Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]






Shoot a firework rocket ~ Winners!
Make a forum zoo!

Welcome to The Round Table. We hope you enjoy your visit.


You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.


Join our community!


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Extinct Animal Questions
Topic Started: Nov 26 2013, 10:24 PM (193,253 Views)
Acinonyx Jubatus
Member Avatar
I AM THE UNSHRINKWRAPPER!

54godamora
Nov 14 2016, 10:23 PM
two words: ambush packs
Posted Image

Unless you've got the skills to back up your ambush it's not going to do you any good.
Edited by Acinonyx Jubatus, Nov 14 2016, 10:31 PM.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Incinerox
Member Avatar
Āeksiot Zaldrīzoti

54godamora
Nov 11 2016, 09:25 PM
what lived in mongolia 25 million years ago and what was the environment like?

Hsanda Gol formation. Google it.

BossMan, Jake
Nov 14 2016, 06:20 PM
The armor of ankylosaurus and this goes for other members as well, was the upper region all armored or in between the large osteroderms and other armor plates was there fleshy skin like the under part of the animal?

Ankylosaurs had large polygonal scales between their dorsal scutes. They get progressively smaller down towards the belly, but remained large on the forelimbs (not sure about the hindlimbs).

Furka
Nov 14 2016, 06:54 PM
While Thylacosmilus had teeth designed to kill large prey, it doesn't seem (IMO ta least) to have the bulk to wrestle them like Smilodon, so how exactly would it catch stuff ?

For a start, Thylacosmilus was still the size and build of a modern jaguar. It's not exactly a slouch in terms of power. Next, recent studies imply that its teeth, skull and neck were actually more efficient than those of Smilodon, in exchange for brain power. Killing method would have been the same as that of Smilodon - immobilising prey with its proporionally powerful forelimbs and dextrous paws, driving its teeth into its prey's flesh before pulling back with its large neck muscles to slice off huge chunks from its prey, or sever vital nerves and blood vessels. It's an efficient method that neither requires size nor strong bite forces.

Interesting point to be made here - sabre tooth cats didn't even come close to outcompeting Thylacosmilus and its kind - terror birds, being the badasses they are, did that first.
Edited by Incinerox, Nov 15 2016, 06:48 AM.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
heliosphoros
Member Avatar


Not really, they co-existed with sparassodonts through most of the Cenozoic. If anything terror birds were in decline when thylacosmilids reached their (brief) apex.

Meanwhile, giant opossums and armadillos like Macroeuphractus took the opportunity to evolve as South America's early predator groups entered in decline.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Incinerox
Member Avatar
Āeksiot Zaldrīzoti

Yeah, but sparassodonts came and went while terror birds still stuck around for while after, even if they were in decline.

Main point: Neither lived to see a Smilodon in South America.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Acinonyx Jubatus
Member Avatar
I AM THE UNSHRINKWRAPPER!

So what do people here think about Duane Nash's new blog post about Theropod Cranial display structures? I for one think that, in creatures so clearly predisposed to pummel the Swiss Cheese out of each other, such structures would be a big, obvious target that would cause a lot of blood loss, even when deflated.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Fireplume
Member Avatar
Snok Snok Snerson

Well intra-specific competition would work; frigatebirds for example will gladly tear one another's throat pouches without causing fatal injury, it simply means that the injured male cannot breed for that season.

No reason to think it wouldn't happen with theropods too.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Incinerox
Member Avatar
Āeksiot Zaldrīzoti

Acinonyx Jubatus
Nov 16 2016, 05:45 PM
So what do people here think about Duane Nash's new blog post about Theropod Cranial display structures? I for one think that, in creatures so clearly predisposed to pummel the Swiss Cheese out of each other, such structures would be a big, obvious target that would cause a lot of blood loss, even when deflated.
Elephant seals.

That is all.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Acinonyx Jubatus
Member Avatar
I AM THE UNSHRINKWRAPPER!

I thought frigatebirds and elephant seals were more pneumatically inflatable. The structures Nash seems to be suggesting seem to be inflated with blood. Would that make a differences?
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Incinerox
Member Avatar
Āeksiot Zaldrīzoti

They're almost always air-filled.

Blood would be extremely stupid to use for such features.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
stargatedalek
Member Avatar
I'm not slow! That's just my moe!

Unless the purpose was for it to burst and use the blood as some form of deterrent like a Phrynosoma lizard does such structures are always filled with air or in rare cases water. Blood flow isn't even an efficient method of inflation let alone a safe one.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Acinonyx Jubatus
Member Avatar
I AM THE UNSHRINKWRAPPER!

That's what I thought. So I take it Nash is wrong, then? Here's what he says:

Quote:
 
Indeed what we might be looking at is the potential for soft tissue structures that can be engorged with blood. This could literally create structures - functionally and anatomically congruent with antlers - that would dramatically change in size, shape, and color depending on the mood of the animals.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Incinerox
Member Avatar
Āeksiot Zaldrīzoti

That's where he's flawed.

But the idea of having flappy or inflatable structures in theropods is by no means dumb. Bony crests, when broken in a fight, would likely hurt A LOT MORE than a slashed air sac, and we know many species of theropod that have them.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
TheNotFakeDK
Member Avatar
200% Authentic

I'm assuming this is relating to that talk at the SVP regarding the supratemporal fenestra in theropods being a source of blood-flow rather than just being purely musculature? IIRC there was speculation involved there that the increased blood-flow could support soft-tissue display structures in theropods?
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Acinonyx Jubatus
Member Avatar
I AM THE UNSHRINKWRAPPER!

TheNotFakeDK
Nov 17 2016, 03:09 PM
I'm assuming this is relating to that talk at the SVP regarding the supratemporal fenestra in theropods being a source of blood-flow rather than just being purely musculature? IIRC there was speculation involved there that the increased blood-flow could support soft-tissue display structures in theropods?
Yep, that's the one.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Posted Image Guat
No Avatar


What plants, besides cypress and horsetails, would have lived in Hell Creek's swamps?
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
2 users reading this topic (2 Guests and 0 Anonymous)
Go to Next Page
« Previous Topic · Extinct Animals & Evolution · Next Topic »
Add Reply