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Science News General; Stuff that doesn't need its own topic
Topic Started: Apr 9 2014, 07:11 AM (11,247 Views)
dino-ken
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As for Amphicoelias fragillimus, I've seen it recently suggested it was a giant Rebbachisaur....


That's very interesting - and it certainly makes more sense for Amphicoelias to have been a giant Rebbachisaurid than the super high estimates I've seen based on Diplodocus. As a giant Rebbachisaurid it would have been about 30-33 meters and weight about than 50-55 metric tons, instead of the 50-60 meter, 100+ ton estimates.
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Archeoraptor
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but ist isn´t too big for a terrestrial animal
Astarte an alt eocene world,now on long hiatus but you never know
Fanauraa; The rebirth of Aotearoa future evo set in new zealand after a mass extinction
coming soon......a world that was seeded with earth´s weridest
and who knows what is coming next...........

" I have to know what the world will be looking throw a future beyond us
I have to know what could have been if fate acted in another way
I have to know what lies on the unknown universe
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throw The Spec I gain strength to the inner peace
the is not good of evil only nature and change,the evolution of all livings beings"
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LittleLazyLass
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dino-ken
Jun 20 2014, 01:25 AM
Quote:
 
As for Amphicoelias fragillimus, I've seen it recently suggested it was a giant Rebbachisaur....


That's very interesting - and it certainly makes more sense for Amphicoelias to have been a giant Rebbachisaurid than the super high estimates I've seen based on Diplodocus. As a giant Rebbachisaurid it would have been about 30-33 meters and weight about than 50-55 metric tons, instead of the 50-60 meter, 100+ ton estimates.
Here's the link: http://palaeozoologist.deviantart.com/journal/Was-Amphicoelias-a-rebbachisaur-440611550

Obviously a guy on deviantart saying it isn't definitive, but it's a decent argument. Supersaurus is actually longer based on these estimates. Personally I'm more interested in the implications of a giant rebbachisaur in the morrison, but maybe that's just me.
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dino-ken
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Personally I'm more interested in the implications of a giant rebbachisaur in the morrison, but maybe that's just me.


Well - most cladistical analysis seems to show Amphicoelias as a basal giant diplodocoid - which is closer to the rebbachisaurs than to the Diplodocods and Dicraeosaurs. Still it wasn't a true Rebbachisaur either. But that modeling definitely seems a bit more realistic.
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LittleLazyLass
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dino-ken
Jun 20 2014, 07:29 PM
Quote:
 
Personally I'm more interested in the implications of a giant rebbachisaur in the morrison, but maybe that's just me.


Well - most cladistical analysis seems to show Amphicoelias as a basal giant diplodocoid - which is closer to the rebbachisaurs than to the Diplodocods and Dicraeosaurs. Still it wasn't a true Rebbachisaur either. But that modeling definitely seems a bit more realistic.
Its position is obviously not set in stone. As is mentioned it doesn't take many more characters to put it in various other places, and with limited material this is even more enforced. A lot of these also primarily feature A. atlus, so overall it's still up in the air. Also, did I miss something about rebbachisaurs having sails/humps or something?

Also, did you check out the hadrosaur phylogeny I linked, really. Or maybe you less of an ornithopod guy?
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dino-ken
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Also, did you check out the hadrosaur phylogeny I linked, really. Or maybe you less of an ornithopod guy?


Sorry, but I didn't see a Link about the hadrosaur phylogeny.

Quote:
 
Also, did I miss something about rebbachisaurs having sails/humps or something?


Not just the rebbachisaurids - but also the diplodocids and dicraeosaurids tend to have tall dorsal spines, as well.
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LittleLazyLass
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Whoops. Mentioned it, but forgot to actually give the link, this might help: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0098821
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Myotragus
Jun 19 2014, 08:53 PM
Fakey
May 28 2014, 05:52 PM
Apparently 'big' only means weight when it comes to paleontology. Nevermind that people want length in sauropods, not girth.
That's downright the meaning of the Word "big". As for Amphicoelias fragillimus, I've seen it recently suggested it was a giant Rebbachisaur....

