COMMON CRITTERS: Getting to know the T. rex of Texas.
Sure, the T. rex gets all the dinosaur love. But did you know Texas was home to one of the
other fiercest dinosaur to ever roam the Earth?
“The biggest, baddest of them all is the Acrocanthosaurus. That’s (our) version of the Tyrannosaurus rex,” said “Dinosaur George” Blasing, a New Braunfels dinosaur enthusiast who has educated more than 4 million school kids about the ancient predatory dinosaurs of Texas and beyond.
Blasing noted that like the famous T. rex, the Acrocanthosaurus also was an apex predator that took down its share of prey, including much larger dinosaurs. Only the acro did it 50 million years before the T. rex — an OG of a dino-hunter if ever there was one.
And the acro lives on in Texas, greeting visitors just outside San Antonio’s Witte Museum. “Arky the Acrocanthosaurus” is a 38foot-long sculpture that originally wowed patrons at a concrete décor show before moving to the Witte.
“Kids love dinosaurs, no matter how you look at it,” said Thom Hunt, the Nebraska concrete sculptor who helped build Arky almost a decade ago. “We tried not to make it look where it scares the hell out of them.”
It took Hunt and concrete sculptor Mark Whitten from Iowa two weeks to build their acro replica. Weighing in at 4½ tons, the concrete dinosaur sports hand-carved scales and a rough, hand-painted texture.
These days, Arky looks a lot less ferocious with a giant mask on its face to promote pandemic safety. But back in the day, more than 100 million years ago, the real Acrocanthosaurus struck plenty of terror when it stalked the Earth.
Here’s a closer look at that amazing Acrocanthosaurus.
A true Texas titan.
The Acrocanthosaurus (A. atokensis) was a theropod, or three-toed meateating dinosaur, that once inhabited at least parts of what’s now North America during the early Cretaceous period, roughly 99 million to 125 million years ago. Most Acrocanthosaurus fossils have been found in Texas, Oklahoma and Wyoming.
The bipedal dinosaur also left its mark through South and Central Texas, stomping up and down what’s now Interstate 35 from Laredo to Dallas-Fort Worth.
Acrocanthosaurus tracks dot the Government Canyon State Natural Park, as well as the Canyon Lake Gorge, near San Antonio. And acro tracks and other dinosaur prints line the Glen Rose Formation, a shallow geological formation that cuts through the Canyon Lake Gorge and stretches across Central Texas from the southwest to northeast.
Meanwhile, replicas of acro prints also cross through the Witte, where another life-size replica of an Acrocanthosaurus, this one just the skeleton, looms inside, just roaring distance away from its outdoor counterpart.
The Acrocanthosaurus could more than hold its own.
The acro was one of the largest theropods, measuring around 12 feet tall and 38 feet long from nose to tail end. Its powerful hind legs supported its 4-ton frame, while its claws and serrated teeth made mincemeat of its prey.
“When you’re talking about the teeth, like a shark, they replaced and regrew their teeth throughout their whole life,” Blasing said. The Acrocanthosaurus’ stunted forelimbs are believed to have helped hold its victims.
A name that goes back to its back.
Acrocanthosaurus, which means “high-spined lizard,” gets its name for the ridge of neural spines that ran down its back like a sail-shaped hump. Blasing believes the spines were lightly colored, perhaps to attract a mate or to warn off a predator.
A carnivore that liked its meals large and small.
The Acrocanthosaurus was a meateater that fed mostly on ornithopods, which were smaller bipedal dinosaurs, and sauropods, much larger dinosaurs with long necks.
It rarely kept its chin up.
The Acrocanthosaurus’ semicircular ear canals show it likely tilted its head downward at about 25 degrees below horizontal, basically so it could see past its nose, Blasing said. The dinosaur’s large nasal cavities suggest a good sense of smell.
Acros hatched their babies.
Like all dinosaurs, the Acrocanthosaurus had its young by laying eggs.
An original Okie.
The acro may not get the spotlight in all those “Jurassic Park” movies, but it’s still quite the star in the Sooner State.
The Acrocanthosaurus is the official state dinosaur of Oklahoma, where it was first uncovered in the 1940s in Atoka County, hence the species name “atokensis.” In 1983, amateur paleontologists in Idabel, Okla., unearthed the most complete acro skeleton: a 40-foot wonder with its skull and more than half its skeleton intact.
Allen and Fran Graffham of Geological Enterprises in Ardmore, Okla., helped preserve that fragile fossil, which was named Fran. The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences later bought Fran for $3 million.