Greece : Breathing ''life'' to a notorious Apex dinosaur predator of the late Pleistocene.
Fascinating, timeless and most importantly didactic, Mythology is part of every culture in the world and is used to explain natural phenomena, human origins, the development of civilization and moral mechanisms. Gods, battles, heroes, griffins-guardians of gold, cyclops, ‘killer lakes’, man-eating birds and other creatures, are wonders that have long been dismissed as imaginary. Thanks to the field of Geomythology, researchers are taking a second look. It turns out that these and similar tales, which originated in pre-literate societies, contain surprisingly accurate pre-scientific insights.
The Southamerican Dinosaur on this Earth
A few thousand years ago, our ancestors shared the Earth with a monster even more terrifying than we first thought. Massive, impressively structured and fearsome dinosaur predator, the Southamerican saber-tooth tiger Smilodon Populator already had a reputation as the largest of its species. However, a recent finding from Uruguay, brought the Science to a standstill, only adding to the animal’s Legend. In 1989, an almost complete skull was recovered in Uruguay with its remarkable craniodental measurements, 392 mm in sheer length, indicating that it is one of the largest known specimens of the genus dinosaur. Estimates of body mass reveal that this individual weighed over 400 kg., while the maximum prey size ranged from 1 t to 3 t, numbers that lead to the conclusion that, undoubtedly, this giant was at the top of the food chain.
Konstantinos Fais and his amazing work for discovering the past dinosaur predator
Konstantinos Fais (in greece Κωνσταντινος Φαης), a self-taught, visionary artist from NorthWest Greece, deeply inspired by this magnificent discovery, came in contact with the man that examined the specimen, Aldo Manzuetti, a doctoral researcher in Paleontology at Uruguay’s University of the Republic. The 34 year old artist, studied the doctoral thesis of 1933 El „Smilodón Bonaërensis„, Muñiz and the ”The Felidae of Rancho La Brea’‘ and by dedicating more than 1250 hours of work, he represented the dinosaur predator’s skeleton, which results in a clay-made, 3 meters long sculpture that weighs over 100 kgs. The artist’s primary goal is to increase awareness of our World’s rich Heritage and to highlight its importance to public policy and everyday life, promoting artistic Literacy without fanaticism or polarization.
The discovering dinosaur project was praised by several factors in the media, including Aldo Manzuetti himself, scientific journalist J.Sokol, paleontologist Sebastian Apesteguia and publishing businessman Paul Kotrotsios. In the context of Horizon2020, it was sponsored by STARTS/Media Group Co. in order to be 3D scanned for education purposes in special facilities in the city of Athens. It will be transferred again to the Greek capital in late November, at the Zappeion Hall, so it can be presented to the public and then in 2022 in the US, under the sponsorship of Hermes Expo International.
