The Queue: Acrocanthosaurus

Acrocanthosaurus atokensis or ‘the high spined lizard from Atoka County’ named for where it was found and its most distinctive trait, was the largest carnivore in North America when it lived, and remains the fifth largest theropod discovered in North America to date. At a length of about 11.5 meters — a little more than 38 feet — and a weight approaching six metric tons, it was a member of the Carcharodontosauridae although it lacked some of the defining characteristics of more derived Carcharodontosaurs like Carcharodontosaurus or Giganotosaurus. As mentioned, it had a series of extremely tall spines growing out of its back, with muscle attachments that suggest a ridge of muscle possibly anchoring a fatty hump.

Acrocanthosaurus lived between 125 and 100 million years ago, which means no, it could never have met or fought Tyrannosaurus. In fact, the most contemporary Tyrannosaurid we know of from that time period is Dilong paradoxus, which lived about 126 million years ago, or the closely related Eotyrannus lengi, which lived during the Aptian which is the same geological era as Acrocanthosaurus, and which wouldn’t even have come up to the animal’s hip. Basically, at the time this dinosaur lived, it would have eaten any extant Tyrannosaurids in one or two bites. Acrocanthosaurus teeth have been found near the remains of the massive Macronarian Sauroposeidon, suggesting it may have hunted or scavenged from these behemoth relatives of Giraffatitan.

This is the Queue. Here’s hoping y’all talked about dinosaurs this week because I’m super in the mood.

This one.

We talked about this one on the podcast but I figured I’d toss one here as well.

Yes, I did just put another picture of Acrocanthosaurus up in this thing. I really like this particular reconstruction, although I should point out that as an Allosaurid dinosaur, it’s less clear if Acros had quills or other feathery integument. It’s not beyond the realm of possibility, but it’s much less certain than for animals like the various Tyrannosaurids, which are in the Coelurosauria. If you’re interested, this article on Wikipedia has a fairly complete cladistic tree, showing which theropods are more or less closely related — since all Allosaurid dinosaurs (including Acrocanthosaurus) were in the Avetherapoda, or ‘bird dinosaurs’, there’s at least a chance for feathers on them.

Condiment gave you a really solid answer (good job, friend, and also thank you for making our sandwiches more delicious) and I wanted to mention that this isn’t new to the current system — characters leveling in Battle for Azeroth from Legion often experienced much the same thing, as did players jumping into Legion from Warlords. The way secondary stats devalue as you level often leaves you feeling like you’re actually getting weaker as you level, as your haste, crit and mastery decline.

However, I am sad that there was nothing in here about dinosaurs.

Honestly, good intelligence and undermining your enemies are never bad ideas. Imagine how much more complicated the Jailer’s plans would be if a non-corrupted Sargeras and the Pantheon showed up to oppose him, for example, or if the Void Lords heard about this whole ‘change existence so that Zovaal rules everything’ plan and decided to just throw Old Gods at him indefinitely, or an army of Naaru showed up. Or worse still, all of that at once and more besides. Zovaal was and is strong, but he was also beaten by his own fellow Eternal Ones, so he is defeatable — having a plan to keep powerful opposition on the back foot while you work on your many, many, many eons long plan to get out of your cosmic prison and make yourself ruler of everything is a really good idea.

I mean, we have no idea when Denathrius betrayed the other Eternal Ones and sided with Zovaal. Was he always disloyal? Did Zovaal convince him at some point after his imprisonment? Did he realize that under Zovaal’s rule he’d be the power behind the throne pulling strings? We don’t know yet.

Also, I’m sure Rezan would have been involved somehow, thus getting a dinosaur into this question and answer section.

LuotianX, in regards to your question which you spoiler tagged so I’m not just putting it up here — definitely consider seeing a vet, and also, check to see if your pupper is dehydrated. Otherwise, yeah, try and find a diet that helps with digestion.

Also, have another Acrocanthosaurus for luck. 

I’m not sure about 5.5 — they did a .5 revision for 3e, but not for 4e. And the fact is, 5e has outlasted both 3e and 4e — 3e lasted from 2000 to 2008, but it had the 3.5 revision books within three years (2003) while 4e went from 2008 to 2014, so about six years. 5e came out in 2014, so at 7 years it’s been out almost as long as the entirety of 3/3.5e without any sign of a redesign or a new edition on the horizon. Waiting seven years to do a .5 revision to 5e seems unlikely compared to possibly doing internal work to prepare for 6e, in time for 2024’s fiftieth anniversary.

Hopefully playable dinosaurs will make it in for 6e.

You… just got it?

Sometimes I feel like you guys ignore everything I say. But yes, it’s very cool that they’ve done this, and here’s a whole Youtube video of unconfirmed speculation about Kassandra potentially showing up in AC Valhalla.

Sadly, while AC Odyssey is nearly a perfect game, there are no dinosaurs in it. There’s a giant snake skeleton at one point, but that’s it.

Okay, that’s the Queue for today. Acrocanthosaurus atokensis was a really cool dinosaur, of which there are many, many more. If I was going to do another dino queue, I think I’ll go with an Ankylosaurid next time.