Giganotosaurus's History
Giganotosaurus (meaning "giant southern lizard") is a genus of theropod that lived in Argentina during the Late Cretaceous period. It is currently one of the largest known meat-eating dinosaurs and the largest allosaurid to ever exist. For many years Tyrannosaurus held that record, although bits and pieces of Carcharodontosaurus and Spinosaurus showed that they possibly could rival the giant coelurosaur in size. Then, in the late 1980s into the early 1990s, Argentine paleontologists Rodolfo Coria and Leonardo Salgado discovered and revealed the existence of a new meat-eater bigger than any known tyrant lizard. They named the giant dinosaur Giganotosaurus carolini.
While determining exactly which theropod genera was the largest, metrics for Giganotosaurus have consistently placed it as larger than an average Tyrannosaurus rex and comparable to the largest known specimens of the Tyrant Reptile King. More specimens of the Giant Southern Reptile are required to give a clearer picture of size, as all species will exist within a spectrum of sizes. For now it is safest to consider the likes of Giganotosaurus, Spinosaurus, and Tyrannosaurus as comparable to one another in terms of size (though Spinosaurus is technically the longer animal at 50 feet, it is comparable in weight to Tyrannosaurus and Giganotosaurus due to its more slender build in real life).
When Giganotosaurus was alive, the most common herbivores found in South America were the titanosaur sauropods such as Argentinosaurus, Dreadnoughtus, and Andesaurus, respectively. While a single Giganotosaurus was capable of killing a young titanosaur or a large ornithopod, it would take many Giganotosaurus to bring down a giant adult sauropod. Originally, there was no evidence that Giganotosaurus hunted in groups, but recent findings from slightly younger rocks shows that their sister taxon (closest relative) Mapusaurus may have formed coalitions similar to crocodiles or perhaps even family groups given the high size variation and age differences between individuals. While not known if this was true pack living behavior, these coalitions of 6 or more individuals would probably have been capable of coordinating attacks on targets of opportunity such as a large sauropod.
A Giganotosaurus was among the dinosaurs cloned by Biosyn and kept within their valley. The Giganotosaurus had large crests running from the top of its brow and down half of the skull. On its back was a row of spines, beginning at the neck and running down the back until its hip region, where a hump-like collection of spines abruptly rises and then lowers back into the low spines and continues to the end of the tail.. The teeth of the animal are crocodile like, and unevenly jut out of its lip-less mouth. The Giganotosaurus' skin is a dark brown, with black markings on its head and turning into rough stripes down its back. The Giganotosaurus was 15.5 meters long (50.9 feet), 5.5 meters tall (18 feet), and weighed 8,165kg (9 tons). At some point, the Giganotosaurus had a chip inserted into its brain, allowing it to be controlled when needed.
While Ellie Sattler, Alan Grant, and Ramsay Cole were heading towards Biosyn Valley, the Giganotosaurus slept peacefully as it was approached by a Moros. Later that day, Owen Grady and Kayla Watts witnessed the Giganotosaurus encounter the Tyrannosaurus Rexy, who was recently transported to the Biosyn Valley, scavenging a carcass of a deer that met its end at the claws of a Therizinosaurus. The pair briefly fought over the carcass until the Tyrannosaurus backed off, allowing the Giganotosaurus to feed on the carcass. That night, a swarm of giant locusts that was set on fire by Lewis Dodgson in an attempt to erase his criminal activity escaped their containment and started a forest fire within the valley, during which the Giganotosaurus encountered Owen, Claire Dearing, Alan, Ian Malcolm, Ellie, Maisie Lockwood, Kayla, and Ramsay at an observation tower near its habitat and attacked them. At first the predator only followed them slowly until Maisie attempted to climb a ladder into the observation tower, at which point it bit down on the railing around the ladder and tore it off. Before it could turn back to its quarry, Malcolm got its attention by waving a flaming locust on a bar of metal, which he threw into the predators mouth when it roared. stunning the dinosaur and briefly setting its mouth on fire. The Giganotosaurus quickly turned back to the group however, who had all made it to a platform that looped around the tower, and proceeded to bite the platform and attempt to pull it down with Owen and Ellie, but all of the humans made it inside, prompting the Giganotosaurus to smash the glass of the tower and attempt to reach the group. The group began stabbing the dinosaur with metal knives and broken pipes and Kayla electrocuted its eye with a taser after hitting it with a tranquilizer dart, which forced the Giganotosaurus to retreat.
As the fire worsened, Biosyn used the chips they implanted in their animals to call them into the center of the Biosyn Research Facility. As it moved through the area, the Giganotosaurus was challenged by Rexy, and the two began battling. The Giganotosaurus managed to knock Rexy unconscious after a ferocious melee that nearly crushed the humans, but her limp body, held underfoot by the Giganotosurus, had pinned a sheet of metal on top of Owen, Claire, and Maisie and was about to crush them. Ellie saw this and attempted to help them, but the dinosaur roared at her when she attempted to approach and prepared to attack. Kayla then shot a flare to distract the Giganotosaurus, which landed beside a newcomer; the Therizinosaurus. The two dinosaurs fought each other, with the aggressive herbivore landing nasty slashing blows on the larger theropod until Rexy regained consciousness. Now confronted by two enemies, the Giganotosaurus was unable to determine quickly enough which enemy was the greater threat, which allowed the Tyrannosaurus to bite its neck and ram it into the claws of the Therizinosaurus, impaling and killing it.
