Who among us once saw the dinosaurs?

[dj]

A story in today's Philadelphia Inquirer from the Geological Societay of America's annual conference, says:

"Researchers first proposed that a meteor killed the dinosaurs in 1980, when 65-million-year-old rocks were found to have high levels of iridium--an element plentiful in meteors."

Why did I spend all that time going to places like the Museum of Natural History in NYC to look at those stupid skeletons when I could have seen the real thing?

[tandfman]

Re: Who among us once saw the dinosaurs?

"Researchers first proposed that a meteor killed the dinosaurs in 1980, when 65-million-year-old rocks were found to have high levels of iridium--an element plentiful in meteors."

What did they next propose? :-)

[SQUACKEE]

I saw a dinosaure highjump 5 ft at a age group trackmeet.

[Helen S]

The latest push in taxonomy is to make all groups monophyletic – all descendants are grouped under their common ancestor. In this sense not only are birds classified as an order of reptiles, they are technically classified as dinosaurs because they evolved from dinosaurs. At what point does a bird stop being a dinosaur? Or, at what point does a descendant cease to be identified as its ancestor?



http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/avians.html - University of California Museum of Paleontology

http://www.sdnhm.com/exhibits/reptiles/orders.html - San Diego Natural History Museum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reptile - Wikipedia

http://www.dinosauria.com/dml/dmlf.htm - Dinosauria Omnipedia

http://experts.about.com/e/d/di/Dinosaur.htm - All Experts



There are more pages out there if you search.

[gm]

Great catch, dj
That's another example of fine modern journalism/writing.

[Daisy]

At what point does a bird stop being a dinosaur?

I'd have thought the scale to feathers transition would be the morphological feature that best marks the break point for dino's to birds. Obviously these types these are arbitrary breaks.

Or, at what point does a descendant cease to be identified as its ancestor?

Not sure what you mean here, can a descendant ever be an ancestor?

[tafnut]

Re: Who among us once saw the dinosaurs?

"Researchers first proposed that a meteor killed the dinosaurs in 1980,

Dang! I thought they were extinct LONG before then!

[Daisy]

Re: Who among us once saw the dinosaurs?

I saw a dinosaur high jump 5 ft at a age group trackmeet.

Dang! I thought they were extinct LONG before then!

You'd be surprised how long some people live now. Never ceases to amaze me how good some of them can be, seriously!

[mike renfro]

Great catch, dj
That's another example of fine modern journalism/writing.

Actually, an example of modern editing/fact checking. SI probably loaned em out. :evil:

[gh]

Reminds me of the hoary old joke about the guy who is touring the Smithsonian and the guide says, "That fossil there is 30,000,017 years old."

The tourist says, "Wow! I had no idea they could carbon-date those things so accurately!"

Guide replies, "Well, I don't know anything about that fancy scientific stuff, but I do know that when I started here 17 years ago they told me to say it was 30 million years old."

[piaba]

you know some dinosaurs still live among these boards... they tend to post a lot.

[Daisy]

you know some dinosaurs still live among these boards... they tend to post a lot.

Been there, see Squackee's post.

[SQUACKEE]

you know some dinosaurs still live among these boards... they tend to post a lot.

I already ripped Tafnut, unless you mean moi, quilty as charged.

[piaba]

well, you know, helen, all this new wave of taxonomy, cladistics and DNA-tinkering (up your alley, daisy) is really confusing. did you know there's no such a thing as a fish? cause what we call fish as a group is non-monophyletic. did you know fungi are closer to animals than plants? well, i guess that requires us to come up with new definitions of "animals" and "plants."

the thing that totally shook my belief system was that new world vultures and condors are no longer vultures, but storks.

[tafnut]

you know some dinosaurs still live among these boards... they tend to post a lot.

authentic picture of tafnut: