Giganotosaurus. One of the largest and deadliest land predators of all time. The largest carnivorous dinosaur that ever roamed South America, and there's a chance it passed the exact spot where you are now.
Today, we will know its real appearance, its environment, its habits, its anatomy and its evolution. We will analyze each part of its body to paint an ever better picture of this animal's life. When and where did the Giganotosaurus live?
Was he, in fact, bigger than the tyrannosaurus? Was it smart? Did you go in packs?
How did it hunt, what kind of predator was it? Was it colored or did it have feathers? Get ready to bring back to life an animal extinct for 95 million years.
Such is the life of the Giganotosaurus. In 1993, an amateur paleontologist named Rubén Carolinii found a dinosaur skeleton that was described by CORIA & SALGADO in 1995, introducing the world to the largest carnivorous dinosaur that ever lived in South America: the Giganotosaurus. It is a common mistake to confuse the name Giganotosaurus with Gigantosaurus, which is another animal, a sauropod from Jurassic England.
Giganotosaurus means southern giant lizard, and its full name, Giganotosaurus Carolinii, was given in honor of its discoverer. The holotype, a specimen that is used as an example and reference for an animal species, was found in the Candeleros formation, in Argentine Patagonia. The skeleton is relatively complete, with 70% recovered by paleontologists.
This is very important, because it allowed us to get a good idea of what this animal was like in life, right away. In 1998, a new individual was found in the same formation, this time about 8% larger, making this animal even more impressive. The Candeleros Formation represents a period from the Middle Cretaceous, from 99 to 97 million years ago, more than 30 million years before the evolution of Tyrannosaurus rex.
It immediately gained prominence among fans of paleontology and evolution, and was at the center of the debate over what was the largest terrestrial carnivore of all time. Recently this dinosaur has gained prominence in the media, having appeared in Jurassic World Dominion. The good part is that this animal has gained a lot in popularity with this appearance, the bad part is that it is very ugly.
The design that Hollywood chose for this movie is questionable to say the least. He has a crocodile-like appearance, reminiscent of an obsolete paleoart style from the early 20th century. The true Giganotosaurus was less alligator and more bird.
There is no evidence that it was covered by these structures, called osteoderms. His candle also appears exaggerated, all to give him an evil and scary villain aesthetic. In the film's prologue he appears defeating a Tyrannosaurus rex, ignoring that they didn't live on the same continent or at the same time, but that's okay, this is where the suspension of disbelief comes in.
Now, let's transport ourselves to Argentine Patagonia, 99 million years ago, to witness a real Giganotosaurus. The shallow waters of these intertwining rivers attract all kinds of animals. Fish, insects, amphibians, mammals, pterosaurs and from the smallest to the largest dinosaurs.
And some of the biggest dinosaurs that ever lived used to pass through here. The South American Cretaceous was a golden age for sauropods, giant herbivorous dinosaurs like Andesaurus: one of the largest land animals that ever lived. The constant stomping compacts the soil and prevents new plants from growing, forming giant trails in the forest where titanosaurs fed laterally.
This group spent the whole night feeding, and came to the river to quench their thirst. Unlike most anything that lives here, they have little to worry about: their adult size protects them from even the biggest predators. From the top of its 10 meters high, he sees an animal on the other side of the bank.
A 20-year-old female Giganotosaurus : Carolinii. surprisingly quiet, she also came to quench her thirst. The titanosaur turns on its side, lifting its neck and swinging the tip of its tail, showing all its size, in vain.
Carolinii is not hungry, and even if he were, he would never dare to hunt an adult titanosaur alone. But she is in her fertile period. Argentine Patagonia today is a cold, dry, desert environment, but in the days of Giganotosaurus, it was very different.
This was the world approximately in the middle of the Cretaceous, in Cenomanian times. The shadows of Gondwana could still be seen as Antarctica, Australia, India, Africa and South America slowly receded. South America, recently separated, lived its first days as an isolated continent.
Isolation that lasted almost 100 million years, and ended about 4 million years ago, with the uplift of the Isthmus of Panama, connecting the Americas. 99 million years ago, the fauna of South America still shared many similarities with that of Africa, as both derived from the same supercontinent. That's why we have very similar animals, occupying almost the same niches on these two continents.
In Africa, Carcharodontosaurus and Spinosaurus, in South America, Giganotosaurus and Oxalaia. All this, more than 30 million years before the final day of non-avian dinosaurs. Everything leads us to believe that Argentine Patagonia was a much more productive environment than it is today.
