What Dinosaurs Used to Live Near Wichita Falls?
Finally, some news to get excited for.
Who doesn't love dinosaurs? We all do and a new map can tell you what dinosaurs lived near your city. So of course, I put in Wichita Falls. Did we get anything cool like a T-Rex or Dilophosaurus? Sadly, no, but we did get four pretty cool dinosaurs.
In order of coolest, strictly my opinion. First we have Acrocanthosaurus. It was among the largest theropods known to exist. Acrocanthosaurus was a carnivorous theropod that lived in North America during the early Cretaceous period. Skeletal remains have a very high ridge of dorsal vertebrae along the spine, from which this creature’s name is derived, meaning “high-spined lizard”. So a T-Rex with spines? I'm a fan of the carnivorous dinosaurs, so let's keep it going.
Next coolest we have a Coelophysis. At three feet tall and nine feet long, with a body weight of some 30 pounds, Coelophysis is a dainty dinosaur from the Triassic, before heavyweight forms began to evolve. She had small, but still-useful forelimbs, and the first wishbone known to paleontology. The experts suspect that she was a sharp-eyed, fleet-footed predator of small game with excellent depth perception. Sort of sounds like a small Raptor to me.
Our last carnivore is a little guy. Caseosaurus was a small, lightly-built, bipedal, ground-dwelling carnivore, that could grow up to 2 m (6.6 ft) long. Sort of looks like a Gallimimus to me? I'm completely guessing on this one. I have no idea what to compare this one to.
Finally, we have a herbivore. The Tenontosaurus closes out the dinosaurs that lived near our city. It was about 6.5 to 8 meters (21 to 26 ft) long and 3 meters (10 ft) high in a bipedal stance, with a mass of somewhere between 1 to 2 tonnes (1 to 2 short tons). It had an unusually long, broad tail, which like its back was stiffened with a network of bony tendons. Sort of looks like a Stegosaurus without the awesome spikes.
If you want to check out the map and more info on the dinosaurs. See the interactive map here. Now I want to watch Jurassic Park'.
MORE: See 30 toys that every '90s kid wanted
More From Newstalk 1290
