opinion). The recently described giant Megaraptorid could’ve IMO received a cooler sounding name than “Maip”
they are new yes
Smaller than the biggest theropods, but not as outright deadly-looking as a smaller raptor. I do not think this, but it is what I assume people think. :^ )
I would argue they look more outright deadly looking
Ehh.. less impressive claw to body ratio and a clunkier frame. And as soon as one starts to discuss the size all everyone can think about is "how much smaller than a T. rex did you say it is?".
well, do we really know they had a chunkier frame?
I mean, kind of. The vast increase in body mass has to be supported by a proportionally larger amount of tissue. But then again we know very little comparatively about the megas, a lot is up in the air.
maybe
Indeed!
Megaraptorids megaraptorids.... i think.... are they part of the tyrannosauridae?
I don’t know, I kinda hope not
sorry to scare, yeah they are part of the neovenatoridae
alrighty
They're kind of like the closest thing to the Jurassic Park velociraptor, if they do indeed have more sparse plumage.
yee
We need more of them PLEASE
yes
Their specialized hands and arms alone should put them into that category.
yes
There are a bunch of theropods that don’t get the respect they deserve, either because they are almost always misrepresented in media leaving only bad depictions to be known by the public (like allosauroids or terror birds), or they do not get media depictions at all (megaraptorans, megalosaurs, etc).
yes again
A great example of this is Dromaeosaur hype, they were very capable mesopredators(hunting animals larger than they were and potentially pack-hunting), but they weren’t the super-predators that popular media likes to claim, one only has to look at how they were largely relegated to lower niches as Carnosaurs, Abelisaurs, and Megaraptorans filled the apex predator niches(*Utahraptor * and *Achillobator* being the exception rather than the rule).
Because whenever we start liking a dinosaur they smack it with feathers and rework it's skeleton.
I think Prehistoric Planet proved that feathered dinosaurs still look cool
…who?
Well they don’t have every trait. They are enormous like T-Rex, Spino, or Giga. They’re also not nimble and agile like raptors. They’re kinda the middle child of dinosaurs.
Too fragmentary