The candeleros formation was deposited in a series of shallow water rivers that intertwined in the plain, forming swamps in some regions. Forests and open areas took turns in the landscape, responding mainly to the ecological pressure of sauropods, the large herbivores of these ecosystems. It was here, in South America from the middle to the end of the Cretaceous, that the largest land animals of all time lived: the titanosaurs.
They are essential to understanding the life and existence of Giganotosaurus. It is very likely that they coexisted with a series of species in other formations in the region, but in the Candeleros formation animals are found that certainly shared the ecosystem with Giganotosaurus, such as Ekrixinatosaurus, Andesaurus Najash, Buitreraraptor and Limayasaurus. Now, let's understand where it fits in the tree of life, and which are its closest relatives.
Let's look at the simplified phylogeny of theropods, considering allosauroidea the group of dinosaurs that is home to Giga and its closest relatives. Allosaurus is one of the most famous carnivorous dinosaurs of the Jurassic, a top predator in its day, albeit much smaller than its Cretaceous descendants. It was an animal very similar to it that gave rise to all the carcharodontosaurids, animals of the Carcharodontosaurus family, such as Giganotosaurus, Tyrannotitan, Mapusaurus and a series of smaller, more basal animals.
Carcharodon is the genus of white shark, which means sharp tooth. Hence, Carcharodontosaurus means sharp-toothed lizard. It was discovered by Ernt Stromer, the same man who discovered Spinosaurus, and the fate of the first fossils was the same: destroyed during a bombing in World War II.
In this cladogram, they fall between Tyrannosaurus and Spinosaurus. This means that Giganotosaurus was closer to T rex than Spinosaurus! Both belong to the avetheropoda group.
But that also means that Tyrannosaurus rex is more closely related to any bird than it is to Giganotosaurus. Both are coelurosaurs. But both Spinosaurus, Giga and rex are tetanurs, a group that split from its sister group, Ceratosauria, towards the end of the Triassic.
Tetanurs harbor the vast majority of the diversity of predatory dinosaurs that ever lived. Among their shared features are structures that hold a rigid tail and three fingers on their hands. At first, it was thought that they were contained to the southern hemisphere, in Gondwana, but today we know that they were very successful cosmopolitan carnivores, which also inhabited the northern hemisphere.
In North America, we have Acrocanthosaurus, one of the largest carcharodontosaurids. In Europe, we have concavenator. Recently Steve Brusatte published an article arguing that Chilantaisaurus was an Asian carcharodontosaurid dinosaur.
In the northern hemisphere, they were eventually replaced by tyranosaurids at the end of the Cretaceous, and in the southern hemisphere they competed with the abelisaurids, the group to which Carnotaurus, for example, belongs. But approximately 90 million years ago, all carcharodontosaurids became extinct. There are no records younger than this pertaining to this family.
After their extinction, Abelisaurs and Megaraptors started to dominate the carnivore niches in our continent until the end of the Cretaceous. Giganotosaurus competes with Spinosaurus and Tyrannosaurus for the title of largest theropod dinosaur that ever lived, but it all depends on our concept of size. Tyrannosaurus rex is the largest by weight.
Estimates vary, but it is possible that it weighed up to 7 tons, compared to 5 or 6 tons for Giganotosaurus, a weight very close to that of Spinosaurus. The Tyrannosaurus was much more massive, and the Giga more slender, thinner. Even so, T rex was the shortest of the three megatheropods, at around 12 meters in length, compared to almost 14 meters in Giga and 15 in Spinosaurus.
Spinosaurus is likely to be the longest of all, but Giganotosaurus won at shoulder height. It had considerably longer legs than a T rex, and Spinosaurus for that matter. It also had the longest skull and the widest range of mouth openings.
Also, it had a special advantage: being much faster than both rex and spino. Some studies point out that it could reach almost twice the speed of a tyrannosaurus, with estimates indicating that it could reach 50 km / h. Which makes it the fastest, tallest, and longest fully terrestrial megateropod.
However, Mapusaurus and Tyranotitan, two other closely related species could be just as big. We can see that the Giganotosaurus was an animal built for speed. Its bite wasn't the strongest, but it was certainly the fastest.
The jaw muscles were built in such a way as to allow him to close his mouth with impressive speed. Like birds, he was able to regulate his own temperature, which would make him an animal with a great appetite and a great caloric need, especially during development. They needed temperature regulation to grow at the speed they grew, that is, very fast.
Signs that he was also a good runner are all over his body, from the lean profile, long femur and elongated pubic boot to allow for muscle attachment in the thigh and hip area. For this, his respiratory system was very useful. Like birds, other theropod dinosaurs most likely also had a very efficient respiratory system, aided by a series of air sacs.
