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Extinct Animal Questions
Topic Started: Nov 26 2013, 10:24 PM (193,273 Views)
TheToastinator
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A piece of toast and a terminator.

Does anyone know of any aquatic dinosaurs (such as Spinosaurus or Koreaceratops)?
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heliosphoros
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Hesperornithes.
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Incinerox
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Āeksiot Zaldrīzoti

Koreaceratops wasn't aquatic.
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stargatedalek
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I'm not slow! That's just my moe!

Incinerox
Aug 20 2016, 05:28 PM
Koreaceratops wasn't aquatic.
^ Obligatory double emphasis for this very persistent trope.

Aside from Spinosaurus and kin the only aquatic dinosaurs known are birds. Albeit a very large number of birds.
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CyborgIguana
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How did the "aquatic Koreaceratops" thing even get started?
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TheNotFakeDK
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200% Authentic

CyborgIguana
Aug 20 2016, 05:51 PM
How did the "aquatic Koreaceratops" thing even get started?
Mostly because it had tall neural spines on the tail, which the authors postulated was an adaptation to swimming.

The same such feature is also known from the desert-living Protoceratops.
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CyborgIguana
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Wasn't the Gobi more scrubland/dry forest than outright desert back then? Still no place for an aquatic ceratopsian, of course.
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stargatedalek
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I'm not slow! That's just my moe!

It was desert but more of a rocky desert like the Sonoran.
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Incinerox
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Actually, when Protoceratops andrewsi and Velociraptor mongoliensis were around, there were dunes. Extensive dunes.

It got more habitable as time went on, as demonstrated in the stratigraphic data available for younger V. osmolskae.
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heliosphoros
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Actually there is also an african ornithopod thought to be aquatic and hippo-like, but I forgot the name.
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Posted Image Dacentru
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heliosphoros
Aug 21 2016, 07:30 AM
Actually there is also an african ornithopod thought to be aquatic and hippo-like, but I forgot the name.
Lurdusaurus ? :)
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Furka
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I think you mean Lurdusaurus.
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Iben
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There'll be no foot-walking! Just air-flying!

CyborgIguana
Aug 20 2016, 06:58 PM
Wasn't the Gobi more scrubland/dry forest than outright desert back then? Still no place for an aquatic ceratopsian, of course.
Depends on how you look at it. Now, I'm not saying it was semi-aquatic or not ( given that the authors simply said it was an adaptation for swimming, not that it was aquatic), but in a desert environment it isn't all that ridiculous to have the ability to swim.

As a herbivore in a desert environment, most of your time is divided between looking for water and spending your time near water. Water isn't only a source for, well, water; but also the source of food. Plantlife in deserts are really abundant around oases compared to other areas in the desert. These spots would have been the ideal spots for herbivores like Protoceratops, much like they are for herbivores today.

One problem though, predators would be coming there too. As a herbivore, having the ability to quickly go into the water and swim away from predators would actually be an advantage, especially if your predators are mostly evolved to be quite fast on land. If you have a tail with a slightly bigger paddle surface, you'd have the advantage in water and would be able to quickly evade your predator.

So, as much as it sounds like a contradiction, there is some sense in having the ability to swim decently in a desert environment.

Of course, if that's truly the function of such neural spines is just a hypothesis. It could just as easily be something amongst the lines of humps in camels today.
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heliosphoros
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Dacentru
Aug 21 2016, 07:34 AM
heliosphoros
Aug 21 2016, 07:30 AM
Actually there is also an african ornithopod thought to be aquatic and hippo-like, but I forgot the name.
Lurdusaurus ? :)


Furka
Aug 21 2016, 07:34 AM
I think you mean Lurdusaurus.



Yes.
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Incinerox
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Āeksiot Zaldrīzoti

Iben
Aug 21 2016, 09:05 AM
CyborgIguana
Aug 20 2016, 06:58 PM
Wasn't the Gobi more scrubland/dry forest than outright desert back then? Still no place for an aquatic ceratopsian, of course.
Depends on how you look at it. Now, I'm not saying it was semi-aquatic or not ( given that the authors simply said it was an adaptation for swimming, not that it was aquatic), but in a desert environment it isn't all that ridiculous to have the ability to swim.

As a herbivore in a desert environment, most of your time is divided between looking for water and spending your time near water. Water isn't only a source for, well, water; but also the source of food. Plantlife in deserts are really abundant around oases compared to other areas in the desert. These spots would have been the ideal spots for herbivores like Protoceratops, much like they are for herbivores today.

One problem though, predators would be coming there too. As a herbivore, having the ability to quickly go into the water and swim away from predators would actually be an advantage, especially if your predators are mostly evolved to be quite fast on land. If you have a tail with a slightly bigger paddle surface, you'd have the advantage in water and would be able to quickly evade your predator.

So, as much as it sounds like a contradiction, there is some sense in having the ability to swim decently in a desert environment.

Of course, if that's truly the function of such neural spines is just a hypothesis. It could just as easily be something amongst the lines of humps in camels today.
Interesting thought.

Then you realise that literally no dinosaur used it's tail to swim. Spinosaurus as an exception, MAYBE.

It really grinds my gears when people assume that a deep tail is meant for swimming. Ceratosaurus and Koreaceratops are the main points here. They simply weren't flat enough, muscled enough, or flexible enough to act as a viable substitute for proportionally large hind legs as a primary means of aquatic propulsion.
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