What if, by some fluke of evolutionary history, dinosaurs never went extinct? A geologist's imaginings of this scenario now bear a remarkable resemblance to creatures preserved in recent discoveries
A fish-eater which stalked the fish-filled pools of mountain streams, Dixon's "Dip" looked awfully strange for a predatory dinosaur....[More]
FUZZY PREDATORS:
A fish-eater which stalked the fish-filled pools of mountain streams, Dixon's "Dip" looked awfully strange for a predatory dinosaur. For one thing, the long-snouted coelurosaur was covered in a coat of "long silky fur" never before seen on any dinosaur. Only eight years after The New Dinosaurs was published, however, paleontologists Qiang Ji and Shu'an Ji of the Chinese Geological Museum described the remains of a small dinosaur covered in wispy dino-fuzz. They named the small animal Sinosauropteryx prima, and it was just the first of many feather-covered coelurosaurs to be discovered. Paleontologists now know that what seemed like an unusual body-covering for the "Dip" in 1988 was actually common among the coelurosaurs—a group which includes dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus, Velociraptor, Ornithomimus, Therizinosaurus, Mononykus, Oviraptor, and Archaeopteryx, the earliest known bird.
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Denys Ovenden/The New Dinosaurs by Dougal Dixon, Eddison/Sadd Edition
UNEXPECTED FEATHERS:
The "Dip" wasn't Dixon's only fluffy dinosaur. Many of his speculative creations—from the rhino-like "Monocorn" to the chubby "Balaclav"—were at least partly covered in fur-like coats....[More]
UNEXPECTED FEATHERS:
The "Dip" wasn't Dixon's only fluffy dinosaur. Many of his speculative creations—from the rhino-like "Monocorn" to the chubby "Balaclav"—were at least partly covered in fur-like coats. Recently discovered evidence suggests that feather-like body coverings might have been widespread among real dinosaurs, too. In 2002 paleontologist Gerald Mayr of the Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg and colleagues described a unique specimen of the small horned Psittacosaurus with a brush of bristle-like structures growing out of its tail. This dinosaur was placed all the way on the other side of the dinosaur family tree from the coelurosaurs—about as distantly related to other feathered dinosaurs as it was possible to be while still being a dinosaur—yet it still had feather-like bristles. And in 2009 paleontologists led by Xiao-Ting Zheng of the Shandong Tianyu Museum of Nature described another bristle-tailed dinosaur they called Tianyulong. Specifically, Tianyulong belonged to a subgroup of herbivorous dinosaurs called heterodontosaurids, and, together with Psittacosaurus, this dinosaur demonstrated that many other species might have sported bristly manes or coats of fuzzy proto-feathers.
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Philip Hood/The New Dinosaurs by Dougal Dixon, Eddison/Sadd Edition
DINOSAUR SIGNPOST:
Compared to many of Dixon's other creations, his hadrosaur-descendent the "Bricket" was nearly defenseless. The dinosaur lacked claws, horns, spikes or armor, but he did give it a tail striped with brown, red, black and white....[More]
DINOSAUR SIGNPOST:
Compared to many of Dixon's other creations, his hadrosaur-descendent the "Bricket" was nearly defenseless. The dinosaur lacked claws, horns, spikes or armor, but he did give it a tail striped with brown, red, black and white. "Stuck straight up in the air [in times of danger]", Dixon wrote, "its bright colours warn the rest of the herd of approaching predators." No one has found a stripe-tailed hadrosaur just yet, but just last year Chinese Academy of Sciences paleontologist Fucheng Zhang and co-authors interpreted the microscopic, pigment-carrying bodies in the feathers of the small dinosaur Sinosauropteryx to mean that this small dinosaur had a similar red-and-white-striped tail. While not mentioned in the research itself, in news reports scientists involved with the study suggested that such a striking color pattern might have been used by the dinosaurs to visually communicate with each other. What's the good of a stripey tail if you can't show it off a little?
