Dinosaurs and colonisation...

POSTED BY: TheGerg
UPDATED: Thursday, September 22, 2005 22:08
VIEWED: 9458
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SICKDUDE

Monday, May 23, 2005 10:10 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by AURaptor:
So, where would you put the infamous Brontosaurus, if not in the dinogeek's (ahem) Holy Trinity?

Sorry to nitpick (not really, but it's polite to say it). I thought they found there was no such thing as a Brontosaur. The closest thing would be a Brachiosaurus.

"Don't say 'ka' until you've tried it." Daniel Jackson

AURAPTOR

Monday, May 23, 2005 10:38 PM

Sickdude commented-

Quote:
Sorry to nitpick (not really, but it's polite to say it). I thought they found there was no such thing as a Brontosaur. The closest thing would be a Brachiosaurus.

Well, I was trying to keep things simple for the few NON Dinogeeks on the board. But since you mentioned it....

Brontosaurus

DESCRIBER - Marsh,1879

TIME - Jurassic Late, Kimmeridgian Tithonian

CLASSIFICATION
Saurischia Sauropodomorpha Sauropoda Diplodocidae Diplodocinae

DIET - Herbivore

FOSSILSITE - US

FALL UNDER - APATOSAURUS

INFO

Apatosaurus = Brontosaurus (Marsh,1879) Elosaurus (Peterson & Gilmore,1902) Apatosaurus > A.ajax = Atlantosaurus ajax (Marsh,1877 - Steel,1970) = Brontosaurus ajax (Marsh,1877 - Bakker,1986) = Atlantosaurus laticollis (Marsh,1879 - Steel,1970) = Atlantosaurus excelsus (Marsh,1879 - Steel,1970) = Camarasaurus excelsus (Marsh,1879 - Osborn vide von Huene,1929) = Apatosaurus amplus (Marsh,1881 - Gilmore,1936) = Atlantosaurus amplus (Marsh,1881 - Steel,1970)

A.ajax (Marsh,1877) >> A. laticollis (Marsh,1879) Atlantosaurus immanis (Marsh,1878) Apatosaurus > A.excelsus (Marsh,1879) >> Brontosaurus excelsus (Marsh,1879) >>> Brontosaurus amplus (Marsh,1881) Elosaurus parvus (Peterson & Gilmore,1902) Apatosaurus > A.louisae (Holland,1915) = Atlantosaurus louisae (Holland,1915 - Steel,1970) = Brontosaurus louisae (Holland,1915 - Bakker, 1986)

"thunder lizard" Named for its great size and powerful build ("one of the largest reptiles yet discovered"), similar in meaning to Marsh's earlier mammal name Brontotherium "thunder beast" (1873). Brontes was also the name of a giant in Greek mythology. Contrary to a common explanation for the name, Marsh did not indicate that his "thunder lizard" was supposed to make a sound like thunder when it walked.

He recognized that his Apatosaurus and Brontosaurus were closely related taxa, but distinguished the two forms primarily based on the number of fused vertebrae in the sacrum of the type specimens (three in Apatosaurus ajax, five in Brontosaurus excelsus), a feature now known to reflect the age of individuals. Elmer Riggs could not find sufficient grounds for treating both as separate genera, and made the well-known name Brontosaurus a junior synonyn of Apatosaurus in 1903.

Surprisingly, though, Riggs also thought that the type species itself could not be identified in an adult form: "Apatosaurus ajax is based upon a specimen too young to admit of specific determination"--a situation, which, arguably, could have been grounds for treating the name Apatosaurus as a nomen dubium and using Brontosaurus instead.

Modern authorities consider Apatosaurus ajax diagnosable, however. The nomenclatural issues surrounding the name are unrelated to Marsh's mistaken choice of a Camarasaurus skull for his reconstruction of "Brontosaurus."

" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "

PERIDIDDLE

Monday, May 23, 2005 10:55 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by zoid:

perididdle:

You could always hop into your DeLorean and get it right before DocWho.

Of course, first you'd have take the DeLorean back to a time when they still had DeLoreans... Temporal paradoxes are sooo tricky!

v/r,
-zed

*Ponders this* That is correct! I shall find a way. It doesn't exactly have to be a DeLorean, but for the sake of the reference and my lack of abilities in building time travel machines, there must be some way to dig one up. Or, perhaps, I could find a train....

*Walks off ranting something about lightning and scale models*

"Bwaa...it's kind of a warrior...strikes fear into the hearts of..."

SICKDUDE

Monday, May 23, 2005 11:01 PM

D'oh!

