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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 07/20/2007 : 22:58:58
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Findings overthrow conventional view of ancient creatures
Think of little Tommy Tyrannosaur roving and hunting small creatures almost from when he was hatched, then gradually attacking and eating larger and larger animals, until, at last mature, he is ruler of the ancient world.
Eek! A bug!
Now think again.
A peer-reviewed paper to soon be published in the British scientific journal Nature presents sound evidence that the majority within all species of dinosaurs actually lived with their immediate ancestors, often staying with them all the way into middle age.
"The fossil evidence," says lead author, Dr. Amos Famous, "shows clearly that most dinosaurs were nerdy, socially inept creatures, which rarely ventured outdoors on their own."
The reason for this behavior, the paper argues, was "bullying" by a small number of more athletic, popular dinosaurs. "A single bully in a neighborhood could keep a hundred meeker dinosaurs at home," the article says.
Bullying among Centrosauri.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
Edited by - HalfMooner on 07/20/2007 23:03:44
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 07/25/2007 : 11:13:33 [Permalink]
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This one skipped through the home page so fast, I didn't see it.
But, funny you should mention this because I've read that dinosaurs did just that, less the room in the basement. Dinosaurs Were Doting Parents, Fossil Find Suggests
Stefan Lovgren
for National Geographic News
September 8, 2004
A newly announced dinosaur discovery in China suggests that the prehistoric creatures put in some quality parenting time.
Last year researchers unearthed the fossil remains of a Psittacosaurus, a plant-eating, parrotlike dinosaur that grew to be a meter (three feet) tall. The adult was surrounded by 34 juveniles, a close association that indicates that the dinosaur continued to care for its young even after they hatched from eggs.
The discovery suggests that the care that crocodiles, birds, and other modern descendents of archosaurs give to their young may be an ancestral characteristic. (Archosaurs are a subclass of reptiles that includes dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and crocodilians.)
"People often thought that parental care evolved in birds. But now we're accumulating evidence for parental care in dinosaurs," said David Varricchio, an assistant professor of earth sciences at Montana State University in Bozeman.
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Can you imagine T. rex as a broody hen?
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Most dinosaurs lived with their parents
