The Making of a Vegetarian: A Dinosaur Is Caught in the Act

NY Times ^ | May 5, 2005 | JOHN NOBLE WILFORD

[neverdem]

Global warming must have been due to excess dinosaur flatulence.

James I. Kirkland
Dinosaur jaw fragments reveal teeth adapted for plant shredding.

[neverdem]

ping

[neverdem]

FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

Without government nutrition guidelines, a doctor's advice or some primeval diet fad, entire species of dinosaurs sometimes forsook their predatory, meat-eating lifestyle and evolved into grazing vegetarians.

I'm sure the folks over at PETA would agree with the idea that becoming vegetarian is an example of evolutionary progress. :-)

[bahblahbah]

That guy has a face made for for a child molester database.

[Fawnn]

Now we know the real reasons why dinosaurs became extinct. (More proof that we shouldn't give up steak!) ;)

[RightWingAtheist]

Maybe it fulfilled the same niche bears do today, eating an omnivorious diet while on the way to full-blown vegetarianism.

[colorado tanker]

That bad boy needed to floss more often.

[mlc9852]

That's what I thought. So maybe when we all become vegetarians, we will have evolved as far as we can.

[two134711]

Falcarius represents evolution caught in the act, a primitive form that shares much in common with its carnivorous kin, while possessing a variety of features demonstrating that it had embarked on the path toward more advanced plant-eating forms.

So human evolution was a "devolution?" of sorts? We began as less advanced vegetarian primates that did not have to work for their food, animals that bred in high numbers with no significant pair-bonds (to quote Desmond Morris), animals that defecated in the same areas in which they slept.

As primates began to engage in a more carnivorous diet and had to actually kill their food, they adopted carnivore-like habits: they stopped pooping where they ate, they began forming permanent pair bonds which benefitted their children, not to mention of the increase in the size of brains.

Methinks there might be an agenda afoot in this artcicle.

[mlc9852]

Everyone has an agenda these days.

[Lil'freeper]

Hmmm.... relative?

[two134711]

That was a "well-duh" statement, wasn't it? :)

[mlc9852]

Have any of you seen pictures of what was actually found? I just want to know how many actual bones were found.

[PatrickHenry]

We already have a thread on this: Newfound Dinosaur a Transitional Creature.

[nonsporting]

I think the article should be renamed (more accuately):

The Making of a Vegetarian Dinosaur: Evolutionists Caugth in the Act.

What do they really know? By their own admission nothing yet about its diet ("As for Falcarius, scientists aren't sure what it ate.") But that doesn't seem to discourage them from all sorts of speculations.

[RichInOC]

The Making of a Vegetarian: A Dinosaur Is Caught in the Act

Now, let me get this straight...they found a dinosaur taking a dump?

[jwh_Denver]

"Scientists now think they have found rare evidence of a species undergoing just such a dietary transition 125 million years ago."

Wait a minute here, scientists weren't around then. From the butcher shop to the salad shop? No way.

[night reader]

How do they know it's not a herbivore transitioning into a carnivore?

[toothfairy86]

Dr. Kirkland (pictured) is obviously NOT a vegetarian.