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DinoFest 2018 at Natural History Museum of Utah videos
(sound is a bit echoey and screens are a bit hard to see)
Paul GignacÂ
Royal Appetite: How Tyrannosaurus rex Dined on the Bones of Cretaceous Dinosaurs
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Mark Loewen
Allosaurus in Motion: Bringing a Jurassic Predator to Life
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James O. FarlowÂ
Big vs. Bouncy: Body Size, Limb Proportions, and Relative Stride Length in Bipedal Dinosaurs
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Dan ChureÂ
Tracking Ancient Animals in an Ancient Desert: Dinosaurs and Other Creatures of the Nugget Sandstone" at the Natural History Museum of Utah
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Brian Switek dinosaur talk
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Carrie Levitt BussianÂ
Ceratopsian limb bone histology
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Tylor Birthisel
Warner County dinosaur tracks
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Ocean tides could have driven ancient fish to walk
Evolution of land-walking animals may have started with fish that were stranded in tidal pools.
abstract
PL41A-02: Tides: A Key Driver in the Evolution of Terrestrial Vertebrates?
Thursday, February 15, 2018Â 08:15 AM - 08:30 AM Oregon Convention Center - B113-B115
Vertebrates have made a sea-to-land transition only once, which must have occurred prior to 395 Ma as documented through the discovery of a stem-tetrapod trackway in the Hold Cross mountains, Poland. The mechanisms behind such a transition are disputed, but biological perspectives suggest that it was a gradual progression and the symbiotic relationship of competition. Here, we hypothesise that the presence of strongly modulated tides may have been a significant driver in the transition. A large spring-neap range would have created a large intertidal zone, thus stranding sarcopterygians for several days. To survive, individuals with limbs better adapted to terrestrial navigation could flail back into the sea. These isolating tides may have paved the way for the emergence of terrestrial vertebrates. We evaluate the hypothesis by producing tidal simulations of the Siluro-Devonian period using paleogeographic plate reconstructions for two time slices prior to the trackway date. The analysis focuses on the resulting semi-diurnal tide and spring-neap range. The results show remarkable correlation between the location of both large semi-diurnal and spring-neap ranges (>4m) and notable fossil location and findings. For the 430 Ma time slice, these are concentrated around South China where the earliest evidence of lungs is found, at around 423 Ma. With the 400 Ma time slice, large ranges were located around Laurussia, where most stem-tetrapod fossils are believed to have originated. These results support the hypothesis, further suggesting the tides as a key driver in the development of not only limbs, but lungs also. In terms of tidal dissipation, the 430 Ma time slice is more energetic than the past 250 Ma. Indeed, the 400 Ma time slice is less energetic than the 430 Ma time slice, implying that the tides may go through a maxima/minima cycle in conjunction with the supercontinent cycle.
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NOTE:
Devonian tetrapod tracks in Poland are now thought to be freshwater rather than marine...
Martin QvarnstrÃm, Piotr Szrek, Per E. Ahlberg & Grzegorz NiedÅwiedzki (2018)
Non-marine palaeoenvironment associated to the earliest tetrapod tracks.
Scientific Reports 8, Article number: 1074 (2018)
doi:10.1038/s41598-018-19220-5
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London Review of Books review of "Palaeoart: Visions of the Prehistoric Past"Â
Feathered, Furred or Coloured