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Philip Hood/The New Dinosaurs by Dougal Dixon, Eddison/Sadd Edition
BLACK, WHITE AND RED ALL OVER?:
Sinosauropteryx was not the only dinosaur to be reconstructed in living color. One week after the Sinosauropteryx paper was published, an international team of researchers led by Quanguo Li of the Beijing Museum of Natural History presented the feathered dinosaur Anchiornis in full color ....[More]
BLACK, WHITE AND RED ALL OVER?:
Sinosauropteryx was not the only dinosaur to be reconstructed in living color. One week after the Sinosauropteryx paper was published, an international team of researchers led by Quanguo Li of the Beijing Museum of Natural History presented the feathered dinosaur Anchiornisin full color. They were able to accomplish this thanks to the shape of the tiny melanosomes preserved inside the dinosaur's feathers, and the resulting picture was of a black-and-white dinosaur with a rust-colored splash of feathers on its head. Serendipitously, this color pattern of Anchiornis resembled the palette Dixon had given his arboreal, nut-eating "Crackbeak. " Imaginary color patterns given to feathered dinosaurs can now be tested against reality thanks to these new techniques.
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Martin Knowelden/The New Dinosaurs by Dougal Dixon, Eddison/Sadd Edition
DELICATE FINGER:
The tree-dwelling dinosaur Dixon dubbed the "Nauger" was unlike any known dinosaur. Part woodpecker and part aye-aye, this dinosaur pecked holes in trees in order to snatch grubs with a specialized, elongated finger, but in 2002 two different teams of paleontologists described two specimens of a strikingly similar dinosaur....[More]
DELICATE FINGER:
The tree-dwelling dinosaur Dixon dubbed the "Nauger" was unlike any known dinosaur. Part woodpecker and part aye-aye, this dinosaur pecked holes in trees in order to snatch grubs with a specialized, elongated finger, but in 2002 two different teams of paleontologists described two specimens of a strikingly similar dinosaur. Known as Scansoriopteryx, this tiny dinosaur possessed a ludicrously elongated third finger, and a paper by a team of Chinese Academy of Sciences paleontologists led by Fucheng Zhang suggested that this dinosaur may have been using this digit to skewer insect larvae much like the aye-aye and Dixon's hypothetical "Nauger." These scientists also proposed that Scansoriopteryx may have been one of the few arboreal dinosaurs, although the paleobiology of this creature has not been thoroughly studied yet.
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Sean Milne/The New Dinosaurs by Dougal Dixon, Eddison/Sadd Edition
ANT-EATERS:
No one expected to find ant-eating dinosaurs. That gig—engaged in by mammals such as pangolins today—was one dinosaurs showed no indication of taking up....[More]
ANT-EATERS:
No one expected to find ant-eating dinosaurs. That gig—engaged in by mammals such as pangolins today—was one dinosaurs showed no indication of taking up. When Dixon created his vision of an ant-eating dinosaur called the "Pangaloon," therefore, he drew on mammals for inspiration, but paleontologists have now discovered dinosaurs that might have raided anthills, after all. Since the early 1990s paleontologists working in North America, South America and Asia have found a variety of lightly-built coelurosaurs possessing elongated jaws, tiny teeth and stout little limbs tipped with massive claws. They are called alvarezsaurs. No one is entirely sure how these dinosaurs were making a living, but investigations of their arms by Fayetteville State University paleontologist Phil Senter have hinted that they would have been skilled at ripping into ant mounds or tearing apart logs in search of termites. Possible traces of wood-boring termites were even found in the same geological formation as a small alvarezsaur named Albertonykus by Nicholas Longrich of Yale University and Phil Currie of the University of Alberta in 2009, although direct evidence that this dinosaur was slurping up termites like Dixon's speculative "Pangaloon" is still being sought by paleontologists.
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John Butler/The New Dinosaurs by Dougal Dixon, Eddison/Sadd Edition
YES! Send me a free issue of Scientific American with no obligation to continue the subscription. If I like it, I will be billed for the one-year subscription.
I think Dixon was more spot on than anyone want to bring themselves to believe. If you have ever watched a great Blue Heron from above as they fly over water, you may noticed that it looks almost like the pterosaurs, and if you are not aware that there is one around and you hear it scream; it will cause the hair to stand up on your back and scare the be-jesus out of you. I know you are aware that the spider has not changed in millions of years and neither has the roach...they adapted, and I think that is what the dinosaurs did.
I think the dinosaurs were eating themselves out of a house and home and had to downsize themselves to survive. And when a species becomes as numerous as the dinosaurs were; there will always be a predator come on the scene to lessen their numbers; that predator could have been humans.
