Dinosaur Weapons And Defense

Hey, it’s Random Scientist Inc. I’ve been busy yet again (and since I’ve been sick lately, I’ll be even busier next week), but for now I’ve got nothing to do. So I’ve decided to present you with an article I wrote about dinosaur weapons and defenses.

When you think of dinosaur weapons, the curved claw of the raptor comes to mind. Also, the sharp teeth of Tyrannosaurus come to mind. There are many more weapons that dinosaurs used; it wasn’t just about the claws and teeth. For example, speed was a very important weapon for theropod dinosaurs. Speed was also an important defense for herbivorous dinosaurs, which explains why carnivores had to be fast. Agility and flexibility go hand-in-hand and are the next weapon. In a fight, a small dromaeosaur (raptor) such as a Velociraptor had to constantly move, or else get hit by its opponent, and since dromaeosaurs had hollow bones, a hit wouldn’t be good. So dromaeosaurs and most other carnivorous dinosaurs were agile and flexible. A very obvious weapon is strength, and this weapon belonged to the much larger theropods such as Tyrannosaurus and Giganotosaurus. And you may not think that the sail on Spinosaurus’ back was a weapon; well, think again. I think Spinosaurus was cold-blooded, and in order to catch breakfast, he had to be fast, or his prey would get away. So he would turn his sail toward the sun, which would absorb the sun’s energy, and it would send heat all throughout the theropod’s body. After it was warm enough, the Spinosaurus would move off in search of prey. Also it may have acted as a coolant. If it was too hot, the Spinosaurus could turn its sail away from the sun, or it could find some shade and cool off.

Now let’s talk about dinosaur defense for a minute. When I say defense, the most obvious thing that comes to mind is the armor on the ankylosaurs, and also the clubbed tail* should come to mind. Those weren’t the only dinosaur defenses; for example ceratopsians (the family Triceratops is in) had neck frills to protect their neck. They also had horns on their head** to defend themselves from predators. I think the herbivores could’ve used a type of chemical defense in which they emit a foul-smelling liquid from their pores in an attempt to deter predators. The sauropods had long, whip-like tails, and they may have used these while defending themselves against predators. Also, the sauropods had the most effective defense technique on their side: size. These things were HUGE! No predator in its right mind would attack a fully grown sauropod; that’s why they go for the young, sick and old, because they’re a lot weaker than a healthy adult. Stegosaurs had armored plates along their back, and they also had spiked tails. Iguanodonts had claws on their thumbs which they could’ve used for defense. And finally, speed was the second most important defense after size. Most herbivores were fast, especially those that didn’t have any other defense. Let’s take the hadrosaurs (duck-billed dinos) as an example. Not very many of them had means of defense, so they evolved to be very fast animals.

In conclusion, I would like to discuss the *s I put in front of a couple things. I put them so I can point out interesting facts. I am going to start doing this every time I write an article (that is, if I remember.)

* Some ankylosaurs didn’t have clubs on their tails, such as Minmi (not sure if you’ve heard of this dinosaur)

** Some ceratopsians didn’t have horns, such as Protoceratops.

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