Could A Therizinosaurus Kill A Giganotosaurus.

Both Therizinosaurus and Giganotosaurus were two massive therapods dinosaurs living millions of years apart, at different times and thousands of miles away from each other and in vastly different environments. But what if they met each other, and had a fight. One was one of the most massive predators the world has ever seen, and the other was a wolverine clawed plant eater not afraid to defend itself. Could a Therizinosaurus kill a Giganotosaurus? We take a look here.

In almost every encounter a Giganotosaurus would kill Therizinosaurus. Therizinosaurus may have had 6 claws over 3 feet long on each forelimb, but it was a herbivore and would choose to run rather than fight. Giganotosaurus was one of the largest predators on Earth and with 60 plus teeth up to 8 inches long.

To be warned, this article does included spoilers for Jurassic World Dominion, so if you haven’t seen it and have ended up here and don’t want to know what happens then you have your answer in the bolded section above! you can go look at either the giganotosaurus page or the Therizinosaurus pages on these links instead.

25 Facts about the Therizinosaurus

Therizinosaurus Vs. Giganotosaurus: Who would Win

To explore this we are going to have to take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of both the giganotosaurus and the Therizinosaurus and see how if there is a clear winner and then look at different circumstances they might win.

Dinosaur Feature	Therizinosaurus	Giganotosaurus	Points go to…
Length of Dinosaur	Up to 33 feet in Length	Up to 43 feet in length	Giganotosaurus Wins it was much longer even at lower estimates
Height of Dinosaur	When standing could be 16 feet tall.	12- 13 feet when walking, unknown when standing up tall	Therizinosaurus Wins Although it may be similar in height when all said and done, it would be unwise for giganotosaurus to expose its throat to a dinosaur with 6 – 3 feet long knives as fingers!
Weight of dinosaur	Possibly up to 11,000 lbs in weight ( 5000 Kg)	Possibly over 17,000 lbs	Giganotosaurus Wins Again even at lower estimates Giganotosaurus was a much heavier dinosaur than Therizinosaurus.
Jaws and Head	It had a small head and its mouth was formed into a beak, more for foliage than flesh.	A huge head and jaws, perhaps the largest of any predator possibly 6 feet long.	Giganotosaurus wins A clear win for the carnivore giganotosaurus, it was built to kill things with its bite.
Teeth	Although Therizinosaurus did have teeth these were towards the back of its mouth and not for cutting.	Up to 76 teeth some as long as 8 inches. There is no competition here	Giganotosaurus win. Its sharp serrated teeth were deadly to much bigger prey than Therizinosaurus.
Claws	therizinosaurus had 2 sets of 3 claws. Possibly up to 3.2 feet long (over 1 metre) and curved and sharpened at the end. Not only that its arms were 8 feet long, and powerful. Those Claws were not for show. (probably)	Although possibly slightly longer arms than a T-Rex and an extra finger, claws were only going to be useful close in, and thick feathers may have caught them up.	Therizinosaurus wins There is no competition here, 6 claws the length of swords versus 3 claws probably about 3 inches on the curve.
Strength	It had strong arms and strong legs and was able to stand and walk on two legs comfortably. It would be taller than its only threat the tarbosaurus.	Huge powerful legs neck and jaws, all designed to take down prey bigger (less well defended than a Therizinosaurus) but still much bigger.	Giganotosaurus Wins Although Therizinosaurus was strong and large, giganotosaurus extra weight and strength in its legs would win through. Points Giga
Speed	It would not have relied on speed to get away, more likely intimidation by size or claws, however like most animals they can move when they need to.	Although predators can be speedy and fast the larger these theropods got the less their bones could take, at least with T-Rex that holds true. Although Estimates suggest 32 km for this dinosaur, it hard to agree.	Tied Score This was certainly not a lightweight battle, and if therizinosaurus was perhaps more agile than given credit for it may be quite close. Giganotosaurus was a predator, but used to attacking large Sauropods ( maybe)
Intimidation Factor	Although in real life it would be pretty intimidating, as a cross between a 30 foot plus turkey, Freddie Kruger and Wolverine, in the movies it looks even more threatening. If the Indominus Rex would give the parents nightmares then this dinosaur would require a change of underwear.	Scary certainly, a T-Rex Sized predator with slightly longer arms, and a little bigger ( in the movie) But we have seen this before, and Therizinosaurus lived with tarbosaurus ( another huge carnivorous Dinosaur. So to it at least, scary yes, but not something it hasn’t seen before.	Blue Team Win Although Giganotosaurus was of course massive, and massively scary. There is something about a 30 foot long chicken with feet long knives on powerful hands that comes straight out of a horror novel.
Can Do attitude	More likely spending its days plodding by river sides with plenty of food, would fight when needed but it wasn’t needed very often.	Literally has to kill to survive, and not only kill but take one some of the largest, or at least their juveniles, Dinosaurs of all time.	Red Team Win giganotosaurus was an apex predator, it didnt know when to quit, ( clearly) and although unsuccessful it kept on trying.
Famous Friends	Although looking, in movies at least, considerably more agile and frankly evil that it would in real life ( we think) it had feathers, ate plants and could call on help from another huge Carnivorous dinosaur Tyrannosaurus Rex, or was it the other way around….	Not a hugely popular dinosaur when it was alive, giganotosaurus would have suffered by being to successful – Unlikely to call on help from other dinosaurs.	Blue Team Win Therizinosaurus wins the points for having T-Rex as a tag team buddy. Giga was described as being like the joker in batman, and popularity wasn’t his thing either.

