Thanator Fossil Found!
Found by researcher and historian Jackson Heppler
What is a thanator?
Last week, lead researcher and historian Jackson Heppler of the Maize South Science Organization discovered a claw that traces back to the ancient Thanator. The Thanator was a very large creature built for hunting, running, and leaping. Thanator stood 2.5 meters high and 5.6 meters long and was hexopodal with 6 legs with sharp claws on each toe. Burnish black in color, Thanator breathed from is neck from 2 pairs of opercula (nostrils) on each side. It had 23 centimeter long teeth, and the mouth had flaps that would flip up for maximum tooth extension. Thanator had armor on its neck, back, and tail from cartilaginous plates for protection. Its tail was used for swiftly striking its prey with a fatal blow. There were ten external sensory quills around its body highlighted with red and yellow skin. Its habitat was on the rain forest floor near the subarctic region of Pandora. Its prey was pretty much anything that moved, mainly Avatars or Hammerhead Titanothere.
Notice the flaps on the lips
Artist depiction of the side
Notice the size of the Thanators hands and claws
Discovery of the Claw
The claw was discovered while Heppler was doing research in the rain forest to study the life of the Red-Eyed Tree Frog, when he stumbled across a "root". When he pulled the root out it turned out to be the claw. He took it back to his lab where DNA testing proved it came from the ancient Thanator.
Claw inside the ground
The claw was in the middle of a trail in the rain forest.
Size of the claw
Roughly 13 inches long
In the lab
The ruler we used was too small so we estimated and extra inch was necessary to get the full size.
Top
bottom
back end length
Roughly 3 inches tall and about an inch wide.
Maize South Science Organization
Email: MSSO@usd266.com
Website: MSSO.org
Location: 3701 North Tyler Road, Wichita, KS, United States
Phone: (316) 462-8000