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TIME: Almanac 1995
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07279916.000
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1995-02-23
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<text id=92TT1665>
<title>
July 27, 1992: Now for Something Really Nasty
</title>
<history>
TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1992
July 27, 1992 The Democrats' New Generation
</history>
<article>
<source>Time Magazine</source>
<hdr>
THE WEEK, Page 23
HEALTH & SCIENCE
Now for Something Really Nasty
</hdr><body>
<p>A new dinosaur find in Utah makes Tyrannosaurus rex look cuddly
</p>
<p> Dinosaur lore has it that Tyrannosaurus rex, the king of the
giant lizards, was the meanest creature ever to roam the earth:
10 m (33 ft.) long with 15-cm (6-in.) teeth and a voracious
appetite. But fossilized claw, skull and jaw bones found in a
quarry in eastern Utah point to a dinosaur that, while smaller
than Tyrannosaurus, was probably a whole lot nastier. Labeled
the "Utahraptor" until a more suitable scientific name can be
found, the 7-m (20-ft.), one-ton beast is the largest specimen
ever seen of a variety of dinosaur known as the Velociraptor, an
upright, fast-moving carnivore that sported an enormous claw on
the back of each foot for slashing at prey. It was, according to
one researcher, "the wolverine of the Cretaceous."
</p>
<p> Until the latest discovery, the largest veloci raptor ever
found was about the size of a human. But that did not stop
Steven Spielberg from featuring supersize velociraptors in his
upcoming movie Jurassic Park, based on the Michael Crichton
novel of the same name. In it, real dinosaurs, grown from bits
of ancient DNA to populate a theme park, go on a rampage and
terrorize humans trapped there. Until the Utah find, Spielberg's
creatures would have been just another Hollywood exaggeration;
now, they will seem even more monstrously real.
</p>
</body></article>
</text>