The Science And Nature Thread - All Welcome

[Keyser]

The Dawndinos project.

https://dawndinos.com/

[Keyser]

Just to bore everyone for a moment.

Not that it matters but on the Paleo thread Television User has posted on the new paper (which got the usual shitload of ill informed publicity) stating T.rex may have not had feathers.

I think it is flawed for all sorts of reasons which is why I did not post the many links on here in the snug.

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

That means just because we haven’t found feathers preserved on big tyrannosaurids, does not mean they didn’t have them. The conditions needed for feather preservation are very specific (like for the nine metre Tyrannosaurid fluffball Yutyrannus), and the places where we find these big tyrannosaurids are not the same types of places that preserve feathers.

Big Archosaurs were not like big mammals - they were far more efficient and the paper even states that rex et al may have just had plumage on certain areas.

So I believe rexy had feathers and they just weren’t preserved. Maybe it had feathers as a baby and lost most of them as an adult. Maybe it had feathers in some places on its body.

Nice diagram showing the possibilities.

http://pre01.deviantart.net/3296/th/pre ... bbxkq0.png

Way off topic but I would have posted on there.

Sorry.

[Guest]

Just to bore everyone for a moment.

Not that it matters but on the Paleo thread Television User has posted on the new paper (which got the usual shitload of ill informed publicity) stating T.rex may have not had feathers.

I think it is flawed for all sorts of reasons which is why I did not post the many links on here in the snug.

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

That means just because we haven’t found feathers preserved on big tyrannosaurids, does not mean they didn’t have them. The conditions needed for feather preservation are very specific (like for the nine metre Tyrannosaurid fluffball Yutyrannus), and the places where we find these big tyrannosaurids are not the same types of places that preserve feathers.

Big Archosaurs were not like big mammals - they were far more efficient and the paper even states that rex et al may have just had plumage on certain areas.

So I believe rexy had feathers and they just weren’t preserved. Maybe it had feathers as a baby and lost most of them as an adult. Maybe it had feathers in some places on its body.

Nice diagram showing the possibilities.

http://pre01.deviantart.net/3296/th/pre ... bbxkq0.png

Way off topic but I would have posted on there.

Sorry.

[Holly]

Keyser, I moved this thread from the snug to the arms. Please use this one rather than posting your science/nature things in unrelated threads

[Keyser]

Keyser, I moved this thread from the snug to the arms. Please use this one rather than posting your science/nature things in unrelated threads

No problem Hols!

[Keyser]

The Neanderthals and us.

https://phys.org/news/2017-06-scientist ... umans.html

[Keyser]

An excellent video stating the truth on Tyrannosaur feathers and the recent paper that has been misrepresented so very badly in the media.

[Keyser]

More articles on rexy including one by the superb Mark Witton that gives a very balanced view of whether the largest terrestrial predator of all time had an extensive covering of feathers or not (recent research proves the great beast was a couple of tons heavier than any of it's closest Mesozoic rivals - Giganotosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, Mapusaurus, Tyrannotitan, Acrocanthosaurus and Spinosaurus at 8.4 -14 tons - despite all the media bullshit over the years).

http://markwitton-com.blogspot.co.uk/20 ... aurus.html

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/la ... zzy-t-rex/

The sensitive faces of theropod dinosaurs.

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/te ... -dinosaur/

Smilodon.

http://prehistoricbeastoftheweek.blogsp ... -week.html

[Keyser]

Five extraordinary robots.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/technology ... everything

The spider that bit Peter Parker (probably).

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017 ... discovery/

Stegodon.

http://www.eartharchives.org/articles/s ... ays-trunk/

[Keyser]

Yet more on the Tyrannosaur integument debate.

http://www.eartharchives.org/articles/i ... ally-over/

[Keyser]

Small and very badly injured Architeuthis brought ashore near Melkbosstrand, South Africa.

https://www.earthtouchnews.com/oceans/o ... uid-video/

[Keyser]

Really belongs in the nature thread but few people realise what a monster the endangered Black caiman (Melanosuchus niger) really is.

This enormous animal turned up on a GreenTracks herp trip in the Peruvian Amazon. The body was found floating in a river. With some of the tail missing it still measured 5.3 meters (17.38 feet).

Here is the skull (it measured 31 inches in length).

I like the idea that somewhere out in the Amazon, massive fully mature Black Caiman still prowl the waterways and haven't all been exterminated.

[charlie]

Really belongs in the nature thread but few people realise what a monster the endangered Black caiman (Melanosuchus niger) really is.

This enormous animal turned up on a GreenTracks herp trip in the Peruvian Amazon. The body was found floating in a river. With some of the tail missing it still measured 5.3 meters (17.38 feet).

Here is the skull (it measured 31 inches in length).

I like the idea that somewhere out in the Amazon, massive fully mature Black Caiman still prowl the waterways and haven't all been exterminated.

I always thought of Caiman's as tiny Crocodilians.

[Keyser]

Really belongs in the nature thread but few people realise what a monster the endangered Black caiman (Melanosuchus niger) really is.

This enormous animal turned up on a GreenTracks herp trip in the Peruvian Amazon. The body was found floating in a river. With some of the tail missing it still measured 5.3 meters (17.38 feet).

Here is the skull (it measured 31 inches in length).

I like the idea that somewhere out in the Amazon, massive fully mature Black Caiman still prowl the waterways and haven't all been exterminated.

I always thought of Caiman's as tiny Crocodilians.

The caiman species are small crocodilians in general - but the Black Caiman is a beast of epic proportions!

[Keyser]

Reverse engineering Parvancorina.

https://phys.org/news/2017-06-reverse-m ... found.html