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Extinct Animal Questions
Topic Started: Nov 26 2013, 10:24 PM (193,328 Views)
BossMan, Jake
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Son of God

Could large ichthyosaurs like Shastasaurus or Shonisaurus prey on smaller ichthyosaurs or other marine reptiles that were alive at the same time? Or were they exclusively fish/squid eaters
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Furka
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IIRC Shasta was a suction feeder or whatever the name was, so I don't see it eating other large vertebrates as something likely unless a very small ichthyosaur found itself in the wrong place at the wrong time.
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54godamora
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what small ichtyosaurs were around at the time?
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SamtheMan
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@54godamora I'd like to know that as well, I've been trying to find out what else might have lived with Shastasaurus but with not much success.

Do we know what kind of skin Postosuchus would've had? I know it had osteoderms, but was the skin closer to a crocodile or komodo dragon in appearance?
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Incinerox
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Āeksiot Zaldrīzoti

Given the nature of archosaur scales and lepidosaur scales, Postosuchus would not have had skin like a monitor lizard anyway. Both were structurally very different. Being a curotarsan as well, it puts it closer proximity to modern croc skin rather than known dinosaur skin if we go by cladistics. All we know was that it had osteoderms. Whether it had the same, large knobbly reticulae as crocs today, or smaller, lighter, superficially dino-like reticulae, remains to be seen.

I'd roll down the middle ground.
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BossMan, Jake
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Son of God

What were the main differences between Edmontonia and Denversaurus?
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Incinerox
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Āeksiot Zaldrīzoti

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denversaurus#Description

Says right there.
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Ulquiorra
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What is the earliest known dinosaur to have had feathers/proto-feathers and what time period did it exist?
Edited by Ulquiorra, Jan 6 2016, 12:09 PM.
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Paleodude
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ex-Krampus

Ulquiorra
Jan 6 2016, 12:09 PM
What is the earliest known dinosaur to have had feathers/proto-feathers and what time period did it exist?
To my knowledge Scurimimus is the earliest known theropod with preserved feathers while Tianyulong is the earliest known ornithscian.
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BossMan, Jake
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Son of God

In the era after the Triassic were there any medium or semi large terrestrial or partially terrestrial "crocodilians"?
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Acinonyx Jubatus
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BossMan, Jake
Jan 7 2016, 02:56 PM
In the era after the Triassic were there any medium or semi large terrestrial or partially terrestrial "crocodilians"?
Off the top of my head, Razanandrongobe is a dubious Pseudosuchian from the early Jurassic of Madagascar. Not sure about elsewhere.
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SamtheMan
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Acinonyx Jubatus and 54godamora wanted to know what other animals lived with Drepanosaurus and Shastasaurus respectively so I did a bit of research to find out what lived with them in their respective environments. Of course I just looked up some basic info about these animals on a couple of sites so if anyone here happens to know more (or if I got something wrong) I certainly won't mind a kind correction!

From what I can tell, Drepanosaurus unguicaudatus has been found in Endenna cave which is part of the Zorzino Limestone Formation in Italy. An immature specimen was found at the Dolomia di Forni Formation, another Italian fossil formation which correlates with the Zorzino in time which was about ~215.6 to 212 million years ago according to fossilworks.org. Drepanosaurus unguicaudatus shared its environment with fellow drepanosaur Megalancosaurus (M. endennae and M. preonensis), the marine phytosaur Mystriosuchus planirostris (plus a second currently unnamed species), the pterosaurs Eudimorphodon ranzii and Peteinosaurus zambellii, and the placodont Psephoderma alpinum. A currently unknown type of theropod is also known from the area. Also found at that time and area are the aetosaur Aetosaurus ferratus, the protorosaur Langobardisaurus pandolfii, possibly both species of Vallesaurus (though it is described as the most primitive drepanosaur so it could be slightly older, again I'm not sure), not to mention a coelacanth (Holophagus picenus) a crustacean (Microcaris minuta) and numerous ray-finned fishes.

