Dreadnoughtus

 This month’s epic creature is of epic size and epic weight. The Dreadnoughtus is a very recent discovery in the dinosaur world, first found just a few months ago. On September 4^th 2014 a team of scientists led by Kenneth Lacovara unveiled the Dreadnoughtus schrani. Then on September 11^th the Spinosaurus Aegyptiacus was re-discovered introducing some new information about it. (see my previous post for the Spinosaurus http://epiccreature.blogspot.ca/2011/08/spinosaurus.html)

The name derives from an English tern dreadnaught - a battleship from the early 20^th century – that means fear nothing, “dread” (fear) + “nought” (nothing). The reason it fears nothing is because of its epic size: 6m (20ft) tall at the shoulders, 26m (85ft) long and weighing 59.3t (130 800lb). That is almost as big as a Boeing 737-900 and weighing almost as much as a M1 Abram tank. Not even the largest known carnivore (the Spinosaurus) could take it down. The Dreadnoughtus is the largest land animal ever known so far, though it is still not larger than the blue whale.

Dreadnoughtus is a genus of the giant “titanosaurian sauropod dinosaurs” which are the heaviest creatures to ever walk the earth, and this one is the heaviest so far. These giant sauropods are recognisable by their long necks and long whip-like tails. With their size and their tails they have a wicked defence, they would either stomp you (which would crush just about any animal) or swing their backside around and whip you with their tail. This is no puppy-dogs tail, this tail is made of muscle and will destroy whatever it hits.

There is not a lot of info on this dinosaur yet as it is still a relatively new discovery. We know some of the basic facts that are true with the titanosaurian sauropod dinosaurs like that they walked on four legs, had long necks, were vegetarians, had long whip tales and large air pockets in their bones, etc… Can you image something that big walking around today? They would be using skyscrapers as back scratchers!

With its size, weight and cool name I nominate the Dreadnoughtus the newest Epic Creature of the month

I only added this picture because there are not that many pictures of the Dreadnoughtus also because of how cool it is! A few certain people I know will love this.