quote:

---

A pygmy dinosaur many times smaller than its giant relatives has been found by a fossil hunter searching a stone quarry in Germany. It is the first time scientists have found evidence of dwarfism in dinosaurs, which could have evolved in response to a shortage of food on the island where they lived 150 million years ago.

When the bones were first unearthed in 1998 it was thought they belonged to juvenile sauropods - the biggest animals to walk on land - but a new analysis shows they were, in fact, fully grown adults.

Sauropod dinosaurs such as brachiosaurus grew up to 45 metres (150ft) long and weighed 80 tons. Their diminutive relatives, which were found in a quarry in Lower Saxony, stopped growing at 6mand weighed less than a ton, which is more than 50 times smaller than their larger cousins.

Martin Sander of the University of Bonn and Octavio Mateus of Museo da Lourinha in Lisbon said that a microscopic analysis of the small dinosaur's bones, published in the journal Nature, has confirmed that they were adults rather than juveniles.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by filthy

Why not? Pygmies are well known in modern, isolated populations of various species; certainly it would happen in ancient ones as well.

quote:

---

A pygmy dinosaur many times smaller than its giant relatives has been found by a fossil hunter searching a stone quarry in Germany. It is the first time scientists have found evidence of dwarfism in dinosaurs, which could have evolved in response to a shortage of food on the island where they lived 150 million years ago.

When the bones were first unearthed in 1998 it was thought they belonged to juvenile sauropods - the biggest animals to walk on land - but a new analysis shows they were, in fact, fully grown adults.

Sauropod dinosaurs such as brachiosaurus grew up to 45 metres (150ft) long and weighed 80 tons. Their diminutive relatives, which were found in a quarry in Lower Saxony, stopped growing at 6mand weighed less than a ton, which is more than 50 times smaller than their larger cousins.

Martin Sander of the University of Bonn and Octavio Mateus of Museo da Lourinha in Lisbon said that a microscopic analysis of the small dinosaur's bones, published in the journal Nature, has confirmed that they were adults rather than juveniles.

---

And this, of course, led to specization. They were still sauropods descended from much larger ancestors, but had become entirely different sauropods altogether -- take that, Dr. Dino!

An interesting, modern example of this sort of thing are the rock rattlesnakes (Crotalus lepidus). These tiny serpents -- 20" is a pretty good sized one -- live in pocket populations in rock outcrops and slides where food is not plentiful. It's some pretty hostile terrain and these snakes have developed a catholic diet, which includes such items as centipedes and tarantulas. They are among the world's few, front-fanged snakes to regularly feed on arthropods. They are descended from much larger species that gradually migrated north from Mexico.

This dinosaur find simply demonstrates further what we already know: that evolution never rests. Indeed, it might be considered an anomaly if such pigmies were not found somewhere.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Cuneiformist

Well, I think it's evidence against evolution, and for creation!

---

quote:

---

If they had run into each other, and had thought like humans, my guess is they would have tried. Humans will, ummmmmmm, you know?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Hawks

quote:

---

If they had run into each other, and had thought like humans, my guess is they would have tried. Humans will, ummmmmmm, you know?

---

Except that these beasts had an 80-fold difference in weight. It would be like a human trying to shag a barbie-doll.

Are there any known cases of barbiophilia?

---