Dinosaurids and Anthroposaurs

[TsrJoe]

A Canadian paleantologist, Dale Russell, back in 1982 conducted a thought experiment ... What if the age of the dinosaurs had not ended with an asteroid in the late Creataceous, (at that time only just widely accepted as a likely extinction theory) but had kept going? Would it be ridiculous to posit that intelligent life would develop?

With that in mind, Ron Séguin, taxidermist and artist, was tasked to make two models, one of 'Troodon' ('Stenonychosaurus'), a maniraptoran dinosaur who appears to have one of the largest brains of any known dinosaur - aka the intelligence of an equivalently sized flightless bird - and one model of what Troodon perhaps would have evolved into. Thus, the 'dinosauroid', a dinosaur hominid. The eyes grew larger and more binocular, the head larger to accommodate the brain, and the body upright to support a larger brain.

However, plenty of people thought that this was arrogant at best, and ridiculous at worst. Why would a non-avian dinosaur abandon its horizontal form in favour of a body type so specific to mammalian primates? ...

a reccommended and fun read ... 'Who lies sleeping?'

http://www.askwhy.co.uk/anthroposaurus/index.php

[TsrJoe]

really cool artwork, id forgotten just how smart some birds can be ... a simple enough premise to take yet a small stage further ...

http://www.robotblood.com/2008/09/dinosauroids-biggest-post-ever.html

[TsrJoe]

some images of Dale Russell's 'Dinosaurid' ...

[TsrJoe]

Invicta Plastics 'Stenonychosaurus' (Troodon) model for the Natural History Museum range based upon the Canadian reconstructions ...

[ChernayaAkula]

^ I had soooo many of these Invicta Plastics dinosaurs when I was a kid!

[kitnut617]

some images of Dale Russell's 'Dinosaurid' ...

I've seen something like that displayed at the Royal Tyrrell Museum which is just outside Drumheller in Alberta, (about 50 miles from where I live).  I'm not sure if it's still there though, I haven't been for a year or so.

The gift shop there is just packed with toy/model dinosaurs and such.

http://www.tyrrellmuseum.com/

[rickshaw]

What if the age of the dinosaurs had not ended with an asteroid in the late Creataceous, (at that time only just widely accepted as a likely extinction theory) but had kept going?

While I know this is now the accepted theory, I've never been really happy with it.  The way in which it is dipicted is of a sudden extinction event yet the geologic evidence tends to indicate that extinction took quite a long (by human standards) time, over a million or more years.    So, while its a convenient explanation as to what happened to the Dinosauria its just a little too glib for my liking.  But I digress perhaps.

Intelligent dinosaurs are an interesting what if.   Interesting that he has it evolving from a carnivore.  We evolved from herbivores/omnivores.  I wonder what a difference that might make on personality and thence culture?

[Joe C-P]

I wonder if they'd seen "Land of the Lost". Looks a lot like a Sleestak.

As for the one-shot, one-kill meteor strike, it is possible the dinosaur population was on its way down at the time, and the meteor just finished the job. Then again, there may have been more than one strike, with the Yucatan crater perhaps only the largest of a bombardment.

And, of course, the dinosaurs didn't all die off. Some evolved, gaining warm blood and the ability to fly.

[TsrJoe]

problem with the dinosaurs to birds theory is that altho id happily accept that birds may have branched off from one arm and continued til present, birds have been around as long as dinosaurs in some cases pretty much as current forms too, not counting the primitive 'missing link' Archaeopteryx from the late Jusassic, 150–148 million years ago, which probably shows the divergence mentioned from the 'dinosaur' linage, eg, Compsognathus (Protoavis being ascribed an even earlier date, 210 to 225 million years ogo) there are fossil remains for current analogues to ducks (Ichthyornis), crows, waders all from around the time of the main extinction of 'dinosauria' around 65 mya. which as 'JoeP' mentions, the fossil record shows the populations of which were seemingly becoming fewer in number and species toward the end.
Recently it has been announced that a whole string of craters all dating from the time of the KT. event have been found, the volcanic Deccan Traps upwelling in India one of the largest volcanic features on Earth (more than 2,000 m thick and covering 500,000 km2 area!) also dating from a similar timeframe possibly the result of a massive planetary convulsion?

one i'll not get into at this time re the origin of birds is the 'arboreal' (from the trees down) theory and 'cursorial' (from the ground up) debate altho the former does seem more feasable to my amateur palaeo mind. I do like the idea of 'arbosaurs' ie. little squirrel analogues running around the trees (many years ago id written an article and sketched such a hypothesis for the Dinosaur Society newsletter)


cheers, joe

[The Wooksta!]

Anyone read Harry Harrison's Eden trilogy?  Alternatively, "Doctor Who and the Silurians" is well worth watching.

[kitnut617]

I was watching a program only a few eeks ago where the experts have come up with a new scenario.  The fossil record is beginning to reveal that younger T-Rex's weren't the big lumbering goliaths that we all know (experts in muscles and bones have said that these big animal's build precludes them from being very fast for any length of time), that they were about half the size and very agile.  They also had feathers of a sort, more like what you find on a rhea (or ostrich).  The experts think that the T-Rex's only got as big in their later years and that the younger ones would 'herd' their prey towards the larger ones which would dash out at the prey from ambush.

[rickshaw]

Anyone read Harry Harrison's Eden trilogy?  Alternatively, "Doctor Who and the Silurians" is well worth watching.

And "Doctor Who and the Sea Devils"!

[The Wooksta!]

The Sea Devils is a crass retread, losing much of the subtlety and more cartoonish. The Sea Devils are little more than generic monsters and the Doctor becomes the very thing he critiscised the Brigadier for - a callous murderer.  Awful story.

[rickshaw]

The Sea Devils is a crass retread, losing much of the subtlety and more cartoonish. The Sea Devils are little more than generic monsters and the Doctor becomes the very thing he critiscised the Brigadier for - a callous murderer.  Awful story.

I beg to differ.  Roger Delgardo was superb as The Master and the Sea Devils were excellently visualised.  The use of the RN's shore establishment was an interesting change as well.   Nice SRN6.

[Taiidantomcat]

That Humanoid dinosaur is amazing!



Does anyone have any other examples?