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Thursday 1 December 2011

Leftovers: Texas Mini-Rex Report and 'Burrunjor' Track

I had been missing a report of a "Mini-Rex" from Texas but it just turned up. This is the full report as I had it and it originally came from Blog Reader (and sometimes-contributor) Phillip O' Donnell:

'Baby T-rex'

Name Withheld

Hello,
I don't really know if I should be telling you
this, because I'm tired of being told I'm crazy 
or it's scientifically impossable. When I was twelve 
I saw something that really changed how I view dinosaurs. 
I saw a baby tyrannosauras rex. It looked like a baby
anyway. I thought maybe raptor, but no it's head was to wide. 
It even looked at me before running into the woods. I even slapped 
myself across the face to make sure I wasn't dreaming. 
It was in Texas.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Interviewer's Name - Phillip O'Donnell

1) How long was it and what was it's height?
2) Did your encounter happen near Big Bend, TX?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Name Withheld

I'll do much more than that. It was about 6 to 7
feet tall and about the same from [tail]tip to little arms
and head. It was forest green with an irridescent
look much like oil. I saw it about 50 feet away as it
was sunning itself in the last rays of the sun. It was
sitting. It looked at me even. It was south east
texas. Silsbee to be exact. It is near the big
thicket on the edge actualty. I could Even see the
reptilian lips above the teeth.


"Living Dinosaur" Map as furnished by LiveDino enthusiasts

 --This part of Texas is in the area where Chad Arment had specified he had heard no other reports. The "Height" measurement is not the walking or standing height since the creature is sitting still at the time, but other witnesses have said the same height. At first it bothered me that the main series of reports are about 3  to 4 feet tall and then there was this second set of measurements that are about twice that, but the taller ones could still all be exaggerations within the same margin of error: at least none of the reports say 10 to 15 feet tall or taller, which is what you DO start to see in the more obviously untrustworthy accounts.
At the same time, as I mentioned last time we were on the subject, there is a series of reports that fall at a smaller size which includes most of the "Biped" reports, and then a larger sized series in the "Dinosaur/Iguanodon/Dragon lizard" size range, up to the size of a komodo drgon. The largest sightings in this series say 20 feet long, but a substantial majority in this category estimate a creature 10-12 feet long. If the two types are in the same species then, well, yes, a bigger one would stand up much higher than the usual 3-4 feet on its hind legs. And we do also have reports of the bigger ones standing up as tall as a human being from Mexico and Central America-possibly also the "Iguanodon" reports in South America- just not ordinarily running that way. Once again the matter depends on whether we have one species or more, and I don't know if that can be determined yet. For the time being it is simpler to assume only one species, but I have argued the other way before and it may still prove to be true we are looking at several unknown Iguanid lizard species instead of just the easier one-species solution.

 Best Wishes, Dale D.

Rex Gilroy's cast of a "Burrunjor" track that could more likely be the track of a gigantic bird on a par with the largest Moas. As far as I can tell there is no guarantee the track is fresh as opposed to a fossil track.

10 comments:

  1. Old Threetoes! Too bad Ivan Sanderson isn't here to see this.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I had previously considered this to be another "Three-toes" track myself. Two things mainly contradict the notion: A) The dimensions are nearly double those of a standard "three-toes" track, and B) the anatomy is entirely different than "3-Toes" and more like a standard bird track.

    On the other hand, Sanderson did speak of Aepyornis-sized eggs found in Australia and he did suggest that they were laid there by a "3-topes" rather than an Aepyornis-sized Australian bird. Unfortunately the pendulum has swung back the other way and it seems the Australian Big ground bird is the more likely culprit. See the earlier "Leftovers" entry on this blog, a couple of postings back.

