Dinosaurs just can't get a break. First981 Archives a comet slams into the Earth and renders them extinct. Now a group of scientists wants to dramatically shake-up the dino family tree.
A new study, published this week in the journal Nature, proposes a major reordering of dinosaurs' evolutionary history.
The revised tree swaps around large subfamilies and adds a new branch for the Tyrannosaurus Rex and its ilk. The study also suggests that dinosaurs may have originated in the Northern Hemisphere, possibly in an area that is now Britain -- not in South America, as scientists have long assumed.
SEE ALSO: A dinosaur-era reptile popped out babies, not eggs"This is a textbook changer -- if it continues to pan out," said Thomas Holtz, a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Maryland in College Park, who was not involved in the research.
"It's only one analysis, but it's a thorough one," he told Nature.
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable For the last 130 years, dinosaurs have been divided into two distinct groups: Ornithischia, with bird-like hips, and Saurischia, with lizard-like hips. The stegosaurus is in the first group; the brontosaurus falls into the second.
A Victorian paleontologist named Harry Seeley devised the two categories in 1888, and scientists have adopted this approach ever since. But Matthew Baron, a doctoral student at the University of Cambridge in England, said it's time to break this binary.
Baron, the study's lead author, spent three years studying 450 features of 75 dinosaur species. With his colleagues, he compared the size, shapes and arrangements of fossilized bones, then used computer simulations to group together species with similar characteristics.
Where do I belong? Credit: dianne manson/Getty Images After analyzing 32 billion possible family trees, the computer program spat out 80 most likely scenarios, which Baron combined to construct his new family tree.
The theory "means that animals that we've always thought were very closely related to each other might not be," Kristi Curry Rogers, a paleontologist at Macalaster College in Minnesota who wasn't part of the study, told the Associated Press.
One of the biggest shake-ups involves theropods, a group that includes the T. Rex and other ancestors of modern day birds. Theropods have long been considered an offshoot from the lizard-hipped Saurischia. Baron's study not only moves them to the bird-hipped Orinthischia category but also creates a separate theropod branch.
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable The Nature study also suggests that dinosaurs appeared some 247 million years ago, or about 10-15 million years earlier than previously believed. The earliest dinosaur may be the plant-eating Nyasasaurus, which stood 6 to 10 feet tall and was found in Tanzania.
But the earliest dinosaur ancestor might be a small, dinosaur-like creature found in present-day Scotland, according to Baron. That would shift the dino's origin point away from South America, where several very early dinosaurs have been found. However, other dinosaur experts said there is not enough evidence to support this shift.
And even after centuries of digging up dino bones, more clues may be hiding in the dirt that could reshape scientists' understanding of the current family tree or Baron's proposed redesign.
"For many regions of the world, there's so much we don't know about the fossil record," Hans-Dieter Sues, a vertebrate paleontologist at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, told Nature.
The State of 5G: When It's Coming, How Fast It Will Be & The Sci
From the Cloakroom, at the Booker by Jonathan Gharraie
Best of the nice internet in 2020, so far
Work Frustrations; Social Climbing by Lorin Stein
Barcelona Open 2025 livestream: Watch live tennis for free
John Jeremiah Sullivan on ‘Soundcheck’ by The Paris Review
The Varieties of “Experience” by Dawn Chan
Best yoga apps and YouTube channels for practicing at home
Japan orders Google to stop alleged antitrust violations
Police used ‘smart streetlights’ to surveil protesters, as feared
Useful or Little Known Android Features
Samsung ChatGPT leak: Samsung bans use of AI chatbots by employees
On the Shelf by Sadie Stein
Staff Picks: Barbie's Dream House, All the Single Ladies by The Paris Review
Seven Steam games whose reviews have changed a lot
The 27 Guy Fieriest Guy Fieri tweets of 2020, so far
The Desert’s Daughters by Jenna Wortham
‘The Phantom Tollbooth’ at Fifty by Laura Miller
'The Last of Us' Season 2, episode 3's opening credits has a heartbreaking change
Help Us Support St. Mark’s! by Natalie Jacoby
First Impressions by Ricardo SumalaviaBanal Sentimentality; Tackling Tolstoy by Lorin SteinRemembering John Lewis in his many tweets and viral momentsAn Interview with Lysley TenorioOn the Shelf by Sadie SteinEurovision 2023: All 37 songs hitting the finalsAlan Bennett on ‘Smut’ by Jonathan GharraieIvanka Trump sparks bean memes after she posed with can of Goya beansJennifer Grotz’s “Poppies” by Ta'Quordle' today: See each 'Quordle' answer and hints for May 9Staff Picks: ‘The Univited Guests,’ ‘Capital’ by The Paris ReviewLamb Chop in Search of a Martini by Matt WeinstockStarve a Fever, Feed a Cold by Robin BellingerThe moment of 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3' that I can't shakeThomas Sayers Ellis’s “Or,” by Robyn CreswellMarco Rubio's John Lewis tribute gaffe is savagely mockedEzra Pound’s “Exile’s Letter” by Edmund WhiteRemembering John Lewis in his many tweets and viral momentsAt the Gettin' Place by Aaron GilbreathThe Escape Artist by Chris Wallace Meta launches VR subscription service called Quest+ Marvel, Netflix, and others won't be at San Diego Comic Donald Baechler, Untitled, 2012 by The Paris Review Spacecraft skims Mercury during close Happy Birthday, Mrs. Dalloway! by Sadie Stein Walt's Kitchen shows off tasty recipes made from... your favorite Disney characters YouTube is testing an AI Twitter is suspending API access for popular bots like hourly animals and @MakeItAQuote Punk Love by Jason Diamond 3 surprising drugs being repurposed to fight COVID Last Chance for Our Special Tote Bag Offer! by Sadie Stein Celestial Homework, and Other News by Sadie Stein Every U.S. city testing free money programs Mother May I by The Paris Review Everything you need to know about 'Black Mirror' Season 6 What We’re Loving: Boar Hearts, Panic, and Shirley Jackson by The Paris Review Elton John's Glastonbury performance among the most watched TV of the year Nobel Tweets, and Other News by Sadie Stein Mr. Men as Social Critique by Sadie Stein People Will Always Be Kind by Henry Giardina
2.6161s , 10133.640625 kb
Copyright © 2025 Powered by 【1981 Archives】,Miracle Information Network