Final Score Therizinosaurus Vs. Giganotosaurus

Therizinosaurus 5 – Close but predator vs prey usually only one result

Giganotosaurus 6 – One of the largest predators does what it needs to do.

Final Result: Giganotosaurus Wins

So although there is a clear winner it is worth taking a quick, we promise, look at a couple of factors on why Giganotosaurus would beat a Therizinosaurus. We do that below.

Did Therizinosaurus use its claws for defense?

there is no direct evidence that Therizinosaurus used it claws aggressively when being attacked by other dinosaurs. In fact it seems that it would be unlikely to be attacked too often when fully grown as it would be both to large and to intimidating. .

The environment it lived in had predators, plenty of raptors and even the similar sized ( to therizinosaurus) tarbosaurus. This was a T-Rex relative while smaller than giganotosaurus was as scary and as as well armed, or toothed, as its larger relative.

However a full grown Therizinosaurus would have stood taller and it would have been difficult to grab higher than the chest or large stomach of the Therizinosaurus and would be well in range of those claws. So while there is no evidence it doesn’t mean that – if needed a quick slash or stab wouldn’t happen!

If, and it could never happen outside of movies, a predator the size of Giganotosaurus did take on a Therizinosaurus, although probably still a little shorter, it would have been tall enough to grab the neck, and still receive a stab of course. At that point it would be who hurt who the most and even though Therizinosaurs had 6 claws, Giganotosaurus had over 60 teeth.

Therizinosaurus were intimidators not fighters.

It is much more widely held ( but less fun a theory) that these claws while being used to pull and shed branches to eat could also be used to be waved about to put off predators.

If “man” is the greatest predator on the planet ever, then it would work with me! A large 33 feet long chicken waving 6 wolverine claws at me while looking angry, and i would go elsewhere for my dino snack!!

A predator seeing this intimidation display on a large dinosaur would realistically probably feel the same as I do. Self preservation is an instinct in every living thing on the planet, now and extinct.

Herbivores don’t look for a Fight.

Therizinosaurus was a herbivore ( we think, and the people in the movie hope) and while they will defend if faced with a dinosaur the size of Giganotosaurus their, and frankly almost any other animal ever, would be to get out of its way. Fighting would not be a high priority for a therizinosaurus, or another herbivore.

Of course if it under attack then it would defend, but most of the time it would just try to get the hell outta there.

In the Animal and dinosaur Kingdoms, at least, Might is right.

Predators Prefer an Easy Meal

Finally, most predators do not really want to have to fight to the death for their food. They can, are capable and occasionally may have to, but it is certainly not their first choice.

• Lions look for smaller / young animals
• tigers look for small deer and antelopes
• Sharks don’t choose whales to eat (unless they are dead)

This is all for the same reason, risk, attacking something the same size as you increases the risk of injury, if a predator is injured it cant hunt, if it can’t hunt it cant eat – game over.

Now giganotosaurus did seem to punch up, as well as down. It may have targeted large sauropods which are considerably larger that it, but this was potentially, even with their massive tails, less risky that taking on a fully grown Freddie Kruger Therizinosaurus.

25 Facts About The Giganotosaurus For Kids

Jurassic World Dominion Spoiler below

So it has come to our attention that this fight be more than just guesswork by us. It is looking like the final fight between the dinosaurs in Jurassic World Dominion (there is always a final fight) is a three-way fight like in Jurassic World between the T-Rex the Giganotosaurus and this time the Therizinosaurus.

With the Therizinosaurus being the dispatcher of the Giganotosaurus after the T-Rex pushes it on to the claws of the Therizinosaurus which kills it.

Of course its a movie, and while a Therizinosaurus could probably cause some damage to a giganotosaurus before being killed and eaten, it would not be hanging around while two huge apex predators were duking it out!

It would be getting outta there as fast as its huge legs could take it!

However it looks cool and those 3 feet long claws are much cooler when used like Wolverine instead of used like salad forks!!

Conclusion

So while the Therizinosaurus did indeed kill the Giganotosaurus in The movie Jurassic world Dominion, in real life ( though it would literally never happen) it would be quite different 99 times out of 100. Giganotosaurus would simply over power the lighter and less aggressive Therizinosaurus. So it’s pretty lucky they are separate bout 1000s of miles and about 30 million years!

Sources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giganotosaurus
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therizinosaurus
• https://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~rwest/wikispeedia/wpcd/wp/t/Therizinosaurus.htm