    Best Wishes, Dale D.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi..The track was fresh as the photo show I have seen personally....A series of tracks..Rex also discovered fresh Giant Moa tracks in N.Z you can do a comparison..Giant Moa Tracks..While similar; the heel pad is very different..and much smaller..What made the track Rex is holding stood much higher than 3 metres..IN fact the stride measurements discount any Bird like creature..as the creature who made the series of tracks had a huge stride and it was walking normally not fast and not running..this shows how large it was..
    http://www.mysteriousaustralia.com/newsletters/2008newsletter/2008_may_monthly_newsletter.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you for that remark. I take the track to go with the rock art depiction of a "Demon Duck of Doom" dioscussed in the more recent posting. It is not the track of a large theropod because if it were the pads would be much heavier. as I remarked under that other article, this would be well above the usual expected Genornis size range and if it is Genornis, then it would presumable have to be a new and unrecorded species. But the track of a Tyrannosaur is different than that, much stouter.

    Best Wishes, Dale D.

    ReplyDelete
  5. It can't be a footprint of T-rex whatever it is, because, at the end of cretaceous, 75 million years ago, tyrannosauridae were located in northern hemisphere. Indeed there were no possible terrestrial connections between the landmasses of northern america and eurasia on which they were thriving and the different part of the breaking gondwana (south america, africa, madagascar, india, antarctic + australia). So, they couldn't mind the abelisauridae which were inhabiting the different pieces of gondwana, especially australia. The informations about dinosaurs are scarce in australia and of course antarctic. The more recent thorough informations about this is the existence of relatively less evolved predators (the theropods in the familly from which they came had a quotient brain weight/total weight less important than the tyrannosauridae)at the beginning of cretaceous (rapator and australovenator). The second problem whith this track is the size suggested by this footprint. If you have a big predator, then you must have a big amount of flesh each day. For example, it was calculated that a 13 meters carcharodontosaurus (bigger than a 12 meters tyrannosaurus) needed something like 60 kg of meat at minimum per day only to go on. During dinosaurs dominance time, it was not difficult to find (not necessarily to catch) big preys. So whith what, how big predators could have a meal in Australia? Kangaroos? There is nothing left from megafauna.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The size of the footprint suggests a length of more or less 12-13 meters for a theropode.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I get an idea. By supposing that a more or less 12 meters theropode is thriving in arnhem land (northern Australia), then it would be visible on satellite pictures of this area as there are some suitable imagery satellites available with 0,5 m resolution, no? A regular review (for example, worldview-1 can take 850.000 square kilometers of 0,5 m resolution pictures in black and white every 1,7 days)of the pictures taken of this area could reveal the presence or not on the pictures of such a creature as most of this area is ratherly devoided of vegetation. Of course, it will not dismiss, if not present on the pictures, the presence of mr. Burrunjor as the passing time of the sattelite and the daily walk of the burrunjor don't match necessarily. I recognize that it would be very costly and I have not the money.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Dale, do you think that these iguanas have a different type of metabolism than other lizards? For example, monitor lizards have a much more active, mammal-like metabolism compared to other reptiles. I personally think that, if and when these unknown iguanid lizards are discovered by science, they will turn out to have a slightly more 'warm-blooded' metabolism than most reptiles.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I have heard of and seen several photos of what is said to be Mini Trex type creature from Utah .. I've Also Heard of a Trex type creature in South eastern Texas .. I personally have not seen anything down in that area.. Also heard of couple of Guys in Arizona ..while hunting Deer claim to have seen a small group of Flightless Bird like Dinosaurs in central part of the state..and some native american sheep herder's claim to loose some of their flock to these creatures.. I personly saw an what I thought was a Dinosaur for a theme park along the Florida/Georgia border when I was heading to Florida back in the Late 70s .. we all saw it so we turned around to see if we could find direction to the place.. but it was gone.. but we saw tracks .. we disidded not to say anything because no one would believe us anyway .. then year later I heard the Ivan T. Sanderson actaully saw a creature just south of there in the same water shad .. that was years before thou .. I think in the Late 50s

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  10. I have heard of a T Rex like Creature in the Northern Terr. Australia and have heard of Mini T Rex type creatures in Utah and Arizonia ... then of course there was the Dino sighting by Ivan T Sanderson in Florida and have heard a story about a gal from Georgia that tells about visting her Grandmother and seeing what she said was a Hog size Dinosaur in her Grandmother's Garden .. I'm think it was an Armadillo .. just because I have a friend in Mississippi that has problems with them in the Garden

    ReplyDelete

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