Meet King Nose…Although he prefers his more formal title Rhinorex condrupus, esq., thanks much.
Photo Credit: Julius Csotonyi
Rhinorex was found in Utah’s Neslen formation – in 1991. Freakin’ scientists, always so painstaking with the cataloguing and whatnot. If they weren’t so busy checking out his fancy skin patterns, we could have known about the giant nose dinosaur 23 years ago. Turns out, after exploring his birthday suit for 23 years, researchers started putting together his skull and were all…zomg, NEW DINOSAUR.
Oh hells yes. Who doesn’t love a new dinosaur? Particularly one with a giant honker of a nose. And speaking of giant: Rhinorex is gifuckingnormous. Sorry about the technical term. It works out to be about 8500 lbs and just a little shorter than a school bus (30ft) in laymen’s terms. ‘Course, he’s no match for the king of dinosaurs – the T.Rex – not only is he a little smaller than the T.Rex, Rhinorex is a wussy plant eating commie, like the rest of those good for nothing hadrosaurs. ‘Course, functional arms might make up that difference. CAGE MATCH.
So why the giant nose? You’d think…smelling stuff right? WRONG. You are so wrong you don’t even know how to be right. Scientists think that the giant nose wasn’t even all that functional and instead it was way better for smushing stuff and finding a mate. You know what they say about male dinosaurs with big noses, amirite lady dinosaurs?
Rhinorex‘s nose and fancy outfit isn’t his only interesting qualities though – seems like the King of Noses isn’t as fussy about his personal space as most dinosaurs. Another dino, Gryposaurus, apparently roamed the nearby swamps of Utah at the exact same time! Didn’t know Utah used to be a bunch of swamps? Well, see – now you learned two things. We’re practically a PSA over here. Rhinorex lived 155 miles away in slightly less swampy area, although – sounds like it is still technically a swamp…And it doesn’t sound like it is that close, except apparently for dinosaurs it totally is – GET OUT OF MY BUBBLE, Grypo!
This leaves scientists in a bit of quandary – Geological time isn’t like glancing at the clock. Maybe the two dinosaurs didn’t actually live at the same time – hell, the time-range pinpointed for the Rhinorex is like a million years. That more than encompasses all of human history. Maybe Rhinorex is a descendent of Gryposaurus? Or perhaps, they were just neighbors? It’s a whole discussion over there at Nat Geo – go read what smart people think.
And so, a toast. To King Nose. Long live the king.