dino news: mummified dinosaur tail found in amber. Has ACTUAL 3D FEATHERY FEATHERS

Nicker on 20/12/2016 at 17:59

Also, relevant chicken porn.

[video=youtube;YMmgnpcaKyM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMmgnpcaKyM[/video]

Tocky on 21/12/2016 at 02:29

Quote Posted by Vivian

Ooh hang on I do know that one, some peeps in my lab did some work on it. They use their tail as an inertial rudder thing, helps them reorient in midair when they're chasing stuff. The flying shavriopteryx might do the same with its long tail, but I would have thought it would just use the flight surfaces? Geckoes do use their tails for adjusting themselves in mid-air though, so it's not out of the question. I'll dig out some links tomorrow.

Ha HA! I'm right. It just goes to show if you shoot enough bullets something is going to yell ouch.

Vivian on 7/1/2017 at 11:25

More general dino news - some interesting stuff on incubation periods. Turns out Ornithischia at least (the triceratops/hadrosaur/stegosaur/ankylosaur etc group) had very long incubation times, more like lizards than birds: (http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2017/01/01/1613716114.full)

PopSci coverage here: (http://www.livescience.com/57368-dinosaurs-eggs-long-incubation-time.html)

As this would lower the generation rate, it seems to be being interpreted as a causative factor in all non-avian dinosaurs non-survival after the KT impact. It's only really relevant to Ornithischia though, and the physiology of those guys is pretty mysterious in general. I'd be interested to see a follow up done on some saurischia.

Nicker, I actually wrote a blog about that chicken tail research for the guardian. I was going for a sort of brooker-esque style and it's a bit embarrassing reading it now, but here you go:(https://www.theguardian.com/science/lost-worlds/2014/mar/20/did-losing-their-tails-make-birds-cock-o-the-walk)

Nicker on 7/1/2017 at 18:22

I enjoyed the article, Doc. But I must take issue with you calling chickens rubbish birds. On the contrary they taste just like dinosaurs and dinos are not rubbish.

But I digress. I wonder if you could clear up a distinction regarding the term "fossil".

My understanding was that fossilization involved the replacement of organic material with minerals. But I often see mummified remains referred to as fossils, at least in the science press. Is this just lazy use of terms or are mummies a subset of fossils? Is the tail in amber a fossil or a mummy?

Vivian on 7/1/2017 at 18:43

It's a fossilised mummy. Mummification is just dessication (well, kinda), but often things mummify before they fossilise. They will generally have spent thousands of years in anoxic mud first, after all.

faetal on 7/1/2017 at 20:47

Given that humans are the dominant species of the moment, I'd say that being Fucking Delicious is actually a pretty decent survival trait.

demagogue on 8/1/2017 at 05:05

I've read that theory before, that it wasn't humans selecting edible cows and chickens so much as cows and chickens selecting humans with a taste for them.