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Ed Yeates ReportingUtah bone diggers have uncovered what could be the largest and heaviest armored dinosaur on the planet. The dino appears to be a new species and has yet to be named.
Take the three foot forearm of an armored dinosaur and stretch it out to six feet. Pull it from head to tail so its' longer, up to twenty five feet. Pack it with full armor and spikes, even over the hips; now you've got a Polacanthid weighing five tons.
Dr. Reese Barrick, Director/Curator, CEU Prehistoric Museum: "It will be the largest, heaviest armored dinosaur found on the planet so far."
College of Eastern Utah paleontologists found it right here in Utah, which seems to be unraveling more graves of armored dinos than anywhere in the world. This new discovery is three times the size and weight of an armored dinosaur called gastonia.
Utahraptor, as portrayed in Jurassic Park, wouldn't have been able to get its teeth anywhere in the armor. And if it tried to pry open the tightly fused seams? Bye Bye claws!
Dr. Reese Barrick: "So it's best defense is just to stand there or even kneel dow,n so there's no way an animal can get to where the soft underbelly would be."
At more than 10-thousand pounds, even a pack of Utahraptors couldn't turn this thing over. As a new species, if it gets a name?
Dr. Reese Barrick: "Something that includes tank, or monster, or mountain, or something."
A slow, heavy moving dim-witted tank that nature decided needed a lot of help.
CEU researchers would like to start a new study, dissecting bones to find out just how much these vegetarians had to eat and how fast they grew from juveniles to adults.
