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| Extinct Animal Questions | |
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| Topic Started: Nov 26 2013, 10:24 PM (193,426 Views) | |
| Incinerox | Jan 28 2015, 12:14 AM Post #1021 |
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Āeksiot Zaldrīzoti
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SO MANY QUESTIONS! Hold onto your butts everyone, this post's a big one.
1) Depends on the species. The Asian species, S. angustirostris seemed to have stripes on its flanks and tail, based off the arrangement of its scales. Canadian S. osborni was spotted. As for other coloured hadrosaurs, based off this same logic, apparently Corythosaurus had a collar stripe, Parasaurolophus was boring and plain, while Edmontosaurus was what can only be described as an absolute clusterf***. But as for actual colours, we don't know anything at all for hadrosaurs. Only patterns based on scale arrangements. 2) We don't have a clue. And probably won't for a very long time. We're still trying to find enough data to actually establish which specimens are male and which are female. There's only one specimen IIRC that actually has that confirmation, and it's NOT Sue. It was a female that was one of the mid-sized adults I believe. But it's very likely that bulkiness was a temporal and geographical factor as well, so there's currently studies on those if I'm correct. 3) We don't have an actual term for male and female T. rex. "Bull" T. rex was an arbitrary term created for the purpose of Jurassic Park 2. And the guy who called it that was a big game hunter that'd normally deal with large modern species like elephants and buffalo. 4) Dirt. Mounds of dirt is what you'd be going for. Whether or not they were hollowed out, I'm not sure. But hadrosaurs and maniraptoran nests demonstrate hollowed out crater type nests, so I'd run with that. 5) It probably did several things. Bird poop still smells, and carnivore poop REALLY smells. It may have done a combination of several things including actively marking its territory with its excrement, scratching trees, and roaring (whether or not they could "roar" is still a huge topic of debate in itself). 6) It's hard to say in terms of modern biomes. Climatewise, it was subtropical. In terms of plant life, it was mostly deciduous. Beech forests mostly, with buckthorns, fern shrubs and dawn redwoods. ZT2 doesn't really have appropriate analogies for most Mesozoic ecosystems. 7) I'll have to double check, but the general trend is that the large species in ZT2 are way UNDER sized (including T. rex) and the smaller animals are seriously OVERsized (Protarchaeopteryx is MASSIVE compared what it should be in the real world).
Low. Very. Low. From what we can gather, tyrannosaurs were prone to intraspecific combat based on fossil scarring on their snouts and jaws from face biting (that said, some of these specimens were re-diagnosed with a parasite akin to some that birds get in their jaws and throats today which cause lesions on the bones and irritate the throat). But it seems that they were more likely to skip dancing and engage in more standard aggressive territorial disputes. Sage grouse like air sacs woulda been torn to shreds in minutes. Ground birds of today are very poor analogies for a giant, aggressive carnivorous theropod.
I see. I personally think that kind of colour change is unlikely, given that its not observed in modern reptiles outside the squamates. Anywho: 1) Unlikely. Spraying like that comes from modified sweat glands. A distinctly mammalian feature. There coulda been alternatives, like regurgitating foul smelling fluid, or pooping, or just being naturally gassy like Hoatzins. But not like skunks. 2) This is not possible to observe in the fossil record. I'd wager against it on the basis that carnivorous archosaurs tend to be less fussy with what they eat, so an animal playing dead would probably be snapped up anyway. 3) Again, not observable, but far more reasonable since we DO observe this kind of behaviour in modern birds. 4) You speak of the Pitohui. It's an extremely rare adaptation. It's the only known bird that actually does this. But I suppose it's not IMPOSSIBLE for a dinosaur to do something similar. But I'd wager against it. 5) Yeah why not? I don't know how it'd be put into practice among dinosaurs though. Mimicry usually involves a harmless animal pretending to be something more dangerous or bad-tasting to predators. So a lot of this principle depends on concepts like 3) happening as well. 6) This actually DID happen. WWD actually cited this with their Polacanthus-Iguanodon associations. They did the same again with Othnielia-Stegosaurus interactions, but I'm not sure how well founded THAT is. But it's totally reasonable to assume smaller species sought shelter among herds of larger species. It's easy to imagine a flock of gliding microraptor-like animals perching on the back of a sauropod. 7) Pronged? 8) It's a reasonable suggestion. 9) This is not a reasonable suggestion.
1) We have nothing on juvenile large raptors. Actually, that's a lie. Deinonychus and Utahraptor juveniles seemed to have taken part in feeding frenzies (whether or not they're actually co-ordinated is a matter of debate still; I personally favour at least SOME degree of cooperation for reasons I've probably explained earlier in this topic or elsewhere). So they'd have to at least joined their older, larger brethren on the ground during a hunt. Larger species probably weren't habitually aboreal, but yeah, I suppose a Deinonychus could climb a tree with enough motivation. But Utahraptor? Probably not. Same weight as a polar bear, more awkward limbs and generally more voluminous body woulda made climbing trees for a Utahraptor VERY difficult. 2) Their claws were far less developed, and I personally think they used them to kick smaller prey items to death. They were more built for a cursorial lifestyle than their dromaeosaurid relatives anyway. They probably spent less time in trees than similar sized dromaeosaurids anyway. And I think we have fossil evidence of these guys nesting on the ground anyway.