On other palaeontology news, new hadrosaur open-access paper with really interesting phylogenetic analysis (I hope someone other then me can see why it's so weird for these days....).
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/big

Nowhere does it say big means girth.
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http://svpow.com/2014/06/23/the-journal-of-zoology-special-issue-on-paleobehavior-is-free-for-the-next-30-days/ !
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Zoroaster
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Found this interesting :

http://www.iflscience.com/environment/why-haven%E2%80%99t-we-encountered-aliens-yet-answer-could-be-climate-change
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LittleLazyLass
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Checked the DML today and found out I've been outside the loop for two months. Here's some highlights (Mostly non-open access, unfortunately.)(Also note I've not read anything short of the abstract of any of these.):

http://dml.cmnh.org/2014Jul/msg00108.html

http://www.ville-ge.ch/mhng/paleo/paleo-pdf/33-1/pal_33_1_05.pdf (Open Access)

http://dml.cmnh.org/2014Jul/msg00102.html

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/let.12082/abstract

http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1666/13-068

http://geology.gsapubs.org/content/early/2014/06/26/G35740.1.full.pdf+html (Open access; interesting; short, will take 10 minutes at most to read. I recommend checking it out.)

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/14/128/abstract (Open Access; I have read this one. Rather interesting.)

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1342937X1400210X (Note that was said to be badly done by various people on the DML, including Jaime Headden; note however that they didn't go into detail about what makes it bad, so I'm not sure if we still have a thalassodromedid from the late cretaceous. Take with grain of salt)

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195667114000883

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1674987114000887 (Did actually know about this one; haven't read it yet thought.)

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1342937X13002323 (Seems very interesting... damn you Elsevier!)

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195667114000950 (Also seems very interesting, also blocked by Elsevier... seems to be a common trend with many papers, actually.)

I was also surprised to learn apparent the Deinocheirius skull has a duckbill. Downright, duckbill. Wow.
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Velociraptor
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I was also surprised to learn apparent the Deinocheirius skull has a duckbill. Downright, duckbill. Wow.

It really looks more like a spoonbill than a duckbill, but yeah. Either way, it's much weirder than we'd ever have guessed from its famous arms.
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LittleLazyLass
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Either way, it's much weirder than we'd ever have guessed from its famous arms.


I'm not sure whether to say "Ya think." or "Understatement of the century.".
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Adman
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Myotragus
Aug 5 2014, 10:09 PM


I was also surprised to learn apparent the Deinocheirius skull has a duckbill. Downright, duckbill. Wow.
That was old news.
Projects and concepts that I have stewing around
Extended Pleistocene- An alternate future where man died out, and the megafauna would continue to thrive (may or may not include a bit about certain future sapients)
Inverted World- An alternate timeline where an asteroid hit during the Barremian, causing an extinction event before the Maastrichtian. Dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and notosuchians make it to the present, along with a host of other animals.
Badania- Alien planet that has life at a devonian stage of development, except it exists in the present day.
Ido- Alien world where hoppers (derived flightless ballonts) and mouthpart-legged beasts are prevalent.
Leto- Life on a moon orbiting a gas giant with an erratic orbit; experiences extremes of hot and cold.
The Park- ???
Deeper Impact- a world where the K-Pg extinction wipes out crocodilians, mammals, and birds; squamates, choristoderes, and turtles inherit the earth.
World of Equal Opportunity- alternate history where denisovans come across Beringia and interact with native fauna. Much of the Pleistocene fauna survives, and the modern humans that end up crossing into North America do not overhunt the existing animals. 10,000 years later, civilizations exist that are on par with European and Asian societies.
The Ditch- Nothing is what if seems..
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LittleLazyLass
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Like I said, I've apparently been out of the loop. I'd heard of new Microraptorine, and of course Kulindadromeus, thought.
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