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Starman
SFN Regular
Sweden
1613 Posts |
 Posted - 10/07/2004 : 01:20:59
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It used to be the "Tyrant lizard king".
T. rex descended from feathered ancestor
New Dinosaur Discovered: T. Rex Cousin Had Feathers
Now it seems that T. Rex might have looked more like a mixture of Big Bird and the Cookie Monster.
Oh, and for the reality deprived:
This fossil is a transitional fossil. It shares features form both dinosaurs and birds.
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"Any religion that makes a form of torture into an icon that they worship seems to me a pretty sick sort of religion quite honestly"
-- Terry Jones |
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Plyss
Skeptic Friend
Netherlands
231 Posts |
 Posted - 10/07/2004 : 02:31:09 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Starman
Now it seems that T. Rex might have looked more like a mixture of Big Bird and the Cookie Monster.
Heh, i bet its prey didn't want to run into one, no matter how cute it looked ;)
Ah, here's the original nature article, including a nice picture.
According to rumour New Scientist will write about a new kind of primate discovered in Africa in this weeks saturday edition.Nevertheless, i've always found dinosaur evolution more interesting than boring old H.sapiens.
quote:
Oh, and for the reality deprived:
This made me giggle.
Thanks for bringing this to my attention, Starman.
[Edited to change the picture link so that it can be viewed without a Nature subscription] |
Miss Tick sniffed. 'You could say this piece of advice is pricesless', she said. 'Are you listening?'
'Yes' said Tiffany.
'Good now...If you trust in yourself.."
'Yes..?'
'..and believe in your dreams...'
'yes?'
'...and follow your star..' Miss Tick went on.
'Yes?'
'You'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy. Goodbye.' |
| Edited by - Plyss on 10/08/2004 00:57:52 |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 10/07/2004 : 03:32:54 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Starman
It used to be the "Tyrant lizard king".
T. rex descended from feathered ancestor
New Dinosaur Discovered: T. Rex Cousin Had Feathers
Now it seems that T. Rex might have looked more like a mixture of Big Bird and the Cookie Monster.
Oh, and for the reality deprived:
This fossil is a transitional fossil. It shares features form both dinosaurs and birds.
Yes, I read that. Xi Xing strikes again! the man is rapidly becoming a ledgend.
This early tyrannisaurid is a far cry from our T. rex in not only it's proto-feathers, but in it's build as well -- arms much longer than the useless appendeges of the species common to the US, and so forth.
I tend to agree with Jack Horner that our animal was probably, for the most part, a scavenger. This new one seems to have the attributes of an active hunter. I would like to know the length of the thigh as compared to the shin. From what little has been published thus far, I'd think that the shin would be a bit longer, signifing a runner, the opposit of T. rex.
Good find!
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Plyss
Skeptic Friend
Netherlands
231 Posts |
Posted - 10/07/2004 : 04:19:21 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by filthy
I would like to know the length of the thigh as compared to the shin. From what little has been published thus far, I'd think that the shin would be a bit longer, signifing a runner, the opposit of T. rex.
Good find!
I'm not very familiar with the subject of anatomy, but assuming a femur is a thighbone and a tibia a shin you are right:
Right femur 181mm
Right tibia 203mm
The other supplemental data can be found at http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v431/n7009/suppinfo/nature02855.html
(link might not work if you don't have a subscription to Nature)
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Miss Tick sniffed. 'You could say this piece of advice is pricesless', she said. 'Are you listening?'
'Yes' said Tiffany.
'Good now...If you trust in yourself.."
'Yes..?'
'..and believe in your dreams...'
'yes?'
'...and follow your star..' Miss Tick went on.
'Yes?'
'You'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy. Goodbye.' |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 10/07/2004 : 06:55:12 [Permalink]
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Thanks, Plyss. for some reason I had a mental block on 'tibia' and as I was in a hurry, went with 'shin' and 'thigh.' Advancing age, eh?
Alas, I don't have a subscription to Nature or Science. When times get a little better, that'll change. The article I read was a popular piece and gave little real information.
I wouldn't go so far as to call this animal a transisional between dinos and birds, at least not at this point. What it does tell us is that feathered dinos are much more common than formerly thought. If I'm not mistaken, virtually all were small dromeosaurs. I like the insulation explanation better.
Dr Xi is kickin' out the jambs over there in China. And it seems he's in the right place. A treasure trove of fossils, many of them feathered dinos, are coming from there.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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