(07-21-2020, 12:18 AM)Spalea Wrote: " Dinosaurs Were Probably in Decline Well Before Massive Asteroid Strike


The Earth was already cooling, for one thing.
DINOSAURS MIGHT HAVE BEEN DYING out long before a massive asteroid struck Earth millions of years ago, killing them for good, scientists said recently.
The new theory means that the beasts’ extinction likely wasn’t just because of the asteroid strike, but also a gradual consequence of the Earth’s long-term cooling, from a generally warm place to a climate that more closely resembles what we have now.
Dinosaurs, scientists think, were much more suited to the warmer climates, while mammals fared better in the cooler ones. “We were not expecting this result,” Manabu Sakamoto, a paleontologist who led the new research, told the BBC. ”Even though they were wiped out ultimately by the impact of the asteroid, they were actually already on their way out around 50 million years before the asteroid hit.”
Dinosaurs were first seen over 230 million years ago, going extinct around 165 million years later. (Avian dinosaurs, incidentally, probably survived the extinction event.)
So was there ever a chance that we could have lived alongside a Tyrannosaurus rex? Probably not. But it’s nice to dream.
Source: atlasobscura.com "

(08-31-2020, 10:19 AM)Spalea Wrote: " Somewhere in Siberia, late 1880s. "

Hilarious photo...

(08-31-2020, 09:09 PM)BorneanTiger Wrote:

(08-31-2020, 10:19 AM)Spalea Wrote: " Somewhere in Siberia, late 1880s. "

Hilarious photo...

Fake photos would often have the caption "Somewhere in ..." If it was a real photo, then they would have the exact or precise location and date.

Quote:An international team of researchers has found the first evidence of a dinosaur eating a mammal. In their paper published in Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, the group describes their reexamination of a fossil found more than 20 years ago.

The work builds on the findings of a prior team who studied the fossil, Microraptor zhaoianus, back in 2000. It was found in the Jiufotang Formation in a western part of China. Back then, the research team dated it to approximately 120 million years ago, and noted that the fossil was missing most of its middle part but its rib cage was still intact.

Microraptors were three-toed dinosaurs that, like their larger cousins, were carnivores. They lived in trees and were quite small compared to other dinosaurs—about the size of a modern house cat. Some species of microraptors sported feathers, which might have been used for gliding down from perches in trees.

In this new effort, the researchers found evidence of another fossil inside of the microraptor that once belonged to a tiny mammal. A small fossil mammal foot was found just behind the ribs, proof that the larger creature had feasted on a mouse-size mammal.

The researchers note that prior research has shown that other small creatures have been eaten by dinosaurs, such as snakes, squamates and birds—but never a mammal. The researchers suggest the lack of mammal remains inside the stomachs of dinosaurs is likely due to the rarity of finding any remains of other creatures inside of dinosaurs, and not an indication that eating mammals was rare.