The Queue: Ulughbegsaurus uzbekistanensis

You may remember when I wrote about Acrocanthosaurus a few weeks back, I talked about how it lived way before Tyrannosaurus Rex and if it had met one of the much smaller members of the Tyrannosauridae that had lived at that time, it wouldn’t have had much difficulty at all dispatching them? Well, meet Ulughbegsaurus uzbekistanensis, a smaller cousin of Acrocanthosaurus and other members of the Carcharodontosauridae such as Giganotosaurus or Carcharodontosaurus itself.

While I say smaller cousin, it’s still estimated to have been up to 8 meters (26 feet) long and weighed over a ton, which at that time — sometimes between 92 and 90 million years ago, based on the rocks where these fossils were found — would have potentially made it the largest predatory dinosaur in the area. Tyrannosaurids found in Uzbekistan around 92 million years ago were barely as big as horses, making Ulughbegsaurus uzbekistanensis nearly four times their size. That means it might have pushed the Tyrannosaur radiation into North America and kept them suppressed in Asia, which would explain why we find larger Tyrannosaurs in North America such as Appallachiosaurus at 6 to 7 meters sometime around 77 million years ago in what is now the eastern United States.

It’s hard to say with the relatively limited sample size we currently have, but finding a Carcharodontid in Uzbekistan around 92 million years ago extends the range of the clade significantly further east and later in time than we’d been able to establish before now. It’s worth pointing out that some species of basal Tyrannosauroids like Dilong and Guanlong date back to the late Jurassic or early Cretaceous, significantly before Ulughbegsaurus was alive. So there may have been other Carcharodontid dinosaurs in what is now Europe and Asia keeping them smaller for millions of years.

I’m super excited about this and I can’t wait for more specimens to be discovered so that we can determine what, if any, relationship between the spread of the Allosauroid and Carcharodontid dinosaurs in the Jurassic and early Cretaceous might have had in the spread of the Tyrannnosauroidea from Europe and Asia into North America.

Yes. And also, while we’re at it, they should be allowed to group together, PVP on the same team, raid and run dungeons together, and oh yeah delenda est factiones.

Death Knights have Water Elemental pets? Since when?

I’ve just been handed a note saying that you are referring to Mags. Whoever this person is, I don’t know how their Death Knight got a… what? Not a Death Knight named Mags, a class in World of Warcraft named Mages?

Seriously? People do that?

Huh. Anyway, apparently playing as someone in a fine silk caftan freezing things to death is something you can do in the game. I had no idea. I would have expected them to be the ones getting cold in that weird little slip there.

To be slightly more serious, I know people who wouldn’t play Fury while TG was the only option, people who were mad 2h Frost DK’s weren’t viable, and so on. Players really do like having playstyle choices and hate losing them. I’m not surprised that people who didn’t sing up for a pet class didn’t like Frost having a water elemental they had to manage.

Weren’t they around the same time as Wall of Voodoo? I always got a Wall of Voodoo vibe from them and the years match up — Wall of Voodoo was formed in 1977 and Guadalcanal Diary started in 1981, and Wall of Voodoo was def. more of a weird, out there synth/new wave pop act that bled into proto-alt staus while GCD was def. a precursor to REM, both being Georgia bands and all. But I definitely remember listening to both around the same time in 85 or 86 when I was just getting into music.

This song in particular is one I listened to a lot.

Can any cloth class control mushrooms? Since, you know, you’re fungal and all.

My dad jokes are only getting more powerful.

Also go Warlock. They have three really cool letters in their name in a row, it’s not their fault the last four aren’t as good.

I should sit down sometime and do all the new race starting zones, from Azuremyst/Bloodmyst and the Ghostlands to Kezan and Gilneas, to Pandaria’s starting zone and then try out Exile’s Reach again to see which is the easiest to get through in terms of time investment. I enjoyed Exile’s Reach the last time I did it, so we’ll see.

Okay, that’s the Queue for today. As a head’s up, I’m doing tomorrow’s Queue as well, so if you have a burning question about the Old Gods or Shadow Priests, go ahead and ask it and I’ll do my best.

I like dinosaurs. That’s not relevant, just thought I’d mention it.