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General Land Before Time / Possible Locations of the Great Valley
« on: April 08, 2012, 07:15:44 PM »
Actually, Saurolophus is already known to have lived in North America. AFAIK Lambeosaurus is strictly American, though--I've never heard of it being found in Asia.
I've thought about this many times. Even excluding geological differences that would have to have existed, Utah in general is a great match for the kind of landscape we see in the movies.
My pet theory for a while was that the Great Valley was in Mexico--they don't have the best fossil record, but I've heard of brachiosaur and Monoclonius fossils in Maastrichtian(!) sediments, suggesting a sort of "Lost World" esque thing was going on there. But I'm pretty sure Mexico used to be mostly underwater, with part of it serving as an island...
Maybe then-island Mexico was actually "Sharptooth Island"--that would put the Great Valley in the southwest United States...
In any case, the kinds of dinosaurs aren't all from the same continent. Probably. There is a way to shoehorn them in, depending on which dinosaurs they actually are, and I'm not sure how many are identified by name.
Yes, a lot are definitely North American dinosaurs--Lambeosaurus, Triceratops, Struthiomimus, Stegosaurus, etc. Some aren't exclusively North American but could be, like Saurolophus.
Others are "obviously" not North American, but do have close relatives there--which makes me wonder how many have canon identifications and how many were identified by fans, because a good number of them could be explained away as just being different kinds of dinosaur. Guido (Microraptor?) could actually be a Koparion or Palaeopteryx, the Yellow-Bellies (Beipiaosaurus?) could be Nothronychus or Falcarius. "Stegosaurus longispinus" is said by some to be an American species of Kentrosaurus, and some of the bones assigned to "Iguanodon ottingeri" (also from Utah) show the same tall spines Ouranosaurus had. Maybe Ruby is an Ojoraptorsaurus or Hagryphus, rather than an Oviraptor. We don't know what their crests looked like, after all, they could have been more slanted than Chirostenotes's...
There are just a couple I've seen that this idea can't explain, like Muttaburrasaurus, Amargasaurus(?) and Spinosaurus (no spinosaurs of any kind have been found in North America), and maybe others I haven't noticed. But for the most part, they appear to fit.
I've thought about this many times. Even excluding geological differences that would have to have existed, Utah in general is a great match for the kind of landscape we see in the movies.
My pet theory for a while was that the Great Valley was in Mexico--they don't have the best fossil record, but I've heard of brachiosaur and Monoclonius fossils in Maastrichtian(!) sediments, suggesting a sort of "Lost World" esque thing was going on there. But I'm pretty sure Mexico used to be mostly underwater, with part of it serving as an island...
Maybe then-island Mexico was actually "Sharptooth Island"--that would put the Great Valley in the southwest United States...
In any case, the kinds of dinosaurs aren't all from the same continent. Probably. There is a way to shoehorn them in, depending on which dinosaurs they actually are, and I'm not sure how many are identified by name.
Yes, a lot are definitely North American dinosaurs--Lambeosaurus, Triceratops, Struthiomimus, Stegosaurus, etc. Some aren't exclusively North American but could be, like Saurolophus.
Others are "obviously" not North American, but do have close relatives there--which makes me wonder how many have canon identifications and how many were identified by fans, because a good number of them could be explained away as just being different kinds of dinosaur. Guido (Microraptor?) could actually be a Koparion or Palaeopteryx, the Yellow-Bellies (Beipiaosaurus?) could be Nothronychus or Falcarius. "Stegosaurus longispinus" is said by some to be an American species of Kentrosaurus, and some of the bones assigned to "Iguanodon ottingeri" (also from Utah) show the same tall spines Ouranosaurus had. Maybe Ruby is an Ojoraptorsaurus or Hagryphus, rather than an Oviraptor. We don't know what their crests looked like, after all, they could have been more slanted than Chirostenotes's...
There are just a couple I've seen that this idea can't explain, like Muttaburrasaurus, Amargasaurus(?) and Spinosaurus (no spinosaurs of any kind have been found in North America), and maybe others I haven't noticed. But for the most part, they appear to fit.