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Megatherium v Therizinosaurus
Topic Started: Jan 17 2012, 11:19 PM (13,458 Views)
Taipan
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Megatherium americanum
Megatherium ("Great Beast") was a genus of elephant-sized ground sloths endemic to Central America and South America that lived from the Pliocene through Pleistocene existing approximately 5.3 million years. Its size was exceeded by only a few other land mammals, including mammoths and the even larger Paraceratherium. Megatherium was one of the largest mammals known, weighing up to eight tons, about as much as an African bull elephant. Although it was primarily a quadruped, its footprints show that it was capable of assuming a bipedal stance. When it stood on its hind legs it was about twenty feet (6 m) tall, twice the height of an elephant. This sloth, like a modern anteater, walked on the sides of its feet because its claws prevented it from putting them flat on the ground. Megatherium species were members of the abundant Pleistocene megafauna, large mammals that lived during the Pleistocene epoch. Megatherium had a robust skeleton with a large pelvic girdle and a broad muscular tail. Its large size enabled it to feed at heights unreachable by other contemporary herbivores. Rising on its powerful hind legs and using its tail to form a tripod, Megatherium could support its massive body weight while using the curved claws on its long forelegs to pull down branches with the choicest leaves. Its jaw is believed to have housed a long tongue, which it would then use to pull leaves into its mouth, similar to the modern tree sloth.


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Therizinosaurus cheloniformis
Therizinosaurus (play /θɛˌrɪzɨnɵˈsɔrəs/; 'scythe lizard', from the Greek therizo meaning 'to reap' or 'to cut off' and sauros meaning 'lizard') is a genus of very large theropod dinosaur. Therizinosaurus lived in the late Cretaceous Period (late Campanian-early Maastrichtian stages, around 70 million years ago), and was one of the last and largest representatives of its unique group, the Therizinosauria. Its fossils were first discovered in Mongolia and they were originally thought to belong to a turtle-like reptile (hence the species name, T. cheloniformis — "turtle-formed"). It is known only from a few bones, including gigantic hand claws, from which it gets its name. Though the fossil remains of Therizinosaurus are incomplete, inferences can be made about its physical characteristics based on related therizinosaurids. Like other members of its family, Therizinosaurus probably had a small skull atop a long neck, and had a bipedal gait and a heavy, deep, broad body (as evidenced by the wide pelvis of other therizinosaurids). Its forelimbs may have reached a length of 2.5 metres (8 feet) or even 3.5 metres for the largest known specimen. Its hindlimbs ended in four weight-bearing toes, unlike other theropod groups, in which the first toe was reduced to a dewclaw. Gregory S. Paul in 2010 estimated the length of Therizinosaurus at ten metres, the weight at five tonnes. It is the largest therizinosaur known and the largest known member of the Maniraptora. The most distinctive feature of Therizinosaurus was the presence of three gigantic claws on each digit of its frontlimbs. These were common among therizinosaurs but especially large in Therizinosaurus, and while the largest claw specimens are incomplete, they probably reached just under 1 metre (3.28 ft) in length. The claws are the longest known from any animal. The claws were relatively straight, only gradually tapering into a point, and extremely narrow, transversely flattened.

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DinosaurMichael
 
Megatherium vs Therizinosaurus
Edited by Taipan, Jan 17 2012, 11:20 PM.
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The All-seeing Night
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Dinopithecus
Feb 11 2014, 05:14 AM
mechafire
Feb 10 2014, 10:10 PM
Catboy
Feb 10 2014, 10:00 PM
Dinopithecus
Nov 28 2013, 10:26 AM
Here's a size comparison made by blaze.
Mismatch in favour of Therizinosaurus
No, megatherium stood at 6 meters tall. It was taller than therizinosaurus.
No it's not. 6 meters (and 8 tonnes) is an exaggerated fabrication that IIRC, wasn't stated in any scientific source. Megatherium wasn't even close to 6 meters tall.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_2bU2HyMKcoA/TLDYQsadJUI/AAAAAAAAAb8/ySiyL6wSinc/s1600/Megatherium%2Bamericanum%2Bskeleton,%2BMus%C3%A9um%2Bnational%2Bd'Histoire%2Bnaturelle,%2BParis.jpg
I don't think so, pretty much every source I can find puts it at 6 meters tall and about 4 tonnes. That size comparison barely puts it at 2 humans tall!
Edited by The All-seeing Night, Feb 11 2014, 05:45 AM.
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Ausar
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mechafire
Feb 11 2014, 05:43 AM
Dinopithecus
Feb 11 2014, 05:14 AM
mechafire
Feb 10 2014, 10:10 PM
Catboy
Feb 10 2014, 10:00 PM
Dinopithecus
Nov 28 2013, 10:26 AM
Here's a size comparison made by blaze.
Mismatch in favour of Therizinosaurus
No, megatherium stood at 6 meters tall. It was taller than therizinosaurus.
No it's not. 6 meters (and 8 tonnes) is an exaggerated fabrication that IIRC, wasn't stated in any scientific source. Megatherium wasn't even close to 6 meters tall.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_2bU2HyMKcoA/TLDYQsadJUI/AAAAAAAAAb8/ySiyL6wSinc/s1600/Megatherium%2Bamericanum%2Bskeleton,%2BMus%C3%A9um%2Bnational%2Bd'Histoire%2Bnaturelle,%2BParis.jpg
I don't think so, pretty much every source I can find puts it at 6 meters tall and about 4 tonnes. That size comparison barely puts it at 2 humans tall!
Posted Image

