The Queue: Prehistoric

Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Matthew Rossi is your "Hey, it's that guy" guy today.

Not going to waste any time on my trifling little stories about the time I was shot in the leg with an arrow or the time I made a flamethrower to hunt rats in the basement of a collapsed mansion, it's time to talk about prehistoric animals!

Elizabeth Harper (@Faience ) asks:
What dinosaur do you most want to see in the next WoW expansion?

See, the question isn't which dinosaur. It's which animals. I love so many different kinds. Not just dinosaurs, but all shapes and sizes of extinct fauna. Because oh man. First up, as always, I'm pulling for Inostrancevia (seen above) a gorgonopsid therapsid from the Permian. No, she's not a dinosaur, she's more closely related to us than to them. But she's still awesome. Look at that jaw full of teeth. Next up, I'd like to see some more basal forms, older Triassic ones like Plateosaurus and Liliensternus. And that's just for starters - I'd love an Eocene inspired zone with Andrewsarchus and Megacerops. Then a smattering of Oligocene species like Paraceratherium and Hyaenadon Gigas and man, I could serious just natter on about this all day. There are like three different species of prehistoric crocodillian I'd like to see in WoW, at least two flightless prehistoric predatory birds, a whole bunch of ancient pre-dinosaurian archosaurs... so much that would be so awesome.

But yeah, my first choice is Inostrancevia.

Michael A. Spano Jr. asks:
Come back to WoW now or wait for next patch or expansion?

Someone linked me this awesome article about Lythronax argestes, a tyrannosaurid from 80 million years NC, some 12 or so million years before Tyrannosaurus evolved. What's fascinating about Lythronax is that it has the same basic skull design as T-Rex, despite not being found in the area they believed the ancestors of T-Rex were to be found, and also being much earlier than anyone expected for a tyrannosaurid with that particular skull development of forward facing eyes and a powerful hind-skull with good muscle anchoring positions. It's really cool because it means there's all sorts of lost tyrannosaurs in the rocks we've yet to find that could explain a whole new idea for how and where T-Rex evolved.

As for your question, come back now. I have no idea why people always want to wait for the next patch. You could be having fun now.

Orkchop asks:
Which raid is the most melee friendly?

One of my favorite ceratopsians is Titanoceratops ouranos, which is only known from one specimen. That specimen was originally thought to be a Pentaceratops but it was later assigned to its own unique species in 2011. It's got one of the biggest skulls of any ceratopsian - considering Pentaceratops was considered to be around five tons, and Torosaurus thought to be over six (back before they started arguing back and forth that Torosaurus was just an adult form of Triceratops) this means that Titanoceratops could well top out at over 8 tons.

As for melee friendly raids, we haven't had one in years. I mean, seriously, I guess Icecrown Citadel and the current Siege of Orgrimmar have their melee friendly moments. but neither really count as melee friendly on the whole.

ptay313 asks:
Assuming Warlords of Draenor is the next expansion, am I the only one disappointed that it got leaked? I was really excited that we were so close to the reveal and no one had a clue yet. So excited, I bought the virtual pass so that my friends and I could all watch the reveal together. Now it's kinda lost some of its grandeur and mystery. :(

Few people know about Acrocanthosaurus, one of the largest predatory dinosaurs in North America during the early Cretaceous period. Acros were big for predators of that period, the type specimen estimated at 38 feet long (11.5 meters) and weighing around six tons. Part of the Allosaur/Carcharodontosauridae lineage (and thus related to Giganotosaurus and Carcharodontosaurus) its name (meaning 'high-spined lizard') comes from the large array of elongated spines on its vertebrae. A 40 foot long, six ton predator, and it barely gets mentioned. Man, people are jaded.

I have no idea if you're the only person disappointed, but knowing there's a name trademarked has done absolutely nothing to keep me from being ludicrously interested in what we'll find out at BlizzCon. Part of me thinks they deliberately filed this week to get us pumped. It worked on me.

Oh, and definitely add some Acrocanthosaurus to the list of dinosaurs I want to see in WoW.

WilliamCardinal asks:
Q4tQ. There is no way I can attend Blizzcon and frankly as a student with a family I can't afford a virtual ticket either. However, all I'm really interested in is the expansion reveal/ info. What time on Friday should we expect the actual reveal? First thing, that night? And, without a virtual ticket, am I going to be able to find the reveal trailer online somewhere within a reasonable amount of time? I've played since Beta and love the game, I am just not sure how long I will be able to go this weekend without knowing/ seeing it.

Speaking of large North American dinosaurs, Alamosaurus is possibly the largest dinosaur ever to walk on what is now North American soil. It's name is not based on the Alamo in Texas, but rather the rock formation in which it was found, in New Mexico. As a Cretaceous dinosaur (a member of the Titanosauria) it may have come up into the region from South America after a reconnection of the two continents, or it may have descended from other early Cretaceous Titanosaurids, but either way it was a massive sauropod - it's upper limit is currently unknown.

As for when the next expansion will be announced, it is very likely going to be during the opening ceremonies, and as long as you're reading WoW Insider at the time, you'll doubtlessly find out shortly after that, cause I promise you we're going to be covering that.

And that's the Queue for today. Oh, we should be able to get Eoraptor battle pets.

Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW Insider crew is here with The Queue, our daily Q&A column. Leave your questions in the comments, and we'll do our best to answer 'em!