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Extinct Animal Questions
Topic Started: Nov 26 2013, 10:24 PM (193,313 Views)
Mathius Tyra
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Rat snake is love... Rat snake is life

Is it possible that animal within the same family could have pretty different layout of integument, for example like a member in Proceratosauridae would have long shaggy feather covering all of its tail while another member has completely bared scaly tail? Of ocurse, both have feather covering the majority of their body, but different in the tail's integument.
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Incinerox
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Āeksiot Zaldrīzoti

babehunter1324
Feb 14 2016, 11:38 AM
But if Ceratosaurus lived in dry and sparsely forested regions why would it have such short legs and profile compressed body? Those seem better suited for an ambush predator that relies on cover than for one that runs down prey in open terrain. Would really walking efficiency make up for those shortcomings?

In another way that could somewhat explain the jaw morpholgy of Ceratosaurus, if it prefered mostly barren landscapes prey items would not be available in big numbers, and with those proportionally huge skull and teeth would had helped kill it's prey, probably using multiple attacks and slower methods for larger animals and quicker methods for smaller prey (AFAIK modern Komodo Dragons do seem to kill medium sized preys like boars and deer much faster than the very large aquatic buffalo, using both venom and tackling the prey into submission).

As for the way vultures interact around carcasses while it's true that larger species do dominate the rest they generally use intimidation rather than direct attacks on smaller, weaker species, meanwhile some species like the Griffon Vulture and the Rüpell's vulture use intraespecific vilolent against each other a lot more often.
It only needed to be faster than the weakest member of the herd it's tracking. Noting as well that, according to Witton, Camarasaurus was extremely common in these arid regions too, and I don't recall them being that quick.

Also, who said it'd have to be devoid of cover? Dead trees, xerophytes, even the terrain itself could be of use if needed. But even then, why bother hiding when you're letting the heat and drought do the dirty work?

It's more reasonable to suggest an arid environment than a swampy one for Ceratosaurus, that much needs to be made clear.

And yes, as far as I'm aware, the bit about vultures is still correct.

@Mathyus: Yes. We see that in birds, and we see it in compsognathids.
Edited by Incinerox, Feb 14 2016, 12:02 PM.
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Anas Platyrhynchos
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The Quacky Canine

What kind of dinosaurs lived with Shantungosaurs? I tried looking at it on Wikipedia but there wasn't really that much info on where it lived or what animals it shared it's environment with
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Stan The Man
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Anas Platyrhynchos
Feb 14 2016, 06:21 PM
What kind of dinosaurs lived with Shantungosaurs? I tried looking at it on Wikipedia but there wasn't really that much info on where it lived or what animals it shared it's environment with
lookit what i found
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Paleop
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Paleopterix

considering spinosaurus proportionally different to 90% of all theropods is an 18m long spinosaurus possible?
reason for asking this is this interesting conversation I had.
granted I doubt spino got to 18m (reason is in the link)
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Incinerox
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No, the fanboy/girl is being stupid.
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BossMan, Jake
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Son of God

So I'm doing this scientific research paper for my English class and we are allowed to delve into any form of science. I really want to do one in paleontology and with those of you being an expert in that field I was hoping someone could give me some topics I could write about.

At the moment I'm tempted to talk about the new spinosaurus findings but i would like to hear what you have in mind.
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Incinerox
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I did something like this about raptor social behaviour. To this day, my 2nd best assessed piece of work (somehow got beaten by a thesis on the origins of life by like 6%, which I wrote in an afternoon).

I'd refrain from doing something that sums up one species. It'll back you into a corner quite quick, and because it's something that can be summed up in a news article, eh, you lose points for creative merit, in exchange for easier resources. However, the way Spinosaurus is right now, you are likely to come across highly contradictory information - this may or may not work in your favour, depending on the actual essay type. It's good for a summary, but something that tries to argue a point might get undermined.

Novel behavioural implications are usually a good place to start for this kind of thing. The lecturer that marked my paper was a microbiologist so I got extra points for covering new ground to her, and something as frequently discussed as raptor group living meant I had a lot to work with.

Thinking about it now, shoulda rolled with the paleontological route for my dissertation. Oh well.

So yeh, it depends on the type of essay you have to write, but like I said, I'd refrain from limiting yourself to one species. If there's key information for that one species that we don't have, but you need, you'd be in trouble.
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Paleop
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Paleopterix

aside from size, what are the differences between P. walkeri and P.tubicen?
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BossMan, Jake
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Son of God

Crest shape IIRC walkeri was more horizontal and shorter and tubicen was longer and more at an angle
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Incinerox
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P. tubicen had a longer, more curved crest with a more complex internal structure than P. walkeri. It was younger and larger(I think?) too.
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Posted Image Flish
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Just wondering if anyone could give some information on what we actually know about Elaphrosaurus and Deltradromeus.
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Incinerox
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Āeksiot Zaldrīzoti

This sums it up rather nicely:
http://i27.tinypic.com/27y5xmd.jpg

From top to bottom:
>Ceratosaurus
>Elaphrosaurus
>Limusaurus
>Deltadromeus


I don't like how it doesn't include in the Deltadromeus pic what little is known of Bahariasaurus, both the African and South American species.
Edited by Incinerox, Feb 21 2016, 07:45 AM.
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Stan The Man
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I know this might be little to go on, but I'd like help to find this one funky creature. I can't find the book that it's in, and I don't remember its name, or frankly much else. I do remember that its name started with a "C" and was likely an invertebrate, though it might've been some wackjob chordate-thing. If the book was somewhat chronological, as I suspect, then this thing was anywhere from the Cambrian to the Silurian. I don't remember any other details, but here's a quick side-view silhouette I whipped up, that's based off what's supposed to be a life reconstruction from the book- its fossil looked very boney, twig-like, and generally strange. It looked like the bulge in between the two prongs was fleshy or something in contrast to the ossified-looking structure of the rest of the bugger.

Posted Image
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BossMan, Jake
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Son of God

Honestly it looks like a a really poorly drawn dinosaur of some sort XD
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