Paleontologist Kenneth Lacovara Ph.D. at Rowan’s School of Earth & Environment unboxed a Mattel model of Dreadnoughtus dinosaur that he discovered himself.
Lacovara is the director of the forthcoming Jean & Ric Edelman Fossil Park & Museum. According to the Fossil Park’s website, it will be a 65-acre landscape and the museum will perch above the quarry where, within its muddy depths, 66 million-year-old marine and terrestrial fossils record the last moments of the dinosaur world. The park is expected to open in May 2023.
He discovered Dreadnoughtus in 2005 in southern Patagonia. The term “dreadnoughtus” means “fears nothing.” This creature was 85 feet (26 m) long and weighs about 65 tons (59,300 kg) — the same mass as nine Tyrannosaurus Rexes and 13 African Elephants. The model is five feet long.
Most of the tail was unearthed, but it was massive and not easy to move. The model tail moves side to side, similar to the actual one. Lacovara believes the dinosaur has a “weaponized tail.”
Dreadnoughtus had a head smaller than a horse’s, and on the model it is even smaller than how it was set to scale. The humerus and the femur are longer than Lacovara himself.
“I think it’s time the herbivores get their due for being the toughest creatures in an environment,” said Lacovara.
It even appeared in the 2022 film Jurassic World Dominion. Lacovara said that we don’t know the actual colors of the dinosaur despite the coloring of the model dinosaur.
“I put the real one together. I’m not sure I can put this one together,” Lacovara joked as he struggled to put the model together.
Special Effects designer Adam Savage, as seen on “Mythbusters,” uploaded a Youtube video of him unboxing the model as well.
The Dreadnoughtus dinosaur model is now available at Target.
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