Or maybe I should say 'newly discovered' This is awesome, guys. While similar to other long-necked dinos, the Dreadnoughtus is the largest terrestrial animal ever discovered - at 65 tons!
Well, that is what they've been doing with other languages for decades now. Among dinosaurs, at least, Chinese is getting pretty popular because of all the discoveries coming out of the Gobi.
But as far as biological discoveries in the news today go, this is actually the more mind-blowing one. Dreadnoughtus is seventy-five million years old, and very very dead. But these are living creatures that look astonishingly like fossils from the Ediacaran fauna, the earliest known multicellular life - five hundred seventy-five million years old.
And I say this fully acknowledging that Dreadnoughtus is an extraordinary find. Most of these giant dinosaurs are known from just one bone or a fragment of a bone, and their size has to be extrapolated. A good anatomist can extrapolate really well, but there's always an element of uncertainty. But Dreadnoughtus is 70% complete. That's almost as definitive as Carnegie's Diplodocus or the Berlin Giraffatitan.
But as far as biological discoveries in the news today go, this is actually the more mind-blowing one. Dreadnoughtus is seventy-five million years old, and very very dead. But these are living creatures that look astonishingly like fossils from the Ediacaran fauna, the earliest known multicellular life - five hundred seventy-five million years old.
While cool (I love discoveries like this), I'm not sure if this find is all that surprising. The ocean seems to constantly reveal 'living fossils', like the coelacanth. I am intrigued by it's defiance of classification, though.
And I especially love that it was 'found' 30 years ago but only recently 'discovered' among the haul.
Also, Dreadnaughtus sounds like a villain from a Godzilla rip-off.
I don't know why they just don't call it a brontosaurus.
"Brontosaurus" is considered a junior synonym of "Apatosaurus". That means it's in a kind of weird nether-zone where it's not officially the name of anything, but it can't be used for the name of anything else.
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I don't know why they just don't call it a brontosaurus.
"Brontosaurus" is considered a junior synonym of "Apatosaurus". That means it's in a kind of weird nether-zone where it's not officially the name of anything, but it can't be used for the name of anything else.
And, to be fair, naming a new dinosaur after an old mistake isn't probably the way the new guys want to go.
I wouldn't call "Brontosaurus" a mistake (except for the skull thing). It's just the sort of recomparison and reclassification that happens all the time.
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Vive, vale. Siquid novisti rectius istis,
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I'm gonna be honest; At first glance I thought this was a spoiler for KTK and got really excited for Dinosaurs coming back to Magic.
I'm only a little bit disappointed but this is still cool none-the-less.
Absolutely. As B_S said, there is so much we don't know about these creatures. Maybe they followed the pattern of the modern day Hippo and kept to bodies of water? I mean, we know that there was a whole similar group of Dino's that were entirely aquatic (akin to modern day Whales).
Maybe the Young Earthers are right and the Devil put these bones in the ground to trick us. Or whatever it is they're saying now.
Honestly, I'd be more inclined to believe that the Devil is trying to trick us than believe that animals that weighed 65-tons existed in such numbers that you actually had a viable breeding population.
I just cannot even begin to wrap my minds around how they even manage to exist. Was food that ******* abundant? Did the plants grow instantly? Did these animals follow some cycle where they would just go around a continent, literally eating everything in sight?
I mean... vegetable matter is not that nutritious. I can wrap my head around an animal that is roughly double the mass of an elephant existing and living off a rich, abundant forest or some such. After all, elephants really aren't gigantic.
An alternative here is that these dinos kept to the water, kind of like modern-day Hippos, to help support their weight most of the time. They could be sort-of related to Plesiosaurs, which were their long-necked water-faring dino cousins. I imagine they'd have to be in very small pods to keep from stripping the countryside clean.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2014/09/04/this-is-the-kind-of-dinosaur-you-find-in-hollywood/?tid=sm_fb
This thing is the kind of gargantuan we dreamed about as kids.
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[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath
...it's English. It dreads nought.
First scientific name in English I've seen. Waiting for the next sauropod to get called "Biglizardus."
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
But as far as biological discoveries in the news today go, this is actually the more mind-blowing one. Dreadnoughtus is seventy-five million years old, and very very dead. But these are living creatures that look astonishingly like fossils from the Ediacaran fauna, the earliest known multicellular life - five hundred seventy-five million years old.
And I say this fully acknowledging that Dreadnoughtus is an extraordinary find. Most of these giant dinosaurs are known from just one bone or a fragment of a bone, and their size has to be extrapolated. A good anatomist can extrapolate really well, but there's always an element of uncertainty. But Dreadnoughtus is 70% complete. That's almost as definitive as Carnegie's Diplodocus or the Berlin Giraffatitan.
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
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While cool (I love discoveries like this), I'm not sure if this find is all that surprising. The ocean seems to constantly reveal 'living fossils', like the coelacanth. I am intrigued by it's defiance of classification, though.
And I especially love that it was 'found' 30 years ago but only recently 'discovered' among the haul.
Also, Dreadnaughtus sounds like a villain from a Godzilla rip-off.
TerribleBad at Magic since 1998.A Vorthos Guide to Magic Story | Twitter | Tumblr
[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath
—Karn, silver golem
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
And, to be fair, naming a new dinosaur after an old mistake isn't probably the way the new guys want to go.
TerribleBad at Magic since 1998.A Vorthos Guide to Magic Story | Twitter | Tumblr
[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
TerribleBad at Magic since 1998.A Vorthos Guide to Magic Story | Twitter | Tumblr
[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
It's assumed the neck allowed it reach of a LOT of trees.
TerribleBad at Magic since 1998.A Vorthos Guide to Magic Story | Twitter | Tumblr
[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath
I'm only a little bit disappointed but this is still cool none-the-less.
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
Sure.
But there's a couple of things I just don't understand.
Most importantly, how is there enough food for a herd of these things?
I honestly get the feeling that there's something seriously messed up with our understanding of them big animals that lived millions of years ago.
TerribleBad at Magic since 1998.A Vorthos Guide to Magic Story | Twitter | Tumblr
[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
Honestly, I'd be more inclined to believe that the Devil is trying to trick us than believe that animals that weighed 65-tons existed in such numbers that you actually had a viable breeding population.
I just cannot even begin to wrap my minds around how they even manage to exist. Was food that ******* abundant? Did the plants grow instantly? Did these animals follow some cycle where they would just go around a continent, literally eating everything in sight?
I mean... vegetable matter is not that nutritious. I can wrap my head around an animal that is roughly double the mass of an elephant existing and living off a rich, abundant forest or some such. After all, elephants really aren't gigantic.
But... this? 65 tons?
TerribleBad at Magic since 1998.A Vorthos Guide to Magic Story | Twitter | Tumblr
[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
Also lives in the ocean (thus not needing to carry its own body weight), and the sea is significantly larger than whatever available landmass.
But mostly the "doesn't need to carry its own body weight" part.
In any case, they're awesome.
TerribleBad at Magic since 1998.A Vorthos Guide to Magic Story | Twitter | Tumblr
[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.