Sept. 26, 1999
It's a major discovery for scientists bent on understanding the past.
The bones of what could be the largest meat-eating dinosaur ever discovered have been unearthed in Eastern Utah, in the San Rafael Swell, near Manti.
Science Specialist Ed Yeates has the story.
Move over T-Rex. An even bigger "heavyweight" is about to join the dining table.
The white cast here was made from a Torvosaurus bone discovered 25 years ago by BYU's Jim Jensen. But the real darker bones come from a Torvosaurus in the San Rafael Swell, and they're a third to a quarter longer.
Donald Burge/CEU Prehistoric Museum Director: "This dinosaur would be in contention of being the largest meat eating dinosaur in the world."
Teams have built a full-size cardboard cutout on the wall - for encouragement!
"This is the real foot bone I'm holding here. I'm using a cast of the BYU specimen here simply because the real one is too heavy and I'm not strong enough to hold it up."
From the tip of the tail to the tip of the nose, this Torvosaurus was 40 feet long, and they're probably specimens out there even longer than this. But the real factor now in determining the "bigness" of dinosaurs may be the actual diameter of the bone-- the weight of these beasts.
"What's bigger, a Japanese Sumu wrestler, or an American basketball player? I think weight-wise, the Japanese win."
And what teeth this heavyweight had! Unlike the round scavenger tooth of the T-Rex, Torvo's teeth had sharp edges. Perhaps he was a selective eater?
John Bird/CEU Museum Laboratory: "This guy was more of a hunter and he liked fresh meat."
Torvosaurus is at least four times larger than the Allosaurus.
And forget T-Rex's puny front limbs!
"He's got larger front limbs, too. You know T-Rex has the very small frongt limbs. This guy's got a big one."
CEU says it will take 10 to 15 years to remove all available bones from the quarry site. Ed Yeates, Eyewitness News, Price.
Paleontologists say more new dinosaurs are being discovered now than at any other time in the history of the their science.