This, in addition to making the animal lighter than a mammal with the same volume, allows them to have a much greater use in breathing. This is because we mammals have a bidirectional respiratory system, that is, the air enters and exits through the same path, making it impossible for 100% of the lung content to be exchanged with each breath. Birds, on the other hand, have a unidirectional system, allowing them to breathe fresh air all the time.
This would make Giga a very efficient and persistent runner. But how did he use all these skills? Let's see it in action.
Carolinii patiently followed the group of titanosaurs for a good part of the day. In mid-afternoon, the hottest part of the day, they stop to rest and air. Such giant animals need to be careful not to die from the heat, even though the air sac system is very efficient in temperature exchange.
Carolinii knows that this is the group's most vulnerable moment, the only chance to face them alone. His eyes are on the pup. He is dangerously withdrawn from adults.
She finally makes it to the edge of the clearing and stops. In a few seconds, without slowing down, she walks past the puppy, still lying down, quickly closes her mouth on its neck, which kills almost instantly. Startled, the Andesaurus pack gets up and runs in the opposite direction.
Carolinii walks away from the scene to make sure the pack is gone. A few moments later, it approaches its victim again, this time to consume everything it can as quickly as possible. Giganotosaurus has one of the most striking skulls of any theropod.
With about 1. 60 m in length, it is certainly one of the longest skulls among terrestrial vertebrates. It has a flat and long profile, working like a huge axe, ready to deliver very fast blows.
It is surprisingly light, as it is full of small hollow cavities, making the skull super-pneumatized. Not only the skull but a good part of its skeleton, making it very light and agile for an animal of its size Perhaps to increase the efficiency of heat exchange with the environment, it had one of the largest anterobital fenestrae, possibly helping it not to overheat after exhausting runs. We can also notice that the top of the head up to almost the tip of the muzzle presents roughness, which in life were probably areas of attachment of keratinous structures, such as horns.
The exact function of these wrinkles is still unclear, if they had any. Maybe they protected the skull in fights where it was common for one to bite the other's face, maybe they were used directly in combat, or the good old display hypothesis. Unlike Tyrannosaurus, which had binocular vision, Giganotosaurus had a more lateralized vision.
That means he had a wider range of view but less keen depth perception. His jaw had a peculiar shape, starting wide, then suddenly tapering and ending with a kind of prominent “chin”. That chin may be one of the most distinguishing features of this animal.
It's where you have to look when you want to distinguish Carcharodontosaurus from Giganotosaurus. There are hypotheses that this extension could help resist the impact of very fast bites, absorbing energy that could break the skull. His teeth were also quite distinctive.
They were knife-shaped, very different from the conical teeth of Spinosaurus, for example, adapted for aquatic prey. This format allowed it to be more generalist, feeding on a wide variety of animals. The reinforced enamel had serrations at the edges, with small grooves where blood could run.
Its bite and teeth were adapted to draw as much blood as possible with a single bite. Unlike the teeth and skull of the rex, which clearly served to crush bones. Giganotosaurus killed by taking a precise bite , tearing off a piece of meat and waiting for its victim to bleed to death.
The brain of this animal can be extrapolated through analysis of the preserved encephalic cavity, that is, the hole left by the brain inside the skull. Scientists are able to understand which areas of the brain were more privileged and which were less, with this information. The immense similarities between the brain of Giganotosaurus and Carcharodontosaurus confirms the close relationship between the two, despite Giganotosaurus having a slightly larger brain.
Both had relatively small brains for their size, which doesn't mean they were unintelligent. Especially if they lived in a group, their intelligence could be surprising, being able to even plan coordinated attacks. The ends of the mouth were lined with a series of foramina, openings in the skull that allow blood vessels and nerves to pass through.
This supports the idea that this region supported some structure in life, such as a lip sensitive to temperature or vibration. Therefore, our Giganotosaurus has lips, unlike the crocodile Giga from Jurassic World. Giganotosaurus' arms were neither the largest nor the smallest proportionately among large theropods.
But they were extremely stout and muscular, with three toes. The first finger holds a larger, rather curved claw, which may have helped to bleed victims of its predation. The hands were turned against each other, being unable to rotate the wrist as we do, a movement called pronation.
This is true for a good portion of bipedal dinosaurs. So a dinosaur is imitated like this, and not like this. Another feature that draws attention in carcharodontosaurids in general is the presence of a candle, sometimes subtle and sometimes not so subtle.
