Sunday 28 February 2021

Dinosaur Inbetweeners?

Katlin Schroeder (University of New Mexico) has carried out a study attempting to answer the question why smaller carnivorous dinosaurs (those weighing less than 60 kg) are so rare in many locations (https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/feb/25/fossil-record-puzzle-teenage-t-rexes-dinosaur-study). Schroeder suggests, that 'teenaged' megatherapods (such as Tyrannosaurus rex), may have 'crowded' them out. She postulates that adolescent T. rex adopted a 'grow fast, die young' life-style. Schroeder studied fossil records of dinosaur communities across the globe. She noted that communities with megatherapods, were devoid of medium-sized (in the 100-1000kg range) carnivores. Communities without megatherapods had them.

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