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| Poisonous archosaurs | |
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| Topic Started: Feb 24 2010, 09:27 AM (693 Views) | |
| Carlos | Feb 24 2010, 09:27 AM Post #1 |
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Adveho in me Lucifero
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Venom, as we know, appearently has evolved several times among amniotes; several times on mammals and at least once within squamates (with subsequent clades loosing and regaining venom). While there's possibly a venemous archosaur, it turns out Sinornithosaurus most likely was just a regular dromeosaur and possibly not poisonous after all. Still, venom could easily evolve in other groups since it occured as far apart as in Mammalia and Squamata, and while evidence for poisonous archosaurs isn't very big it surely is possible the evolution of venom. In notosuchian crocodillians, which have quite mammalian looking teeth, could presumably develop a form in which the fangs are specialised to deliver venom, or maybe just develop sharp teeth and very venemous saliva like in shrews. Interesting enough would be a poisonous pterosaur; either an anurognathid or a dimorphodontid, the most basal linages, could perhaps develop a form with venom. The remaining groups could still follow the example of the poisonous birds and simply have toxic pycnofibrils for defense though. |
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| lamna | Feb 24 2010, 10:12 AM Post #2 |
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I don't know how useful venom would be for pterosaurs, unless it was something very small catching competitively large prey. |
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| Carlos | Feb 24 2010, 11:12 AM Post #3 |
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Adveho in me Lucifero
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Thats pretty much the use expected for anurognathids and dimorphodontids, both terrestrial groups |
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| Margaret Pye | Feb 24 2010, 11:15 PM Post #4 |
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Adult
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Another use for venom: bite something once, quickly, then let go and wait for it to die. Saves wrestling it. |
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| The Dodo | Feb 25 2010, 01:31 AM Post #5 |
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Prime Specimen
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Works fine for snakes. Maybe there were posionous non-avian dinosaurs, but they were just like the Hooded Pitohui in venom. |
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| TheCoon | Feb 25 2010, 07:14 PM Post #6 |
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Hmmm.... I can see some pterosaurs using venom to catch small mammals. Maybe even lysanfibians. I agree that there's a possibility that venomous archosaurs did existed. It would be very useful for small theropods for example (reason why I'm pro-venomous Sinornithosaurus). |
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| Toad of Spades | Feb 25 2010, 10:42 PM Post #7 |
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Clorothod
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Maybe it could work well with a family of archosaurs who were fat and slow, like some kinds of fat heavy-bodied vipers. They could just sit camouflaged, and wait for prey to come to them. They bite, let the prey die, eat it, then wait until prey comes by again. |
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| Carlos | Feb 26 2010, 04:38 AM Post #8 |
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Adveho in me Lucifero
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Shrews aren't exactly fat and slow and yet they manage to be venemous. I suppose venom could occur if an animal, specially small sized, is targetting large prey or prey that need to be killed quickly such as fish |
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7:17 PM Jul 10