It's safe to say that animals in this family have some of the strangest candles of any animal. They are formed by an elongation of the backbone of the vertebrae, just like in Spinosaurids. But unlike them, these candles looked more robust and more diverse in shapes.
It appears to be an ancestral trend in the group, given the distribution of this trait throughout the phylogeny. Acrocanthosaurus, a North American predator of more than 12 meters, had the largest sail among the giant carcharodontosaurids, starting at the neck and extending to the tail. There is much debate about the function of these candles in life, and whether it would be similar to the function of the Spinosaurus candle, but this does not seem to be the case.
Because of the variety of shapes, there is a good chance this structure is related to sexual selection. A constantly overlooked factor that can have an immense influence on this animal's life. While feeding, she needs to keep an eye out.
This is a dangerous place. A male Giganotosaurus. He is slightly smaller and much younger than Carolinii.
And the still- warm, bulky carcass isn't the only thing that drew him in. He wants to breed, and he's been following the scent of Carolinii pheromones for days. He approaches slowly, and she watches him intently.
If she wasn't receptive, he would know by now. He opens his mouth as wide as he can, showing the colors of his tongue and the inside of his mouth. Arms outstretched, he scratches, dislodging a huge amount of mud, sprayed with his pheromones.
He is at the same time showing off and marking territory. Carolinii likes what he sees, and walks over to inspect. She leans in, lifting her tail high, and he lines up with her, leaning in the opposite direction, making contact between their vents.
The sperm is transferred, and a bond is established. He will accompany her wherever she goes from now on. They and their children will form a pack until they reach adulthood.
This will increase the chances of survival for everyone involved. A few days later, dozens of eggs are under the couple's protection. They will take turns taking care of the nest, never leaving it unattended.
Like modern-day dinosaurs, birds, Giganotosaurus must have had a cloaca: a shared, all-purpose hole. Reproduction should take place via cloacal contact, but the means of contact are still highly debated. Like any dinosaur, it was born relatively small and its chances of reaching reproductive age are low.
To date, we have no direct evidence of Giganotosaurus reproduction. The closest thing that exists is Scipionyx, an Italian species known from only one fossil, dated at 113 million years old, 13 million years older than the Giganotosaurus. A small half-meter dinosaur that was first considered a compsognathid, but is now known as a young carcharodontosaurid, around 3 days old.
He has preserved in his stomach pieces of lizards and fish, which may have been hunted by him or given to him by his parents. A curiosity is that it was the first dinosaur found in Italy. But nothing guarantees that the childhood of Giganotosaurus, on the other side of the world, 13 million years later, would be identical to that of Scipionyx.
The extrapolations we make are somewhat speculative, but not far-fetched, as they are based on behavioral evidence from other dinosaurs, extinct and living. Birds are an extremely intelligent group that very often engage in highly complex parental care. It is very possible that Giganotosaurus were overprotective, caring, and devoted mothers and fathers.
Under the care of their parents, they could learn to hunt in groups, increasing their chances of taking down the largest prey available in their environment: sauropods. Thus, they would take advantage of their parents' fangs to grow frantically during their childhood and adolescence. As warm-blooded animals, they were capable of sustaining a constant and accelerated growth rate, if provided with the necessary energy and nutrition.
In this world, growing as fast as possible was a matter of life and death, even so, Giga's growth was not the fastest among dinosaurs. An analysis of growth rings inside the bones of large predatory dinosaurs revealed that Tyrannosaurus rex grew even faster. But Giganotosaurus was constantly growing.
Carcharodontosaurids may have been the longest-lived superpredator dinosaurs, reaching 50 years of age and taking up to 20 years to reach sexual maturity. For a Giganotosaurus, growing up alone would be extremely challenging. First, he would be able to feed only on insects and the smallest amphibians, reptiles and mammals, for this they needed to be agile and keen predators from birth.
As they grew, they would need to adapt to capture larger and larger prey, moving up the food chain until they became a predator of sauropods. Perhaps the different abilities of members of a group of varying ages were part of these bands' coordinated hunting strategy. An amazing discovery at Cañadón del Gato is our only direct evidence of gregarious behavior in carcharodontosaurids, where bones were recovered that belonged to at least 7 individuals of Mapusaurus, of different ages.
Since Mapusaurus is a closely related animal and very similar to Giganotosaurus, it is reasonable to infer that Giganotosaurus did not live alone either. The colors we used in our model, Carolinii are completely speculative. To this day there is no evidence of the skin and consequently the colors of Giganotosaurus.
