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back to article Bone-bothering boffins pull TINY fanged dinosaur from drawers

A two-foot long dinosaur with the beak of a parrot, teeth of a vampire and covered in some sort of bristly quill stuff is the latest new dinosaur to be identified. The Pegomastax africanus scampered around the earth 200 million years ago, announced Dr Paul C. Sereno, a palaeontologist at the University of Chicago, describing …

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  1. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
    Coat

    One thing we will never know is

    did it taste like chicken?

    Mine is the one with the cookery book in the pocket

    More seriously: nice work finding this strange creature!

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    They think it was a herbivore? Are they sure? Did they write the paper after lunch?

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    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Headmaster

      Some omnivores have teeth like that. Gorillas and Hippos come to mind too. Or bears. (Not including the beaks of cause!)

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  3. Captain Hogwash

    Skeksis

    ...want to be friends.

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    1. I'm Brian and so's my wife
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      Re: Skeksis

      ... want to *help* Gelfling

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      1. Ragarath
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        Re: Skeksis

        Excellent, had thought it looked familiar but could not put my finger on it. Both of you have an upvote.

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  4. Dawid

    El Reg?

    Is it just me or does that first pic look an awful lot like a vulture?

    I think you should adopt it as your new logo.

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    1. Euripides Pants
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      Thumb Up

      Re: El Reg?

      A Saber-toothed Vulture!

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  5. Laurie

    "Same size as a cat, but somehow less attractive..."

    More attractive to me - I bloody hate cats! Love the description "terrifying bitey scrag-beast" though; sounds like my second wife.

    Spawn of Satan, 'cause that's what cats are.

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  6. Arctic fox

    That is one...

    ....nasty looking sucker!

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  7. Dan Paul
    Devil

    Cat's are great judges of character!

    Speaking of exes, one of my cats never got along with an ex girlfriend who I later caught cheating on me.

    Looks like the cat knew better than I did. That's what I get for listening to the wrong pussy.

    So Laurie, maybe you had a childhood issue with a cat and developed your fear then. Otherwise cats you have met hate you for a valid reason.

    Either way, sounds like a problem with you, not the cats.

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    1. Laurie
      Reply Icon

      Re: Cat's are great judges of character!

      Wow! Sorry to hear about your ex girlfriend Dan, that's always tough.

      A few things though:

      1) Cats like me, I just don't like them.

      2) I'm not afraid of cats, I just don't like them.

      3) If you treated your ex girlfriend as a human being instead of just thinking of her as "pussy" maybe she wouldn't have cheated on you.

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      1. Richard Plinston
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        Re: Cat's are great judges of character!

        > 3) If you ...

        Advice from the man who has had several wives ?

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        1. Laurie
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          Thumb Up

          Re: Cat's are great judges of character!

          Your right - I've had loads of wives... Been married a couple of times too! ;)

          Sometimes things just don't work out Richard. Always treated my spouses well though.

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        2. Fibbles
          Reply Icon
          Trollface

          Re: Cat's are great judges of character!

          "Advice from the man who has had several wives ?"

          I'd rather take relationship advice from a man who's actually been in one. I'm sure you have an amazing rapport with your cat but that's not really the same...

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      2. Dan Paul
        Reply Icon
        Devil

        Re: Cat's are great judges of character!

        3) I always treated her as a human being (paid her bills, raised her kid, never made her do my laundry,etc, etc.) while we were together however the allure of the pun was too strong to resist and and her cheating on me w/ a friend of mine (at the time) qualifies all manner of derogatory terminology to be allowed. Could have used the phrase "Cunning Stunt" but then people would not have spit up their morning beverage. BTW, I have a much nicer GF that the cat approves of.

        1) Did you ask the cat?

        2) That's what they all say.

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    2. fishman
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      Re: Cat's are great judges of character!

      We have a cat. It is a nasty, evil thing. Too bad our boa is too small to eat it.

      3 2
      1. hayseed
        Reply Icon

        Re: Cat's are great judges of character!

        Three words: Florida Everglades Holiday

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    3. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Cat's are great judges of character!

      "So Laurie, maybe you had a childhood issue with a cat and developed your fear then. Otherwise cats you have met hate you for a valid reason."

      Maybe she just didn't contract brain parasites from the filthy beasts at an early age and as a result has not had her mind altered to be more amenable to cats?

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    4. Peter Johnstone
      Reply Icon
      Pint

      Re: Cat's are great judges of character!

      "That's what I get for listening to the wrong pussy"

      I'm glad my drink was on the table and not in my mouth when I read that!

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  8. Mage Silver badge
    Devil

    Bulls, Hippos and Rhinos are herbivores. Swans don't even need to peck to break your arm.

    (You should see how Hippos deal with crocodiles)

    How hard would it have nipped? How aggressive was it?

    I'd rather meet a friendly carnivore than some Herbivores

    Icon for the fangs of course.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      The scariest hands in all dinosaurdom?

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Therizinosaurus_claw.jpg

      Despite the Freddy Kruger tribute act, Therizinosaurus was almost certainly a herbivore

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      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Alert

        Try these...

        http://www.flickr.com/photos/arkfinder/1544408774/

        Impressively that's (almost) all we directly know of the species - the fossil record is so patchy:

        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deinocheirus

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      2. Stubar
        Reply Icon
        Happy

        RE: The scariest hands in all dinosaurdom?

        Juvenile I know, but followed the link and laughed at the thumbnail :)

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  9. Whys

    Every time I see the word "Boffin" in an " news article", I think to myself, "not real journalism."

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Paris Hilton

      Trick cyclists concur

      The Institute for Studies announced that more 5 Bulgarian funbags full of "boffin" references measurably increases the likelihood of a Paris icon being used!

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    2. The Indomitable Gall
      Reply Icon

      You're reading too far, then.

      There's a big red banner there that says clearly what you're reading. The word "boffin" appears significantly below the *red* at the *top* of the page.

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    3. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      As I understand it, a "boffin" is a scientist or engineer engaged in military research. The last time I was referred to as one (by a sergeant in REME) was around 1983.

      It was possibly the most complimentary remark I ever had: "You know, Sir, for a boffin you're quite sensible".

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  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Is it me...

    Or do the two pictures show completely different creatures? I cannot find two names, have I missed them? No offense, but a lot of these artists take the mickey when drawing these things.

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    1. Fibbles
      Reply Icon

      Re: Is it me...

      Taking the mickey? They're reconstructing animals that lived hundreds of millions of years ago with nothing more to go on than some warped fossilised bones and some guesses based on the appearance of modern animals.

      If two different artists created representations of the same dinosaur and there were no discrepancies between the two, I'd seriously be asking what they know that we don't.

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      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Is it me...

        "Jurassic Park" (I don't think a single dinosaur except the T-Rex was correct in that one)

        Enough said. But if it's not, I'm not talking about the actual paleontologists, just perhaps the artists making things look as they don't.

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        1. laird cummings
          Reply Icon

          Re: Re: Is it me...

          Actually, shortly after the movie was filmed the Utahraptor rose to popular awareness in the general public; a near-on replica of the baddies in that film (minus the feathers).

          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utahraptor

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  11. Graham Bartlett

    John Blanche, anyone?

    Looks like he's had some serious input into that pencil drawing.

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  12. BlueGreen

    Setting us up for this one aren't you

    Well here goes....... drumroll please........

    "Rather your drawers than mine"

    Thank you.

    I'm not here all night, if you want the funny stuff TeeCee's yer man.

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  13. Derk

    Still around in Mexico, if you believe the locals

    Chupacabra

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