Photo Agency - Astronomy - Space - Nature

> Purgatorius and Bistahieversor

Purgatorius and Bistahieversor

author: Walter B. Myers/Novapix

reference: t-din03-31503

Image Size 300 DPI: 33 * 25 cm

A rat-sized Purgatorius hides amongst the undergrowth of a cretaceous forest while a 30 foot long, 2,000 pound tyrannosaur forages for its next meal in what is today the western United States. Bistahieversor sealeyi is a genus of tyrannosauroid dinosaur. It lived around 75 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous, New Mexico. The name Bistahieversor comes from the Navajo Bistahí, where it was found, and eversor, meaning "destroyer". Adult Bistahieversor are estimated to have been around 9 meters (30 ft) long, weighing at least a ton. Purgatorius is the genus for several species of small omnivorous mammals that are believed to be the among the earliest ancestors of modern-day chimps, rhesus monkeys, and humans. The extinction of the larger and more powerful dinosaurs may have been what led to world's domination by mammals today. While there is no direct evidence that Purgatorius and Bistahieversor ever shared the same wilderness, this image is yet illustrative of the predator-prey relationship that characterized dinosaurs and mammals for many millions of years.

Keywords for this photo:

2011 - ANIMAL - BISTAHIEVERSOR - CRETACEOUS - DINOSAUR - EARTH - FAUNA - HISTORY OF EARTH - ILLUSTRATION - MAMMAL - MESOZOIC - PURGATORIUS - THEROPOD -