A few of the millions of fossils known to science have such an exceptional level of preservation that they allow us to look under electronic microscopes in search of deciphering their original color. Incredibly, for some animals we are 99% sure of their colors in life, like Sinosauropteryx. If you were curious, sign up because this is the theme of the next video on the channel!
Like the vast majority of animals, Giganotosaurus gives artists complete freedom to represent colors as they see fit. Looking at living dinosaurs, however, we see an immense range of colors and patterns. From the most discreet, with iridescent details, such as pigeons, to peacocks and birds of paradise, which boast exuberant colors and psychedelic patterns.
So pretty much nothing is out of the question when it comes to an extinct animal like Giganotosaurus. Our model has colors that are somewhat conservative and unobtrusive, like those of giant animals of our time that live in similar environments. The male, however, is more exuberant, a little smaller and with more accentuated skull roughness.
This is an effect of sexual selection, which may have favored males that were more successful in sexual display. This is a huge trend among living dinosaurs, which may even explain other parts of many animals' anatomy. Sometimes we are looking for possible functions for structures that seem even harmful to animals, when in fact that was only sexy for females.
Evolution is not about perfection, and sexual selection constantly proves that, rightly punishing males that successfully reproduce. Like the male peacock which has reduced mobility as a result of its long and heavy tail. Perhaps Giganotosaurus used its colors for camouflage, perhaps it used them to impress mates.
There is also a chance that they have developed aposematic colorations, when an animal has an extremely prominent and striking color in order to warn of the danger it represents. However, this is much more common in small animals. The big chance is that Giganotosaurus was very similar to our Carolinii.
But as for the possibility that this animal had feathers? We know that dinosaur ancestors already had simple feather-like structures and keratinous filaments. They are present in a wide range of dinosaurs in all branches of their genealogy.
However, we noticed a trend. While smaller dinosaurs are covered almost entirely in down and filaments, giant dinosaurs tended to lose this covering, replacing it with thick skin, sometimes coated with osteoderms and scales. Taking this trend into account, it's reasonable to assume that if it had feathers, it wouldn't have many, and they wouldn't even resemble the feathers of modern birds.
Perhaps they played a role in sexual display, making males appear larger and more colorful. This is supported by small cavities on Concavenator's ulna, which may have been feather insertion zones. Two years have passed, Carolinii and her partner are still together, but now accompanied by their offspring.
An adult Giganotosaurus can go more than a week without eating, a baby cannot. That's why out of more than 30 eggs, only two survived the first two years of life. When hunger hits, they get aggressive.
Hostility sets in between the brothers. A good part of the puppies end up being cannibalized by the stronger brothers. Now that there are only two left, they can no longer count on it.
A group of Titanosaurs approaches. They line up at the edge of the forest and while some eat, others chop down trees to feed their offspring. There are many of them and the young are sheltered among the trees, where giant animals have little mobility.
With the little care and recklessness that despair produces, she approaches an adult Titanosaurus alone. The Andesaurus, noticing the approach, turns around and begins to intimidate her. Its nostrils flare and it displays its full size, hoping to discourage the predator.
Carolinii makes his move, but instead of running away, his opponent charges towards him. An Andesaurus can weigh up to 70 tons. Fatality.
With its skull ripped apart, death is instantaneous. Your family comes over to inspect. His instinct is still to follow her.
So they hang around for awhile. But despair and hunger once again prevail. It was not in vain.
Your offspring will live another day. In the world of 99 million years ago, dying of old age was a privilege. For most animals, the greatest chance was to die violently.
And that's how Caroline's life ended. About 93 million years ago, Carcharodontosaurids became extinct in South America. The Carolinii lineage left no descendants to live out the last days of the Cretaceous.
Slowly, the role that was played by them came to be occupied by another type of dinosaur: the megaraptorids. They, with the abelisaurs, were the last dominant carnivores of the dinosaur era in South America. Even so, Giganotosaurus was the largest predator that ever lived on our continent, no animal before or after it reached its proportions, and most likely, never will.
Its extinction remains mysterious, but its life has been recovered and understood since its discovery. Thanks to countless scientists who dedicated part of their lives to the life of this animal. The scenes you just saw were made from scratch by Lucas Mateus, the channel's art director, a huge thanks to him, who brought this animal back to life!
Thanks also to Salomão Neto for helping to render some of these scenes in time. A very special thanks also to the 3D factory, which printed these incredible models of our Giganotosaurus in plastic! Those who are interested can get to know them through the link in the description, the service is sensational and they send impressions all over Brazil.
Thanks 3D Factory! Thank you very much for watching until the end, consider becoming a channel member and have a good life!