We have herons by dozens around my place here in Florida and more than once I've had one swoop overhead and screech as I was getting into my car in the morning. The shadow on the ground looks exactly like a Pterodactyl and the primeval sound is an instant heart attack. For 5 seconds I'm left thinking that I've stepped into "The Lost World". This happens every year and I have the same thought each time.
Of course the other aspect of them that I didn't know about is their ability to perch. But even with 3 foot legs like chopsticks, they can. And there is nothing on this planet that's funnier than watching one miss the approach and come crashing down the side of the tree in a tangled mess of wings and legs. Substitute the pterosaur and that's a scene that you wish had been included in Jurassic park.
3. AdamArgue
in reply to JamesDavis10:33 AM 8/10/11
I think you are fogetting about the astroid that collided with the earth ~65 million years ago. The dinosoars were almost completely wiped out. The smaller dinos were able to adapter faster due to shorter generation times, thus any relative to the dinos And to insinuate that humans coexisted with the dinosoars... are you trolling?
"jfmonod" - When I hear a heron or a turkey vulture (that is another bird that will scare the socks off you.), I look around to see if their is a void opened up and the dinos are coming through back home. If I lived in Florida, I would be a nervous wreck all the time.
6. JamesDavis
in reply to AdamArgue11:02 AM 8/10/11
Adam, I don't think an asteroid hit the Earth 65 million years ago and wiped out most of the dinosaurs. That asteroid would have to be really huge to black out the sky, around the world, long enough to kill the vegetation and starve the dinos (extreme cold for that period of time and no food would also kill all the other animals, and there has not been any burn marks found on any of the dino bones, and there should be a lot of burnt dino bones in Mexico where they say the asteroid hit.), and most of the asteroid would burn up coming through our atmosphere. What of the asteroid was left would be really hot and when it hit, it would melt the sand and create large pools of glass. They have not found any large pools of glass or mountains where melted glass has run down and pooled in the valley, so that somewhat rules that theory out. I believe the dinosaurs are still all around us.
7. JamesDavis
in reply to AdamArgue11:22 AM 8/10/11
And also Adam, you would have to be very nave to believe that on a 14 billion-year-old planet, we are the first humans who ever lived here or we are the smartest humans who ever lived here, or should we just call you, Christopher Columbus.
9. smiler03
in reply to JamesDavis03:45 PM 8/10/11
James, you are 9.5 billion years out on the age of the Earth. It is "only" a mere 4.5 billion years old. In fact the Universe itself is less than 14 billion years old.
Are you also seriously suggesting that Humans have evolved more than once?
However, if, for example, giant sauropods, did not become extinct 65 million years ago there should be a trail of evolutionary species development from the sauropod base persisting for some duration beyond that time, correct?
To twist off the quotation of one famous paleontologist, if the dinosaurs were _not_ killed off by a massive impact 65 million years ago, where are all the fossils?
There is the 'convergent evolution'argument, that similar challenges may bring similar adaptations, as per ant-eating and quite a few of the imagined creatures.
It's interesting to me to recognise that, not only did the 'age of the dinosaur' show many similar adaptations to similar challenges, the last 65 million years has done so in terms of waves of mammalian adaptation. We are besotted with the dinosaurs in a way, size is everything.
As for the fascinating idea that something like us has been here before, would we find evidence, and what would we look for and what would we find? Put that it terms of 'something intelligent' that pops up on some post-mammalian Order, looking back 65 million years and 'whatevers' that happened in between. What would we be found? I'm not making any wild claims but the issue of convergent evolution has made me ponder the idea.
6 billion of us at present. But how many hadrosaurs ever existed to enable us to find a small fraction of their remains?
Anyone recall the interest in Stenonychosaurus (nee Trooodon) "credited with being the most intelligent dinosaur. It had large eyes, slender flexible fingers, and a light body. The brain was mainly concerned with its highly developed senses, fine control of its limbs, and fast reflexes, which were used in hunting small and elusive prey". A similar-surmise exercise produced an evolved-guesswork as seen at http://members.ozemail.com.au/~laranzu/atxf/raptor-et.html. Now this 'speculation' was not originally produced for the starry-eyed believers in 'Zeta Ridiculous' but as a hypothesis of convergent evolution. (In that ZR model it's even been alleged that when Troodon Sapiens arrived back from ZR he was greeted with 'welcome to our planet' and responded 'It's our planet too, more like welcome back').