Auraptor, I suppose the next thing you're gonna say is that the Brachiosaurus isn't made out of those chocolate candies at all.....

"Don't say 'ka' until you've tried it." Daniel Jackson

AURAPTOR

Monday, May 23, 2005 11:09 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Sickdude:
D'oh!

Auraptor, I suppose the next thing you're gonna say is that the Brachiosaurus isn't made out of those chocolate candies at all.....

"Don't say 'ka' until you've tried it." Daniel Jackson

Mmmmmm...Brachio-licious!!

" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "

SIMONWHO

Monday, May 23, 2005 11:25 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by zoid:

perididdle:

You could always hop into your DeLorean and get it right before DocWho.

Of course, first you'd have take the DeLorean back to a time when they still had DeLoreans... Temporal paradoxes are sooo tricky!

v/r,
-zed

P.S.
Points go to SimonWho. Maybe too easy, but I thought it might be too obscure for most to get; so I trivialized it.

Ah, see, I have my own method of time travel so I waited until someone (perididdle) got the answer right, travelled back before their post and then put it up to beat them to it. A plan I learned off the editor of some travellers guide, I forget which one.

THEGERG

Wednesday, May 25, 2005 11:55 PM

Sorry, doin a dissertation at the mo so my comments come not too often.

Me was wonderin if it may not be a Tyrannosaurus as it seems to have little flap-like bits on its head! Did they have those? I'm thinking it's more likely to be an Allosaurus! Though i am basing my seriously limited dinosaur knowledge firmly on the BBC "Walking With Dinosaurs" program.

Also, just watched Firefly again (obviously i'm dissertating as I do) and Mal mentions farmers bringing mangy cattle to backwater planets, he also mentions terraforming. So obviously most of the terraforming has been based on western scrubland and coastal formal gardens. How can a planet survive with just these biomes? I've never seen rainforest, estuaries, coral, nothin else but scrubland and coastal formal gardens! And lots of mountains, but even they have scrub!

Maybe global warming killed off EVERYTHING else! Or maybe it was rabbits! And you talk of the damage that predators would do to an ecology, but without them we'd get overpopulation? I also think i've solved the predator mystery, I'm sure i've seen a hawk in one episode! I'll look back over - God! I am now sadly looking out for these things!

I feel that Kakapo's are a likely addition as they are cool and given that Firefly is cool, it is likely that cool creatures exist in Firefly!

By the way, if you have to take DeLoreans back to a time when they still had DeLoreans, how did Marty take his DeLorean back in time then? The 1950's and the Wild West had never heard of DeLoreans.

Also temporal paradoxes aren't tricky if you subscribe to the multiple timeline theory. Based on that, you can go back, kill your grandfather, kill your mother, kill yourself, and you'd still be going strong after decimating every relative you could trace!

I speak of the computer who will come after me!

THEGERG

Wednesday, May 25, 2005 11:58 PM

p.s. Wash also seems to have a green plastic man! I'm looking out for his dashboard ecology when I see the movie and hope he has added some new items to his obviously burgeoning collection.

MONTANAGIRL

Thursday, May 26, 2005 3:19 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by SimonWho:
Ah, see, I have my own method of time travel so I waited until someone (perididdle) got the answer right, travelled back before their post and then put it up to beat them to it. A plan I learned off the editor of some travellers guide, I forget which one.

Yes, but did you then proceed to sue them for copyright infringement for using your answer?

"One day, lad, all this will be yours ..."
"What - the curtains?"

REAVERINA1985RIVIERA

Thursday, May 26, 2005 9:02 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by perididdle:
Quote:
Originally posted by zoid:

perididdle:

You could always hop into your DeLorean and get it right before DocWho.

Of course, first you'd have take the DeLorean back to a time when they still had DeLoreans... Temporal paradoxes are sooo tricky!

v/r,
-zed

*Ponders this* That is correct! I shall find a way. It doesn't exactly have to be a DeLorean, but for the sake of the reference and my lack of abilities in building time travel machines, there must be some way to dig one up. Or, perhaps, I could find a train....

*Walks off ranting something about lightning and scale models*

"Bwaa...it's kind of a warrior...strikes fear into the hearts of..."

Somebody could've taken a DMC-12 off of Earth as part of a automotive collection when the planets where done being terraformed. Some of those cars ('70 Hemi 'Cuda, Duesenburgs, Packards) are worth millions, it doesn't make any sense to just leave them on a soon-to-be dead planet. If someone can fly an SR-71 Blackbird in the episode "Trash", then some one could be driving a Delorean on a planet like Arial (sp?)

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The real-life box droppin', man-ape gone wrong thing, now without the pesky falling boxes

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