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"me Grimlock fool?, me Grimlock no like you."

Marine reptiles, eg Cronosaurus

JWBS wrote:
Marine reptiles, eg Cronosaurus

I know it’s too much 40k, but when I see “Marine reptile” my first though it not critters in the oceans, but lizards in power armor.

As there's this dinosaur thread on the go I thought I'd add this little tidbit I found out yesterday. There is some discussion about how true this anecdote is but it's a good one either way.

William Buckland, one of the early Paleontological pioneers and the lad who coined the term "Dinosaur", ate the only surviving remains of King Louis XIV. At a dinner, he was shown a small grey piece of something inside a silver locket and just picked it up and ate it. As it transpired, it was a piece of the late King's heart.

He also had a table in his home that was inlaid with dinosaur coprolites. Which is now on display in a museum.

Azhdarchidae, while also being deathly afraid of (unnaturally) gigantic birds.. I'm in awe of these weirdlings.

Argentinasaurus (sp?) The giant Quadraped boi that was the biggest land dino ever, the EMPEROR CLASS TITAN of Dinosaurs? It was big enough to literally step on even large predators, and it's tail weighed more than 2-3 times most other dinos,

Dimetrodon

Something about a giant lizard with a mouth full of teeth and a cool sail on its back. Plus it was my first DinoRiders toy.

As a child, Triceratops was my favourite. I was a Dinosaur fiend for a while. But then Dwight Schrute said that every other dinosaur was cooler and I had an existential crisis that drove me into depression for weeks as no one's word is worth more than the mighty Dwight Schrute's.

 cuda1179 wrote:
Dimetrodon

Something about a giant lizard with a mouth full of teeth and a cool sail on its back. Plus it was my first DinoRiders toy.

Now for your paleontology lesson for the day. In the past, the Dimetrodon and other early synapsids were thought to have evolved from earlier reptiles and were classified as mammal-like reptiles. Modern discoveries seem to indicate that they evolved separately from reptiles, and are now classified as stem (or proto-) mammals.

Yep. Ol' sailback is a very distant cousin in our evolutionary family!

 Vulcan wrote:

 cuda1179 wrote:
Dimetrodon

Something about a giant lizard with a mouth full of teeth and a cool sail on its back. Plus it was my first DinoRiders toy.

Now for your paleontology lesson for the day. In the past, the Dimetrodon and other early synapsids were thought to have evolved from earlier reptiles and were classified as mammal-like reptiles. Modern discoveries seem to indicate that they evolved separately from reptiles, and are now classified as stem (or proto-) mammals.

Yep. Ol' sailback is a very distant cousin in our evolutionary family!

Is it a distant cousin or an ancestor?

I find it impressive that the various sauropsids (reptiles and birds) dominated the planet for quite a long time with the synapsids in the background. Before the rise of the Dinosaurs was the age of the Crocodiles (early dinosaurs were small croc food- it wasn't until after the great croc extinction that big dinosaurs started filling the massive beasty niche).

But the synapsids seemed to stay in the background until the aftermath of Chicxulub with the rise of the mammals.

The other thing I find interesting is the apparent parallel evolution of homeostasis among the mammals and birds (and probably late dinosaurs). I wonder if there are essential differences in how it works in the two very different evolutionary lines.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh- another fun fact I learned recently.


Scientists used to think that the big plate on triceratops' head would be used to defend itself from predators like T-Rex.

More recent discoveries showed that Rex would grab the plate in its teeth and use it to rip the head off of triceratops. It was less of a shield and more of a pull-tab

 odinsgrandson wrote:

 Vulcan wrote:

 cuda1179 wrote:
Dimetrodon

Something about a giant lizard with a mouth full of teeth and a cool sail on its back. Plus it was my first DinoRiders toy.

Now for your paleontology lesson for the day. In the past, the Dimetrodon and other early synapsids were thought to have evolved from earlier reptiles and were classified as mammal-like reptiles. Modern discoveries seem to indicate that they evolved separately from reptiles, and are now classified as stem (or proto-) mammals.

Yep. Ol' sailback is a very distant cousin in our evolutionary family!

Is it a distant cousin or an ancestor?

I find it impressive that the various sauropsids (reptiles and birds) dominated the planet for quite a long time with the synapsids in the background. Before the rise of the Dinosaurs was the age of the Crocodiles (early dinosaurs were small croc food- it wasn't until after the great croc extinction that big dinosaurs started filling the massive beasty niche).

But the synapsids seemed to stay in the background until the aftermath of Chicxulub with the rise of the mammals.

The other thing I find interesting is the apparent parallel evolution of homeostasis among the mammals and birds (and probably late dinosaurs). I wonder if there are essential differences in how it works in the two very different evolutionary lines.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh- another fun fact I learned recently.


Scientists used to think that the big plate on triceratops' head would be used to defend itself from predators like T-Rex.

More recent discoveries showed that Rex would grab the plate in its teeth and use it to rip the head off of triceratops. It was less of a shield and more of a pull-tab

It's been many a year and I can't find the diagram online (probably looking in the wrong spots) but I recall Dimetrodon being on one of the side branches of synapsids that went extinct, rather than being on the line that evolved into mammals. That makes them cousins, not direct ancestors.

Synapsids didn't exactly 'stand still' during the age of dinosaurs. They did a lot of evolving and refining over the period, and even managed a little diversification. But much as the early dinosaurs were kept in check by the crocodillians, the mammals were held in check by the dinosaurs. Evolving into larger forms simply wasn't viable until the competition was largely eliminated.

My new found favorites, sorry if there can be only one... are most all raptors. In particular though:

Changyuraptor
Zhenyuanlong
Microraptor

If they're really that cute.

Let's be honest, the mosasaurus is the best there is, if it can't eat a T-Rex it ain't that cool.

Please stop committing acts of thread necromancy, locking now.