Triceratops not actually a seperate species

[Psychodrake]

This shocked me considerably since I have always had a slight interest in dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals.

It was already known that triceratops skulls changed throughout their development, but not that the final result was a torosaurus. Torosaurus will now be abolished as a species and specimens reassigned to Triceratops, says Horner.

Full article is here
www.newscientist.com/article/mg20727713.500-morphosaurs-how-shapeshifting-dinosaurs-deceived-us.html

To think, we barely saw anything of Torosaurus in movies and such and the first time I actually heard anything of it was Walking with Dinosaurs. This could actually lead to a lot of other species going through similar changes, meaning we may have found too many dinosaur species.

[coff]

Saw that article. Pretty cool stuff. Not only were dinosaurs awesome on the grounds of being giant frigging lizards but they were also biological Transformers.

[Buckshot]

I've always liked dinosaurs. I'm surprised at this. I always thought Triceratops were their own species because of their unique skull design...

[Hellbreaker]

So, where do Stegadons come into this?

Cheers!

[killercroc]

Aug 3, 2010 19:35:43 GMT Hellbreaker said:

So, where do Stegadons come into this?

Cheers!

Inbreeding, it can to terrible things to the gene-pool

[Thlaylie]

Horner is an Idiot!

He's well known as such in the Paleontological world.

Only a rag like the Discovey channel and it's brethen would give him a thought.

He believes T-Rex was a scavenger for example.

I would pay money to demonstrate how wrong he is.

Triceratops is a Ceratopsin. Horner has this stupid idea that all Ceratopsins are juvenal stages of Triceratops.

If you buy his (please do not swear), there will only be like 5 species of Dinosaur!

Ignore him and he will toddle off somewhere by himself.

For further referrence: He is the idiot scientist that spooked out of the cave when a snake got near him and into T-Rex's mouth in one of the Jurassic Park movies, that's how well he is appreciated in the community.

[salamut2202]

all predators are scavangers. so he's right thlaylie. was it exclusively a scavanger? i don't see why not. btw - pluto ain't a planet thlaylie.

[Helonion]

Aug 3, 2010 22:09:11 GMT salamut2202 said:

all predators are scavangers. so he's right thlaylie. was it exclusively a scavanger? i don't see why not. btw - pluto ain't a planet thlaylie.

It is if it was created by it's self and not floating around as a frikkin moon! If you call it a Dwarf Planet, its still a planet. A Dwarf Sun is just a small sun.....

[Julio]

Dinosaurs didnt live millions of years ago, they used to live alongside humans 4,000 years ago.
Joking.

[Psychodrake]

Aug 3, 2010 21:06:47 GMT Thlaylie said:

Horner is an Idiot!

He's well known as such in the Paleontological world.

Only a rag like the Discovey channel and it's brethen would give him a thought.

He believes T-Rex was a scavenger for example.

I would pay money to demonstrate how wrong he is.

Triceratops is a Ceratopsin. Horner has this stupid idea that all Ceratopsins are juvenal stages of Triceratops.

If you buy his (please do not swear), there will only be like 5 species of Dinosaur!

Ignore him and he will toddle off somewhere by himself.

For further referrence: He is the idiot scientist that spooked out of the cave when a snake got near him and into T-Rex's mouth in one of the Jurassic Park movies, that's how well he is appreciated in the community.

The guy was very ignorant to believe T-Rex solely relied on scavenging when it clearly had a mouth to not just kill but ANNIHILATE! whatever late-cretacious victim it saw fit.

Seriously why would something evolve so much killing power to munch on carcasses. I mean you'd definitely give your meal up for it and I'm sure it would scavenge whenever possible but he did clearly fail when he said Rexy was a wimp. Also, lol @ them finding T-Rex tooth marks in healed Triceratops bone (e.g. the Triceratops survived the attack and healed a bit), completely owned him with that evidence.

[Psychichobo]

I always felt the T-rex wasn't a Scavenger, but more of a creature that laid in wait. Munch fast, run fast. When you look at it it seems like something that would hide amongst trees and lunge out, snapping up something in it's massive maw, before doing a runner. That mouth's scary, but it doesn't look like it's agile enough to be used in a straight fight.

[Psychodrake]

Aug 4, 2010 0:28:27 GMT Psychichobo said:

I always felt the T-rex wasn't a Scavenger, but more of a creature that laid in wait. Munch fast, run fast. When you look at it it seems like something that would hide amongst trees and lunge out, snapping up something in it's massive maw, before doing a runner. That mouth's scary, but it doesn't look like it's agile enough to be used in a straight fight.

I think similarly but more along the lines of, T-Rex will make sure hes in a position where the target can't escape. Maybe targeting larger herbivores in a clearing surrounded by trees, eyes on the target at the back that won't be able to escape through the herd. I also like the documentary that explains Triceratops having no vision behind or infront, just to the sides, giving a predator like T-Rex a good opportunity to get the killer bite. With a mouth like that I imagine any conflict would be ended brutally quickly.

[salamut2202]

i see a trex as an lion of the late cretaceous. 9/10 lions meals are probably scavenged.

[Thlaylie]

Actually Sal T-rex is a "Killer" like a shark. It basically attacked everything that it could and then "scavenged off the corpses." Land Shark!!!

( A Lion is a "Pouncer.") ( A Spider is a "Trapper") Look up the old Traveller RPG it has a neat creature defining system.

[salamut2202]

it shouldn't be a killer because it's easier to eat things that are already dead. all predators are scavengers. i see no reason to the contrary.