The Paleontology thread.

[majesty]

This thread is about Paleontology...similar to sports (lol), paleontology is cool too!

Rules**:
If you are going to say something about it being false, GTFO.
If you are going to be religious like a zealot, basically GTFO.
If you are going to be an idiot in any other way, GTFO.
Creationism, as ID might have a place...don't be an asshole, PLEASE.
Feel free to refute ideas, logically or evidencially, but do it maturely and properly.

THIS IS NOT A DEBATE THREAD ABOUT EVOLUTION OR ANY BASIC PRINCIPLE OF PALEONTOLOGY.

OKAY!

I am very familiar with paleontology. I have worked in 2 world heritage sites and almost all my closest friends are grad students in paleontology.

Lets post some cool finds or ideas and discuss them!!! I hope there is enough interest since this is one of my areas of speciality. Everyone has a soft spot for this kind of thing!!

Check this place for cool stuff to discuss:
http://www-geology.ucdavis.edu/~cowen/paleonews.html

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/11/071105-dino-volcanoes.html

^The above is how the Deccan traps, in India, are IMMEDIATELY before the Cretaceous extinctions. How does this impact things? Might've caused toxicity in the environment (as they are kilometers thick of lava...causing LOTS of CO2, global warming and toxicity), thusly weakening the environment and ecosystem before the infamous K/t extinctions...you know, when dinosaurs died! Evidently, all big things died...however, 70% of all life dying? From one meteor impact? EVEN on the other side of the planet? Lets talk about it!

Discuss, throw down ideas/links/problems with the ideas that aren't against the rules above!

Edit: Beginners are encouraged to ask questions!!


** note: I set rules because I hope this can be an ongoing discussion/inquiry into the nature and discoveries of Paleontology. I would hate this to be locked because someone derails discussion into the netherworlds of 'stupid'.

 

[junkgamer]

The last theory i heard about the extinction of the dinosaurs was that there is/was a gigantic volcano under Siberia That erupted so much ash into the air that it caused a kind of nuclear winter effect ushering in the ice age. First starving the plant eaters and effectively the predators. Leaving only the smaller creatures to survive.

Ive always had a casual interest in dinosaurs especially the really strange ones. national geographic had a section on them in this month's issue. The Nigersaurus(named after the region of its discovery) makes me laugh.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/2007-12/bizarre-dinosaurs/updike-text2.html

This is a similar older article
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/03/0313_030314_bizarredinos.html

 

[andysensei]

Jesus rode on the backs of tyrannosaurus, with a saddle made of woolly mammoth skin. It's a fact.

On a serious note, my interest in dinosaurs and paleontology dates back to before i can remember.. sadly i can't name as many dinosaurs today, as i could before i even started school.

shows how great public schools are, eh?

 

[Doomsday]

damn I was an huge dino fan when I was a kid :) good memories

I used to want to be a paleontologist too, but now that idea seems rather impossible.

 

[NichMcCoolStratus]

I used to want to be a paleontologist too, but now that idea seems rather impossible.

Who didn't?

My favourite dinosaur was the Parasaurolophus. Gosh, it's just amazing

 

[KoD]

On a serious note, my interest in dinosaurs and paleontology dates back to before i can remember.. sadly i can't name as many dinosaurs today, as i could before i even started school.

damn I was an huge dino fan when I was a kid :) good memories

I used to want to be a paleontologist too, but now that idea seems rather impossible.

Who didn't?

Same here. Loved them back when I was a kid and still do now, but actually becoming a Paleontologist is something I've discarded as a possibility for my future right now.


I still watch documentaries on them whenever I catch one on Discovery, National Geographic, etc.
About the Deccan Traps, I think there'll be documentary on it in NG here soon, so I'll be looking foward to that.

 

[spies]

I used to love reading about paleontology when I was little : D I had a friend who was actually crazy about it and considered paleontology as a career until puberty

The other day I remembered about this and read a bit on Wikipedia. I had no idea dromaeosaurids (velociraptor and friends) were proven to have had feathers

also Hallucigenia is cool

 

[majesty]

@ Spies: Hallucigenia is incredibly messed up and rare. Sanctacaris, the first chelicerate (ie group with spiders in it) is friggin insane...it's also rare.


Yeah the volcanoes 'underneath' Siberia are actually alot more sinister than the Deccan traps. Infact, these Siberian traps are WAY thicker and had a large hand in killing 95% of all life on the planet at the end of the Permian (250 MYA). Each of these Deccan and Siberian eruptions would make Pompeii look like a drop of water- they would literally extend for centuries of violent pyroclastic scouring, poisonous gases and of course, meters of lava. Devastating.

The meteor impact no doubt was 'the event', so to speak. There is little doubt it correlates to the end of the Cretaceous, at the top of the very beds when Dinosaurs and similar aged stuff vanishes. I've seen it, actually, the high irridium layer at the top of the Cretaceous here in Alberta. I'm suggesting, as many others before me have, that the environment was screwed before the impact. It was weakened from massive eruptions in the 'Rocky' Orogeny (mountain building) and Deccan traps.

Interestingly, the Permian may well have suffered a similar fate. There is some evidence emerging indicating a meteor impact there was well. Mind you if there's one extinction you didn't want to happen be alive during, that would be it.

Mass extinctions are fucking amazing. There's 5 that are noteworthy: End of the Cambrian (which saw the highest diversity bite it), End of the Devonian (which saw large armoured fish, many sharks and all but the last vestiges of the Trilobite lineage die), End of the Permian (Trilobites, almost sand dollars, 2 types of Coral, a HUGE diversity of land animals...the list just goes on and on), end of the Cretaceous (Dinos, mosasaurs, Pterosaurs, Ammonites etc), and recently the Pleistocene or 'ice age' extinctions. I think this one only appears so big because we have a much finer scope on diversity at that very close age, so more things disappeared.

neat, eh? I'd hate to dominate this too much, does anyone have any cool discussion ideas other than mass extinctions?

 

[NichMcCoolStratus]

Coolest hadrosaur? Sauropod? Therapod? Fuck, I'm a nerd. lol

 

[majesty]

Coolest Hadrosaur: Muttaburrasaurus, perhaps. The problem with them is aside from the skull, they are basically the same thing. Infact, they won't excavate a skeleton without a complete skull anymore and just let it erode away. Saurolophus is pretty badass IMO, as is Parasaurolophus. Anatotitan was pretty cool as it had the most teeth and was MASSIVE.

Coolest Sauropod: has to go to Brachiosaurus. Most other ones just look like Diplodocus, but Argentinosaurus was the biggest land animal ever...and Saltasaurs like Argentinosaurus definately had armor.

Coolest Theropod: Theropods are bitches. That said, certainly Therizinosaurus. Noteworthly mention: Mononychosaurus, Deinonychus, and Sinosauropteryx. Tyrannosaurus was also alot more fucked up than people might realize.


My speciality isn't in dinosaurs though, lol, I don't even think they are that cool.