Name:
Edmarka (after paleontologist Bill Edmark); pronounced ed-MAR-ka
Habitat:
Woodlands of North America
Historical Period:
Late Jurassic (150-145 million years ago)
Size and Weight:
About 35 feet long and 2-3 tons
Diet:
Meat
Distinguishing Characteristics:
Large size; short arms with long claws
About Edmarka:
Just how confident was the famous paleontologist Robert Bakker when the found the fossils of Edmarka in the early 1990's? Well, he dubbed this presumed new genus of large theropod Edmarka rex, after its more famous cousin of the late Cretaceous period, Tyrannosaurus Rex. The trouble is, most paleontologists believe that Edmarka was actually a species of Torvosaurus (and, even more confusingly, other paleontologists believe that Torvosaurus was actually a species of Allosaurus!) Whatever you choose to call it, Edmarka was clearly an apex predator of late Jurassic North America, and one of the scariest predatory dinosaurs until the advent of full-sized tyrannosaurs tens of millions of years later.