One projection answered the issue of Troodon's smaller brain that, like the birds, it handled much optical processing in a way different to mammals and so brain-size could be smaller to achieve similar complexity. The recent article in SA that those mammal humanoids in northern climes have larger brains because they have to process images from lower light intensities than towards the equator as all the optical processing takes place in the brain, lends some weight if this is true.
So even if something like Troodon as yet unknown or understood had a relatively high intelligence, as high as some primates (excluding archbishops of course), what would have been necessary for that small degree of difference that separates us from Bonobo?
Um... I was going to point out how much unreasonable nostalgia I have for Dixon's books (they made me interested in science-fiction illustration), and how the Flickers in my yard would like a word with whomever says dinosaurs have no interest in filling the ant-eating niche... But having read the other comments so far, I think I will instead get a strong drink and stare at the wall for a while. O_o
14. Jan Cosgrove
in reply to Babbletrish04:34 PM 8/14/11
Babbletrish, we're all sure we'll find a dinosaur in its niche of having a strong drink and staring at a wall. Perhaps a scifi illustrator can draw it for us.
16. Jan Cosgrove
in reply to Babbletrish05:15 PM 8/26/11
A perfect example of The Parallel Evolutionary Coincidence Cartoon, probably 14 billion years old, or drawn on 23rd October 4054 BC, at around 3.25pm, GMT, "Usshering" out a whole Era antediluvian-style-mit-der-40-days-rain. Sinners all of us!
James...just a suggestion...you need to do a little more research. There was indeed an asteroid that hit the earth off the Yucatan Peninsula 65 million years ago...there are concentric rings in the surrounding surface that prove that...it also hit at a low angle, not a direct hit. You are correct, dinosaurs are all around us, in the form of birds. Personally, I believe the universe is older than we think, however the earth has only been around about 4.5 billion years.
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17 Comments
Add CommentI think Dixon was more spot on than anyone want to bring themselves to believe. If you have ever watched a great Blue Heron from above as they fly over water, you may noticed that it looks almost like the pterosaurs, and if you are not aware that there is one around and you hear it scream; it will cause the hair to stand up on your back and scare the be-jesus out of you. I know you are aware that the spider has not changed in millions of years and neither has the roach...they adapted, and I think that is what the dinosaurs did.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think the dinosaurs were eating themselves out of a house and home and had to downsize themselves to survive. And when a species becomes as numerous as the dinosaurs were; there will always be a predator come on the scene to lessen their numbers; that predator could have been humans.
We have herons by dozens around my place here in Florida and more than once I've had one swoop overhead and screech as I was getting into my car in the morning. The shadow on the ground looks exactly like a Pterodactyl and the primeval sound is an instant heart attack. For 5 seconds I'm left thinking that I've stepped into "The Lost World".
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis happens every year and I have the same thought each time.
Of course the other aspect of them that I didn't know about is their ability to perch. But even with 3 foot legs like chopsticks, they can. And there is nothing on this planet that's funnier than watching one miss the approach and come crashing down the side of the tree in a tangled mess of wings and legs. Substitute the pterosaur and that's a scene that you wish had been included in Jurassic park.
I think you are fogetting about the astroid that collided with the earth ~65 million years ago. The dinosoars were almost completely wiped out. The smaller dinos were able to adapter faster due to shorter generation times, thus any relative to the dinos And to insinuate that humans coexisted with the dinosoars... are you trolling?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"jfmonod" - When I hear a heron or a turkey vulture (that is another bird that will scare the socks off you.), I look around to see if their is a void opened up and the dinos are coming through back home. If I lived in Florida, I would be a nervous wreck all the time.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this*Any relative to the dinosours are generally small*
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAdam, I don't think an asteroid hit the Earth 65 million years ago and wiped out most of the dinosaurs. That asteroid would have to be really huge to black out the sky, around the world, long enough to kill the vegetation and starve the dinos (extreme cold for that period of time and no food would also kill all the other animals, and there has not been any burn marks found on any of the dino bones, and there should be a lot of burnt dino bones in Mexico where they say the asteroid hit.), and most of the asteroid would burn up coming through our atmosphere. What of the asteroid was left would be really hot and when it hit, it would melt the sand and create large pools of glass. They have not found any large pools of glass or mountains where melted glass has run down and pooled in the valley, so that somewhat rules that theory out. I believe the dinosaurs are still all around us.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd also Adam, you would have to be very nave to believe that on a 14 billion-year-old planet, we are the first humans who ever lived here or we are the smartest humans who ever lived here, or should we just call you, Christopher Columbus.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this@james
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://articles.cnn.com/2010-03-08/tech/dinosaurs.asteroid_1_asteroid-mass-extinction-impact?_s=PM:TECH
James, you are 9.5 billion years out on the age of the Earth. It is "only" a mere 4.5 billion years old. In fact the Universe itself is less than 14 billion years old.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAre you also seriously suggesting that Humans have evolved more than once?