Does that really look 6 meters tall to you?
Edited by Ausar, Feb 11 2014, 05:52 AM.
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The All-seeing Night
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http://arielbowman.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/dsc01574.jpg
http://arielbowman.wordpress.com/page/2/
pretty damn close.
Anyways, it was at least 2 or 3 humans tall, much larger than blaze's picture. Even in your picture of a smaller sloth, it would still be just above therizinosaurus' shoulder.
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Ausar
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Those are not good angles to judge height from. In my photo, it is at normal view and close to side view.
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blaze
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@mechafire
Find me any scientific publication that gives larger bone lengths than those in Fariña (1998), the sloth in my size chart is 3m tall and is scaled based on the bone lengths of that paper, which is one of the sources of the 4 tonne estimate. The one that's in the photo that I used, as you can see in the photo posted by Dinopithecus is very likely smaller than that. The photos you linked, not only are they taken from above with the sloth much closer to our pov that the person, the sloth is in a platform, look closer, it's not as big as it looks at first glance.

Humerus length 65cm
Radius length 65cm
femur length 62cm
tibia length 49cm

Edit:
Here's a better photo of the mount you linked
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/678/1951/400/paris%3Ablog3261.jpg
Counting the pixels, If that sloth is 6m tall then the guy standing next to it is about 3m tall.
Edited by blaze, Feb 11 2014, 06:30 AM.
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Molosser
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the sloth would win
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spinosaurus rex
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megatherium was downsized. did you not see the size comparison blaze posted? its a complete mismatch in favor of the theropod.
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The All-seeing Night
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Where did you get those lengths from? every thing I've found so far, says its 6 m.
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Ausar
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mechafire
Feb 11 2014, 11:59 AM
Where did you get those lengths from? every thing I've found so far, says its 6 m.
Quote:
 
Fariña (1998)
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Carcharadon
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Mismatch in favor of therizinosaurus.
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blaze
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I found a better lateral view photo of the skeleton I used to make my size chart, it turns out it is actually ~3.3m tall, it's not bigger than how I scaled it, it's just that my decision to measure it from the level of the tail was not correct, the photo I originally used also makes the head look bigger and the tail shorter, it measures 5m in length following the curves of the body.

I updated the size chart, though not with the better photo since it has all rights reserved.



@spinosaurus rex
It has not been downsized, it has always been this size, is just that 6m tall stuck somehow and very few people actually bothered to check if the claims were true.

@mechafire
6m tall is a factoid, everyone and everywhere in the popular media keep repeating it but I could not find it in scientific papers nor any bones that will result in an animal that big, the closest I've seen is a composite skeleton that is said to be 5.4m long though it seems it was reconstructed too elongated at the time because other than the length of the back it's illustration doesn't appear any bigger than the one in the photo I used (in fact it's probably the same mount).
Edited by blaze, Feb 11 2014, 02:30 PM.
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spinosaurus rex
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i ment downsized in terms of claims. its ovious the overall creature stayed the same, lowerbound size, but the claim of it being 6 meters tall is not reasonable. thats what i ment.
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Vivyx
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I think that if we are using the Megatherium that many people think it's weight is, then I favour the sloth. But yeah, I now favour the Therizinosaurus due to the fact that Megatherium was rather small in height compared to the dino.
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Ausar
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Going from it, I think Therizinosaurus might be heavier by a significant margin.
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blaze
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I thing I just noticed, if a ~3.3m tall sloth weights 3-4 tonnes then you'll need a 4.2-4.6m tall sloth for it to be 8 tonnes while a real 6m tall sloth will weight some 18 to 24 tonnes.

@spinosaurus rex
oops sorry, yeah you are right.
Edited by blaze, Feb 12 2014, 08:05 AM.
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