I'd settle with something a bit more reflective of their large body size that seems to be perfect for brawling, combined with regular evidence among tyrannosaurids of face biting and cannibalism. Squaring off, assessing each other's size and strength by intimidation, roaring etc. Two evenly matched opponents brawl until one gives up or is killed (and often eaten, as fossils suggest). The standard go-to option for large carnivores across all clades. |
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| Jules | Jan 28 2015, 04:11 AM Post #1022 |
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Mihi est imperare orbi universo
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The fact is that a lek of Tyrannosaurus would exhaust the available prey at incredible speed. |
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| babehunter1324 | Jan 28 2015, 04:39 AM Post #1023 |
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Guys, I know answering question of dinosaurs is interesting and all... But did someone even notice my question on which was the largest Dimetrodon species? Seriously I would want to know, don't let one of our biggest complains about "mainstream paleontological knowledge" affect us as well, let's give some credit to Synapsids And yeah I know that my ealy answer to Sam question probably had something to do with few members noticing my own question... Edited by babehunter1324, Jan 28 2015, 04:42 AM.
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| SamtheMan | Jan 28 2015, 06:40 AM Post #1024 |
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@babehunter1324 To be honest, I was hoping someone more knowledgeable about Dimetrodon species than me could provide an answer, especially since I didn't find out much more than you did. As you mentioned, most sites switch between D. angelensis and D. grandis as the largest with the highest estimates I found being at 5 meters and 300kg. I completely understand your irritation about looking for info on prehistoric animals that aren't dinosaurs or ice agemegafauna (with some exceptions). It can be quite a struggle for me to find decent info or even a drawing of extinct giraffids or indricotheres! As for the lack of people answering, I wouldn't worry too much. Perhaps some are trying to find out more than we did or they could have lost track with the amount that came afterwards. |
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| Incinerox | Jan 28 2015, 10:17 AM Post #1025 |
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Āeksiot Zaldrīzoti
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I have found trying to get information on Dimetrodon at a species level to be very troublesome. |
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| babehunter1324 | Jan 28 2015, 10:32 AM Post #1026 |
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Totally agree. There seems to be a lot of species that are probably invalid. That said it is rather mind-blowing that the genus lasted for about 20 Millions of Years and it is pretty safe to assume that a lot of variations appeared throught that period. |
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| Mathius Tyra | Jan 28 2015, 01:05 PM Post #1027 |
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Rat snake is love... Rat snake is life
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I am curious about Eotriceratops. Is it now classed as Triceratops or still a different genus? |
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| CyborgIguana | Jan 28 2015, 01:42 PM Post #1028 |
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It's still a separate genus AFAIK. @Incinerox: The "bright face and dancing" comment was actually by Dilophoraptor, not me.
Edited by CyborgIguana, Jan 28 2015, 01:45 PM.
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| Incinerox | Jan 28 2015, 03:25 PM Post #1029 |
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Āeksiot Zaldrīzoti
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Oh. Either way, that's still my response to it. Don't care who said it. |
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| Paleop | Jan 28 2015, 04:23 PM Post #1030 |
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Paleopterix
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just thought of this but what if spinosaurus caught extra fish and hid them to consume during the dry season? is it plausible? Pronged: jumped straight up while running, like a gazelle Edited by Paleop, Jan 28 2015, 04:31 PM.
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| Furka | Jan 28 2015, 04:51 PM Post #1031 |
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Fish isn't something that lasts for long once it's dead, especially in a hot environment. |
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| Paleop | Jan 28 2015, 05:42 PM Post #1032 |
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Paleopterix
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well regardless of how well spino could smell, in that situation I bet the fish would have a stronger sence of smell however, on a serious note, did spino have tarsal scutes? |
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| Mathius Tyra | Jan 28 2015, 08:24 PM Post #1033 |
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Rat snake is love... Rat snake is life
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I'm pretty sure that there was no harsh summer at North Africa back in time Spinosaurus lived. Spinosaurus used to live in the place that full with swamp and river which I doubt would dry up in summer so much that it bothered Spinosaurus or even if it did, the giant theropod would more likely to migrate down the river, into the more abundant area close to the sea more than storing food. |
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| Taurotragus | Jan 28 2015, 09:15 PM Post #1034 |
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Could dromaeosaurs relay prey. As in a pony express type system, the first animal runs the prey to the second animal and the second animal continues the chase. This could be used to run down fast running ornithomimids and ornithopods. |
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| Mathius Tyra | Jan 28 2015, 10:36 PM Post #1035 |
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Rat snake is love... Rat snake is life
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Problem is Dromaeosaurs are not built for running... They are more likely to ambush and give up if prey get away before the raptor could catch it. Troodontids, maybe... I can see a pair of Troodontid take turn chasing small curosial prey, maybe some kind of precocial baby dinosaur. |
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