7 Terrifying Prehistoric Creatures That Mother Nature Made While Drunk

6Bajadasaurus, The Spiked Sauropod

Sauropods, like the universally beloved brontosaurus, generally didn’t have spikes, horns, frills, or other flamboyant adaptational add-ons. And they didn’t need them—they were the chillest of dinosaurs. Plus, since they weighed hundreds of thousands of pounds, they were so muscular and dense that their bulk (or a boot to the face) deflected jaws and claws. 

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But the 140-million-year-old Bajadasaurus pronuspinax (surname meaning “forward-pointing spines” because, spoiler alert, it had forward-pointing spines) had, as you may have heard, a frickin’ sweet set of forward-pointing spines.

Argentina Ministry of Science

Leaving only a small spot on top of the head for petting. 

Or so scientists think, according to a vertebra they found with a forward-pointing spine on it, unlike basically all the dinos who sported backward-pointing spikes. Scientists also extrapolate the medium-sized sauropod’s appearance based on a similar, related dinosaur, the Amargasaurus, which had two rows of spines on its back. Potentially, these served as supports for two thin sails that ran down Amargy’s back.

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Similarly, the pronuspinax’s spikes (some of which could have been over five feet long) may have supported some sail apparatus whose large surface area would have dissipated heat and let the 40-foot dino escape heat stroke. Or maybe the spines held some fat-storing bodily structure, like a camel’s hump, to fuel the plant-munching beast’s immense metabolism.

Galina, et al. 

Perhaps the spine was used as a comb by an even larger, hairier dinosaur. 

7 Terrifying Prehistoric Creatures That Mother Nature Made While Drunk
Source: Pinoy Daily News