Another dino: Typothorax

New Skeletons from the Age of Dinosaurs Answer Century-Old Questions About Prehistoric Reptile Typothorax

More than 100 years ago paleontologist E. D. Cope of "Dinosaur Wars" fame found a few fragmentary bones of a reptile in the deserts of New Mexico. He named the reptile Typothorax. A century later Typothorax, which belongs to a group of reptiles called aetosaurs, remained something of a mystery, known mainly from pieces of armor, a few limb bones, and some sections of tail.

Now, thanks to two remarkably complete skeletons discovered by volunteers and described in the latest issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, paleontologists are finally revealing what Typothorax really looked like, how large it was, how it walked, and myriad other questions. Typothorax is also one of the last large herbivores to evolve in the Late Triassic, before dinosaurs would come to dominate the planet.

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Reminiscent of giant armadillos, aetosaurs were widespread during Late Triassic times (230 -- 200 million years ago). The largest species of aetosaur grew up to 5 meters long, although the two new specimens, representing a species called Typothorax coccinarum, were smaller growing up to 2.5 meters long. All were covered by a protective armor of overlapping bony plates, but some species sported massive spikes protecting the neck region -- an additional deterrent to any hungry predator.

Fragments of the characteristic bony armor are well known to paleontologists, but complete specimens of any aetosaur are very rare and none were known for Typothorax prior to the discovery of these specimens. The ornamentation on the plates varies from species to species and paleontologists have long recognized them as a diverse and important group of plant eaters living alongside some of the earliest dinosaurs. However, because of the rarity of more complete material they remain something of an enigma.

"For the first time we can get a realistic estimate of the size of these animals, and at only 2.5m [~7 feet) and about 100kg (225 lb) they are not as large as previously thought. We also know that some of the bony spikes that were thought to run down the sides of the armor actually surrounded the cloaca."

The new specimens show that the body was completely enclosed in bony armor even to the extent of having a series of tiny overlapping plates extending down each leg, and onto the hands and feet. The front limbs apparently sprawled, but the hind limbs were much larger and upright. "I doubt professor Cope would have ever imagined this animal quite this way," said Heckert, "one really interesting feature is that the front half of the skeleton is so slender we probably would have thought it belonged to a juvenile if it weren't articulated to the rest."

www.sciencedaily.com...

[edit on 31/5/10 by sandri_90]

More science fiction! From a skeleton, imaginative artists invent an impression of what it COULD have looked, how it MIGHT have behaved, what it MIGHT have eaten to continually fool those people who blindly follow and swallow the fairy tale of evolution.

Rocks turning into university professors of billions of years of random beneficial accidents!!!! If you believe that, you'll believe anything lol

reply to post by sinthia


Sigh.
I love people who go on evolution tirades yet have no idea what evolution really means.
Rocks evolved into people eh?

And here is a huge biological report

Articulated skeletons of the aetosaur Typothorax coccinarum Cope (Archosauria: Stagonolepididae) from the Upper Triassic Bull Canyon Formation (Revueltian: early-mid Norian), eastern New Mexico, USA

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Originally posted by sinthia
More science fiction! From a skeleton, imaginative artists invent an impression of what it COULD have looked, how it MIGHT have behaved, what it MIGHT have eaten to continually fool those people who blindly follow and swallow the fairy tale of evolution.

Rocks turning into university professors of billions of years of random beneficial accidents!!!! If you believe that, you'll believe anything lol

Science fiction? You must rather pure fiction, like people magically spawning from people's ribs.

Allow me to tell you how it might have been figured out:

Based on how the bones fit together, you can figure the overall shape of the animal. Scientists already do this for people's faces to identify victims in murder cases where all the teeth have been removed and there is no DNA evidence. They use the skull to construct a 3-D replica of the person's head to show to people they suspect might know the person.

You can determine what it ate by the teeth and claws. Your teeth are good for certain things too. Try chewing your food with only the front ones and see how long it takes you.

If you know it was very low to the ground (based on bone assembly), you would know what plants it had access to and that it wouldn't be able to reach certain leaves and fruits on higher trees.

Knowing what it ate, you would have an idea of how fast it moves, since a diet of a person can reveal how active or inactive they are when combined with their stature.

If you look at a human's hip bones, you can look at them to see if the person was obese or not. Also, the size and density of the bones would reveal things.

Some things like where the animal had scales could be inferred by where they were most vulnerable. They must have some form of protection, and using reasoning, they determine where it's needed. (If the animal didn't have some protection, it would be an easy meal and never would have lived.)

See, it's not so strange. We do it all the time already. It's just that we use X-rays while the person is alive instead of after they have fossilized.

Magic!

[edit on 31-5-2010 by glitchinmymatrix]

Originally posted by sinthia
More science fiction! From a skeleton, imaginative artists invent an impression of what it COULD have looked, how it MIGHT have behaved, what it MIGHT have eaten to continually fool those people who blindly follow and swallow the fairy tale of evolution.

Rocks turning into university professors of billions of years of random beneficial accidents!!!! If you believe that, you'll believe anything lol

At least they're basing their "fairy tale" on actual evidence that actual smart people physically dug up, analyzed, compared to previous samples, presented to other even smarter people, etc. etc...
You speak as though they're just making this up, like, perhaps they simply read it out of a book somewhere, and come up with the rest, but that's not how the fairy tale of science works.

Keep tryin' though, it's cute.

Mmmmmmm, sweet delicious irony for breakfast today. Goes good with my coffee.

lol, there is no evidence!!!!

Arranging circumstantial skeletons in order of size or shape does not prove that skeleton b 'evolved' from skeleton a. It proves that skeletons can be arranged - that is all.

Sorry, but there is no proof of evolution.

And yes, the overall premise is that of inannimate chemicals, by random chance, turned into humans - even you don't believe it lol!

Lets not forget that tiny problem of the origins of life!!!!

You guys crease me lol

Of course there is no evidence!

Doctors had to wait for your encephalogram to discover the straight line

what do they know? they still insist that 1+1 is 2.

And as for the origins of life, some basic chemistry will solve it for you (but that is also science, thus lies!)