{"id":36741,"date":"2022-07-24T21:26:52","date_gmt":"2022-07-25T02:26:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=36741"},"modified":"2022-07-24T21:26:52","modified_gmt":"2022-07-25T02:26:52","slug":"going-with-johns-guess-from-130-million-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2022\/07\/24\/going-with-johns-guess-from-130-million-years-ago\/","title":{"rendered":"Going With John’s Guess From 130 Million Years Ago"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the same solution is devised for a problem in different scenarios, i.e., convergent evolution, there’s something going on. And this has a bonus: it involves charismatic dinosaurs<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe neat thing is that we found the body plan [of Meraxes gigas<\/em>] is surprisingly similar to tyrannosaurs like T. rex,\u201d said [Peter] Makovicky, one of the principal authors of the study and a professor in the University of Minnesota N.H. Winchell School of Earth and Environmental Sciences. \u201cBut, they\u2019re not particularly closely related to T. rex. They’re from very different branches of the meat-eating dinosaur family tree. So, having this new discovery allowed us to probe the question of, \u2018Why do these meat-eating dinosaurs get so big and have these dinky little arms?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

With the statistical data that Meraxes provided, the researchers found that large, mega-predatory dinosaurs in all three families of therapods grew in similar ways. As they evolved, their skulls grew larger and their arms progressively shortened.<\/p>\n

The possible uses of the tiny forelimbs in T. rex and other large carnivorous dinosaurs have been the topic of much speculation and debate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re suggesting is that there\u2019s a different take on this,\u201d Makovicky said. \u201cWe shouldn\u2019t worry so much about what the arms are being used for, because the arms are actually being reduced as a consequence of the skulls becoming massive. Whatever the arms may or may not have been used for, they\u2019re taking on a secondary function since the skull is being optimized to handle larger prey.\u201d [University of Minnesota News and Events<\/strong><\/a>]<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Gotta love the painting:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

By Carlos Papolio – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link.<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

At 36 feet long, that’s big enough to scare the hell out of me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the same solution is devised for a problem in different scenarios, i.e., convergent evolution, there’s something going on. And this has a bonus: it involves charismatic dinosaurs: \u201cThe neat thing is that we found the body plan [of Meraxes gigas] is surprisingly similar to tyrannosaurs like T. rex,\u201d said \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36741"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36743,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36741\/revisions\/36743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}