A newly discovered dinosaur has been named after a Targaryen dragon!
We know Game of Thrones has an enormous cultural reach, and now it’s staking its claim on the fossil record. Last week a new species of giant carnivorous dinosaur was discovered by researchers at Las Campanas Canyon in Argentina, just 25 kilometers south of Villa El Chocón. Proving that scientists are the OG nerds, they named this new dino Meraxes gigas, after the dragon Rhaenys Targaryen rode during Aegon’s Conquest of Westeros.
This is important for a couple of reasons: 1) A dragon from A Song of Ice and Fire has been immortalized in the annals of dinosaur history, and; 2) Meraxes g. represents a pretty important finding that could have broad implications about other gigantic carnivores like the Tyrannosaurus Rex. Meraxes gigas is a large species of dinosaur called a carcharodontosaurid, which is believed to have gone extinct during the middle of the Cretaceous period, up to 20 million years before the T. Rex ever walked the Earth.
Despite being only distantly related, Meraxes g. shares the Rex’s very large head and small arms. This marks the third time a disparate dinosaur species has been discovered with that biological make-up, which is leading scientists to believe that the tiny arms are actually directly caused by these types of carnivorous dinosaurs evolving an oversized head to help them crunch down their prey.
Dinosaur named after Meraxes is reframing the way scientists look at T. Rex
Scientists the world over are weighing in on what it all means. “The fact that you see it over and over again in parallel does suggest that there might be a common driver,” said Matthew Carrano, curator of dinosaurs at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, in reference to the Meraxes g.’s smaller arms. “Once you stop using something for function, evolution will start to get rid of it because it’s costly to build and maintain any structure.”
Carano added that this Meraxes gigas is “by far the best” preserved skeleton of a carcharodontosaurid found to date. Per Science.org, more than half the skeleton of the dinosaur was uncovered during the excavation.
Juan Canale was one of the leads of the dig that uncovered the skeleton, and while he’s in agreement that the arms didn’t serve as a primary tool for hunting for a dinosaur like Meraxes gigas or the Tyrannosaurus Rex, he has some ideas about other purposes they may have served.
“I am convinced that those proportionately tiny arms had some sort of function. The skeleton shows large muscle attachments and fully developed pectoral girdles, so the arm had strong muscles,” he said in a statement. “They may have used their arms for reproductive behavior, such as holding the female during mating or supporting themselves to stand up after a fracture or fall.”
Whatever the use of Meraxes gigas’ little arms, there can be no doubt that it was one of the more impressive predators of its day. “It certainly would have looked very imposing and gargoyle-like,” said Peter Makovicky, Canale’s co-author on the study.
Meraxes gigas was believed to have been around 11 meters long. Meraxes the dragon, for the record, was nearly as large as Balerion the Black Dread, who was almost 40 meters long and far larger than Vhagar, one of the largest dragons still around during the House of the Dragon era of Westeros. So for as impressive as the gigas is, the dragon would have probably still had it for lunch.
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