FIVE ( PLUS A BONUS) TAKEAWAYS FROM WEIRD DINOSAURS
Though most of us have heard that birds are descended from dinosaurs, the idea of dinosaurs as “green or grey, dim- witted, lizard- like creatures” persists, according to John Pickrell. His new book, Weird Dinosaurs, demonstrates just how boring those misconceptions are. Here are your takeaways:
1 Feathered friends: The presence of both scales and feathers in fossils indicates that some dinosaurs likely featured both, much like chickens ( scaly legs) and vultures ( scaly heads) today. It’s probable that feathers were used for insulation and display long before they were used for flight ( likewise other features such as horns were for display and developed with sexual maturity, accord- ing to paleontologist Caleb Brown). Feathers are not a precondition for flight, however, as some pterosaurs instead had fur- like filaments and nonetheless might have been capable of nonstop flights of up to 16,000 km, staying aloft for weeks without touching down.
2 Supersize me: Mammals have seven neck vertebrae, which according to Pickrell holds t rue “f rom giraffes and baleen whales to bats and humans.” Sauropods had 12 to 17 vertebrae, and also had a honeycomb- like bone structure ( like the “hollow bones” one hears about in birds), which made them 50 per cent air. These light, long necks enabled them to feed widely while moving little, sort of like Inspector Gadget during the playoffs.
3 Ice aged: We tend to think of woolly mammoths when we think of large and extinct Arctic dwellers, but polar dinosaurs, “probably warm- blooded and feathery,” according to Pickrell, were successful inhabitants of large polar forests which have themselves disappeared. Pickrell points out that 70 million years ago, Alaska was warmer than today (this is not for you, climate change deniers), with a climate more like today’s Pacific Northwest. The more important l i mitation, he notes, was several months of winter darkness.
4 A moveable beast: The dinosaurs succeeded for so long that many puzzling aspects of the fossil record are explained by continental drift. For instance, Transylvania was once an island, which explains not only Dracula but the discovery of smaller dinosaurs who adapted to survive. Pickrell explains that shrinkage can happen as rapidly as within 10–20 generations, “as observed in deer released onto the Shetland Islands in Scotland.” Also, dinosaur bones have growth rings, l i ke trees, which enables scientists to distinguish between juveniles and adults of similar size. Ceratopsids, such as the charismatic Triceratops, developed after the supercontinents began to break up, and are found mostly in western North America because it was once separated from “Appalachia” by a vast inland sea stretching from the Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. ( Pterosaurs called it “flyover” territory.)
5 Rock stars: If you’re tickled by stars and planets being named after pop culture references, paleontology may also be for you. A snaggle- toothed dinosaur discovered in the 1990s, Masiakasaurus knopfleri, is named after Dire Straits’ Mark Knopf l er. There are also t he ancient mammals Jaggermeryx ( Mick Jagger) and Gagadon minimonstrom ( Lady Gaga), as well as an i guana named after Jim Morrison ( Barbaturex morrisoni) and the crustaceous Mesoparapylocheles michaeljacksoni. All very fitting since one of today’s preeminent celebrity dinosaur geeks is Slash.
BONUS!
Extinction- level event: Rare species are even less likely to appear in the fossil record, especially if they live in an environment that hinders it biologically or geologically. “Consequently,” writes Pickrell, “we are very unlikely ever to know that these species existed.” The bad news? Today’s wild animals are indeed “rare.” We humans take up a third of the land vertebrate biomass and our domestic animals most of the rest, according to Gaia Vince ( really), author of Adventures in the Anthropocene. “Ten million years from now,” writes Pickrell, future Slashes will see “a very clear mass extinction marking the beginning of the Anthropocene epoch, where the fossils of great diversity of animals are replaced by those of cows, chickens, humans, cars, skyscrapers, aluminum cans, plastic bags and smartphones.” And, presumably, jewel cases from Use Your Illusion volumes I and II.
DINOSAUR BONES HAVE GROWTH RINGS, LIKE TREES