The Ultimate Question NSF has supported many efforts to collect evidence that shines light on the most hotly debated question about the monster creatures. >> more

The Ultimate Question Judd Case, Saint Mary's College of California Credit: Dena Headlee, National Science Foundation What kind of dinosaur was it? How big was this dinosaur? What have you since learned about what the Antarctic environment must have been like 70 million years ago? Requires Real Player

The answer lay not, as one might expect, in 21st century scientific tools such as DNA analysis, because, Case noted, "the genetic material that one would use for such a comparison is all gone," turned to stone like the bones themselves.

Instead, a more venerable method was used to decide they had found something never before seen by science—searching the literature in specialized repositories, such as, in this case, the one at University of California, Berkeley, and comparing the physical evidence they had with characteristics of specimens that had already been described. They made comparisons between their partial skeleton and those of animals from the three known major groups of meat-eating dinosaurs.

"You get more and more specific about 'where does this best fit?' but you've got to start with the major categories first," Case said. "The vast majority of the bones we're finding are from the lower legs, the ankles and the feet. So then you can say, 'If you have this suite of bones, you belong in this group.' We could begin to eliminate groups that way."

"The group it seems to fit in best is one held together by their general primitive theropod characteristics," he added.

Eventually, Case, Martin and their team were certain they had found a new creature previously unknown to science.

But as is often the case in scientific research, new-found answers brought new questions. Questions that likely will have to wait for another day, and perhaps a different expedition, to answer.

"One of the surprising things is that animals with these more primitive characteristics generally haven't survived as long elsewhere as they have in Antarctica," Case said. "For whatever reason, they are still hanging out on the Antarctic continent. Why is this group still here when in other places other groups have displaced them? We don't know."