• fossilesque@mander.xyzOPM
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      117
      ·
      4 months ago

      If it’s strong enough to throw an F-150, that dino is fucked. Also, we barely know what lived in upland and interior environments, so who knows what adaptations they had. Most dinosaur fossils come from lowland settings near rivers and coasts where rapid burial was likely. There are whole ecosystems we’ve basically never sampled.

      • cattywampas@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        75
        ·
        4 months ago

        There are whole ecosystems we’ve basically never sampled.

        This drives me crazy. Along with the fact that we’ll probably never know about the various colors and fleshy structures that these animals had.

      • applebusch@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        4 months ago

        Yeah I was gonna say, one of the defining features of the large sauropods was a low body density due to the air sacks in their huge necks and hollow bones. Those adaptations were likely required to achieve their size. So you have a really big animal with relatively low density and high surface area, that thing is going right up into the sky and getting smashed to bits when it lands.

      • JoeBigelow@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        4 months ago

        Oh I never really thought about the fossil record being sedimentary, this largely aquatic and adjacent environments.

      • Einskjaldi@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        4 months ago

        You just do a quick laydown and tuck your head under your arms, and find a bit of dirt to hide behind.