However, if, for example, giant sauropods, did not become extinct 65 million years ago there should be a trail of evolutionary species development from the sauropod base persisting for some duration beyond that time, correct?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTo twist off the quotation of one famous paleontologist, if the dinosaurs were _not_ killed off by a massive impact 65 million years ago, where are all the fossils?
There is the 'convergent evolution'argument, that similar challenges may bring similar adaptations, as per ant-eating and quite a few of the imagined creatures.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's interesting to me to recognise that, not only did the 'age of the dinosaur' show many similar adaptations to similar challenges, the last 65 million years has done so in terms of waves of mammalian adaptation. We are besotted with the dinosaurs in a way, size is everything.
As for the fascinating idea that something like us has been here before, would we find evidence, and what would we look for and what would we find? Put that it terms of 'something intelligent' that pops up on some post-mammalian Order, looking back 65 million years and 'whatevers' that happened in between. What would we be found? I'm not making any wild claims but the issue of convergent evolution has made me ponder the idea.
6 billion of us at present. But how many hadrosaurs ever existed to enable us to find a small fraction of their remains?
Anyone recall the interest in Stenonychosaurus (nee Trooodon) "credited with being the most intelligent dinosaur. It had large eyes, slender flexible fingers, and a light body. The brain was mainly concerned with its highly developed senses, fine control of its limbs, and fast reflexes, which were used in hunting small and elusive prey". A similar-surmise exercise produced an evolved-guesswork as seen at http://members.ozemail.com.au/~laranzu/atxf/raptor-et.html. Now this 'speculation' was not originally produced for the starry-eyed believers in 'Zeta Ridiculous' but as a hypothesis of convergent evolution. (In that ZR model it's even been alleged that when Troodon Sapiens arrived back from ZR he was greeted with 'welcome to our planet' and responded 'It's our planet too, more like welcome back').
One projection answered the issue of Troodon's smaller brain that, like the birds, it handled much optical processing in a way different to mammals and so brain-size could be smaller to achieve similar complexity. The recent article in SA that those mammal humanoids in northern climes have larger brains because they have to process images from lower light intensities than towards the equator as all the optical processing takes place in the brain, lends some weight if this is true.
So even if something like Troodon as yet unknown or understood had a relatively high intelligence, as high as some primates (excluding archbishops of course), what would have been necessary for that small degree of difference that separates us from Bonobo?
Would they taste good?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisUm... I was going to point out how much unreasonable nostalgia I have for Dixon's books (they made me interested in science-fiction illustration), and how the Flickers in my yard would like a word with whomever says dinosaurs have no interest in filling the ant-eating niche... But having read the other comments so far, I think I will instead get a strong drink and stare at the wall for a while. O_o
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBabbletrish, we're all sure we'll find a dinosaur in its niche of having a strong drink and staring at a wall. Perhaps a scifi illustrator can draw it for us.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat a coincidence (sorry for the crappy scan): http://www.flickr.com/photos/babbletrish/5040773892/
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA perfect example of The Parallel Evolutionary Coincidence Cartoon, probably 14 billion years old, or drawn on 23rd October 4054 BC, at around 3.25pm, GMT, "Usshering" out a whole Era antediluvian-style-mit-der-40-days-rain. Sinners all of us!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJames...just a suggestion...you need to do a little more research. There was indeed an asteroid that hit the earth off the Yucatan Peninsula 65 million years ago...there are concentric rings in the surrounding surface that prove that...it also hit at a low angle, not a direct hit. You are correct, dinosaurs are all around us, in the form of birds. Personally, I believe the universe is older than we think, however the earth has only been around about 4.5 billion years.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this