Thread 5041320

How come Europe doenst have any cool dino fossils? It seems like all the giant characteristic dinos just skipped that continent altogether.

Because europe used to be a giant archipelago in the tethys ocean, which meant no huge landmasses that could sustain megafauna, unlike north america, asia or africa. What europe lacks in dinosaurs it makes up in marine and flying reptiles

>>5041321
Europe doesnt really have any noticeable marine reptiles though. Maybe some mosasaurs

>>5041327

Pliosaurus, Liopleurodon, Mosasaurus itself

>>5041339
Liopleurodon was only tiny thoughalbeit. Pliosaurs weren't huge either. Europe didnt really have massive ichthyosaurs either.

>>5041364
>Europe didnt really have massive ichthyosaurs either.

>>5041320 (OP)
Iguanodon

>>5041321
This, but also Europe DOES have pretty cool Dinos, they're just less well known than those from North America because the Morrison and Hell Creek formations are the two most studied dinosaur-containing formations on Earth. And frankly, the Morrison isn't even that well-studied.

>>5041327
Well when you're an archipelago surrounded by shallow seas, that's to be expected. You may be surprised to know that Europe has dinosaurs very similar to other locations. There are Brachiosaurids, Cetiosaurids and Diplodocids very similar to those in North America or Africa in Europe from the Jurassic, for example.

>>5041370
Thats not that big by marine reptile standards

>>5041839
>Estimates scaling up the bones from other ichthyosaur species put Ichthyotitan's body length at nearly 25 metres (82 ft), which would make it the largest marine reptile currently known.
>The Aust specimens, tentatively linked to Ichthyotitan, have been informally estimated to be even larger at 30 to 35 metres (98 to 115 ft) long.
Are your marine reptile size standards the Jurassic World films

>>5041320 (OP)
Megalosaurus???

>>5041846
That Mosasaurus in Jurassic World was kino, even though it was ridiculously oversized.
Also why did they give that assistant an extremely drawn out death?

>>5041861
>why did they give that assistant an extremely drawn out death?
The writer hated karens.

>>5041839
The vast majority of heavy sized marine reptiles throughout the mesozoic were still smaller than the average sperm whale.

The fact that fossils of mega titanosaurids have been found in france proves you're wrong.
https://svpow.com/2021/11/01/the-femur-of-argyrosaurus-maybe/

>>5041364

Moving the goalposts I see. You said "noticeable", not huge. Also the aforementioned Icthyotitan and Temnodontosaurus

>>5041861
>>5041888
The actress herself asked for it since she was going to be the first woman to die in the films.

>>5042048
i saw her nudes and to be honest, she deserves to die for that

>>5042050
Oh come on, she can't be that ugly.

>>5042053
>>>/s/22273780

there you go

>>5042059
Cute and yummy tits.

>>5041839
>>5041839
>>5041846
Ichthyosaurs are awesome and cooler than any glupshittosaurus marine reptile from the JW movies. (also the mosa in that movie changes so frequently in size that it may as well just be godzilla-sized)

The gap between tiny 1 meter ichthyosauromorphs and 17 meter, 40+ ton Cymbospondylus youngorum was ~5 million years.
Not to mention they were absolute crazy predators. Guizhouichthyosaurus was far from the biggest, but still a respectably large animal and was a close relative to other giants like shonisaurus and shastasaurus.
A fossil of one represents that it hunted a thalattosaur (another marine reptile) not much smaller than it and swallowed most of it whole. This likely killed the ichthyosaur in the process (lol) but up until this point, it was thought that guizhouichthyosaurus was simply feeding on fish and squid. Then you have ones like Kyhytysuka and temnodontosaurus who were 1000% eating other marine reptiles. They were far from just 'dolphin-shaped lizards'

>>5042126
Meant to add >>5041916 to the reply but didn't, since some ichthyosaurs did surpass sperm whales in size.

>>5041320 (OP)
Why don't they just make dinosaurs up like the Chinese do?

Is OP just bullshitting or what? I'm pretty sure all of the largest macropredatory marine reptiles were all found mostly in Europe because it was an Indonesia-like subtropical archipelago at the time.

There are plenty
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_dinosaurs

>>5042398
The Western Interior Seaway was probably the nuttiest, because it was even more productive (shallower, more terrestrial nutrients), but what is now Europe, the Mediterranean basin, Black Sea basin, Caspian basin, and North Africa were great for marine reptiles and over a longer timespan. The WIS didn’t form until the Rocky Mountain uplift started and was gone by the end of the Cretaceous, but the Tethys/paratethys/paleotethys/cenotethys oceans/seas started with the breakup of Pangea and hung around until about 14mya, so they have an incredibly rich 400+ million year history of marine life and not just one ~34 million year flash in the pan.

>>5042126
Ichthyosaurs almost certainly originate in the Permian. A relatively large Olenenkian Cymbospondylid was reported from Spitsbergen in 2023, only 2 m.y post PT. Assuming ichthyosaurs evolved immediately after the PT and achieved large fully pelagic lifestykes just 2 my into the Triassic stretches credulity. Thus, it should probably be assumed that more than 6 m.y seperates C. youngorum from the origin of the clade.

t. Ichthyosaur hunter who mapped the C. youngorum quarry

>>5042982
are you a virgin

>>5042983
No. I don't think >>5042126 is wrong or stupid or anything. Just adding some additional considerations

>>5042984
i was just curious

>>5042323
At this point they probably are. Dinosaur paleontology has gone full retard.

Paleontology was built on European fossil discoveries. If you don't like what Europe has to offer, you're not a real dino autist.

>>5043103
>tfw no paleontologist waifu

>>5041320 (OP)
Coolness of dinosaurs is inversely proportional to the communism of a place. That's why communist China has feathered drag queen dinos, the EU has only a couple of gay ornithopods and spinosaurs, Eastern Europe a few insular dwarves and the USSR only has Amurosaurus.

>>5044746
>wanting a fat communist wife with septum piercings and full body tattoos

>>5041320 (OP)
European dinos were more fuel efficient, with smaller blocks due to regulations and lack of resources.
That's why, even today, Europe has almost no oil.

>>5044897
He clearly means a vintage paleontologist waifu

>>5042323
>make dinosaurs up like the Chinese do?
QRD?

>>5046441
China glued a few different feathered dinosaurs together

Now biblical literalists think this means evolution is fake

>>5046441
Basically there are two interlinked issues:
1. China has a huge fake fossil seller problem, and it isn't just limited to dinosaurs. Fake fossil fish, fake fossil trilobites, fake fossil everything. This means paleontologists - who often have to rely on amateur fossil hunters selling their finds - end up picking up fakes. At first this was merely annoying, but then we get
2. China really really really wants to respected as a scientific nation, and that means it needs big scientific discoveries - including paleontology.
All of this came to a head when the National Geographic ran a story on archeoraptor, calling it the missing link between birds and dinosaurs as the "fossil" had feathers. This was later a PROVEN fraud, and no that's not paleoschizo speak. It was a major scandal and an embarrassment for National Geographic.
Then magically even more feathered dinosaur fossils came out of China, but mum was the word on whether they were fakes or not. You just weren't allowed to investigate, and if you tried then the CCP wouldn't let you work in China - which was becoming a major new hotbed of paleontology. So now in 2025 we have a bunch of "evidence" from China that's no different than the proven fraud that was archeoraptor, but if you disagree you're a crazy creationist or something. It's basically like saying "here is the Piltdown man, oops that's a fraud, but don't worry we found a new Piltdown man, no you're not allowed to criticize this one."

>>5046107
Back when palaeontologists were respectable academics instead, we did not pretend that women could do science.