There are about 2-3 species of Shastasaurus and 1-2 species of Shonisaurus. Both Shastasaurus pacificus and an unnamed species of Shonisaurus have been found at the Hosselkus Limestone Formation from northern California (the formation is ~235 to 221 million years old so it remains to be seen if all the creatures in the formation were definitely contemporaries or not). Also found at the Hosselkus Limestone Formation are 3 species of Thalattosaurus, Nectosaurus halius, and the smaller ichthyosaurs Toretocnemus (2 species) and Merriamia. Shastasaurus sikanniensis also lived with other ichthyosaurus (species of Macgowania and Callawayia) in the Pardonet Formation of British Columbia. Shonisaurus popularis is known from the Luning Formation in Nevada. I'm not sure of the specific ages of those 2 formations but the Pardonet is supposedly around 210 million years old while the Luning is about 215 million years old.

While I was researching this, I found out that the classification of Shastasaurus sikkanniensis is still apparently a debated one. Do we know for sure at this point if Shastasaurus sikkanniensis is in fact a species of Shastsaurus or a species of Shonisaurus? Thanks in advance!
Edited by SamtheMan, Jan 7 2016, 06:21 PM.
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Acinonyx Jubatus
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SamtheMan
Jan 7 2016, 06:14 PM
Acinonyx Jubatus and 54godamora wanted to know what other animals lived with Drepanosaurus and Shastasaurus respectively so I did a bit of research to find out what lived with them in their respective environments. Of course I just looked up some basic info about these animals on a couple of sites so if anyone here happens to know more (or if I got something wrong) I certainly won't mind a kind correction!

From what I can tell, Drepanosaurus unguicaudatus has been found in Endenna cave which is part of the Zorzino Limestone Formation in Italy. An immature specimen was found at the Dolomia di Forni Formation, another Italian fossil formation which correlates with the Zorzino in time which was about ~215.6 to 212 million years ago according to fossilworks.org. Drepanosaurus unguicaudatus shared its environment with fellow drepanosaur Megalancosaurus (M. endennae and M. preonensis), the marine phytosaur Mystriosuchus planirostris (plus a second currently unnamed species), the pterosaurs Eudimorphodon ranzii and Peteinosaurus zambellii, and the placodont Psephoderma alpinum. A currently unknown type of theropod is also known from the area. Also found at that time and area are the aetosaur Aetosaurus ferratus, the protorosaur Langobardisaurus pandolfii, possibly both species of Vallesaurus (though it is described as the most primitive drepanosaur so it could be slightly older, again I'm not sure), not to mention a coelacanth (Holophagus picenus) a crustacean (Microcaris minuta) and numerous ray-finned fishes.

There are about 2-3 species of Shastasaurus and 1-2 species of Shonisaurus. Both Shastasaurus pacificus and an unnamed species of Shonisaurus have been found at the Hosselkus Limestone Formation from northern California (the formation is ~235 to 221 million years old so it remains to be seen if all the creatures in the formation were definitely contemporaries or not). Also found at the Hosselkus Limestone Formation are 3 species of Thalattosaurus, Nectosaurus halius, and the smaller ichthyosaurs Toretocnemus (2 species) and Merriamia. Shastasaurus sikanniensis also lived with other ichthyosaurus (species of Macgowania and Callawayia) in the Pardonet Formation of British Columbia. Shonisaurus popularis is known from the Luning Formation in Nevada. I'm not sure of the specific ages of those 2 formations but the Pardonet is supposedly around 210 million years old while the Luning is about 215 million years old.

While I was researching this, I found out that the classification of Shastasaurus sikkanniensis is still apparently a debated one. Do we know for sure at this point if Shastasaurus sikkanniensis is in fact a species of Shastsaurus or a species of Shonisaurus? Thanks in advance!
Thanks, this helps a lot! :)
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54godamora
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i hate to bump this topic, but its urgent; what has to be the top 10 most absurd prehistoric animals?
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Acinonyx Jubatus
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54godamora
Jan 9 2016, 08:36 PM
i hate to bump this topic, but its urgent; what has to be the top 10 most absurd prehistoric animals?
Well, in my opinion:

1. Tanystropheus.
2. Drepanosaurus.
3. Opabinia.
4. Atopodentatus.
5. Sharovipteryx.
6. Nyctosaurus and Tupandactylus.
7. Azhdarchid pterosaurs.
8. Carnotaurus.
9. Anurognathids.
10. Platybelodon.

This isn't even considering most of the Cambrian explosion (most of the inhabitant of which make sense, in a weird sort of way, save for Opabinia) and the Ediacaran biota, which would take up the top ten places on this list all by themselves.
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