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Stegosaur Plates And Spikes For Looks Only
Science Daily ^
| 5/17/05
| University of California - Berkeley - Press Release
Posted on 05/17/2005 11:53:21 AM PDT by doc30
click here to read article
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1
posted on
05/17/2005 11:53:22 AM PDT
by
doc30
To: PatrickHenry
2
posted on
05/17/2005 11:53:45 AM PDT
by
doc30
(Democrats are to morals what and Etch-A-Sketch is to Art.)
To: doc30
Dino bling ping! Stego-fizzle fo' shizzle!
3
posted on
05/17/2005 11:55:27 AM PDT
by
pikachu
(Your milage may vary and objects in the mirror may be uglier than the appear!)
To: All
Great thinkers at work. (Quiet, please.)
4
posted on
05/17/2005 11:58:32 AM PDT
by
newgeezer
(Just my opinion, of course. Your mileage may vary.)
To: doc30
The bizarre plates and spikes that lined the backbones of the long-extinct stegosaur[us] were probably extreme examples of the often elaborate and colorful displays developed by animals to recognize fellow members of their species...
Well, it explains the genesis and function of punk hairdos.
5
posted on
05/17/2005 12:00:40 PM PDT
by
GSlob
To: All
Just because you can't see a reason for them being there, doesn't mean there's not a reason. Like most body parts, things exist for protection....Seems like they would protect the body from a bigger predators bite.
6
posted on
05/17/2005 12:01:21 PM PDT
by
Sacajaweau
(God Bless Our Troops!!)
To: doc30
It makes them more interesting to look at, which makes them more likely to feature in movie dinosaur fights.
7
posted on
05/17/2005 12:03:02 PM PDT
by
dead
(I've got my eye out for Mullah Omar.)
To: doc30
8
posted on
05/17/2005 12:04:31 PM PDT
by
Alouette
(Muslims bite the hand that feeds them, and kiss the boot that kicks them.)
To: doc30
Like most of us old dinosaurs, the spikes are for looks only.
9
posted on
05/17/2005 12:05:09 PM PDT
by
ladtx
( "Remember your regiment and follow your officers." Captain Charles May, 2d Dragoons, 9 May 1846)
To: doc30
10
posted on
05/17/2005 12:05:13 PM PDT
by
js1138
(e unum pluribus)
To: doc30
"Our studies of bone histology are telling us a lot about dinosaur social behavior and lifestyle,"
I bet this will be pretty amusing in 100 years or so.
11
posted on
05/17/2005 12:06:30 PM PDT
by
bkepley
To: doc30
Gives new meaning to: "If looks could kill......."
12
posted on
05/17/2005 12:07:48 PM PDT
by
QwertyKPH
(Non-profane tagline)
To: doc30
How would you tell a female fossil from a male fossil?
13
posted on
05/17/2005 12:10:15 PM PDT
by
mlc9852
To: doc30
My parrots ruffle their feathers as emotional expressions (when they're pissed/ puzzled, etc.)...not unlike when the hair stands up on a dog or cat's back. So it might be that the plates were a communication device?
14
posted on
05/17/2005 12:12:49 PM PDT
by
elli1
To: mlc9852
"How would you tell a female fossil from a male fossil?"
One extra bone in the male? :)
15
posted on
05/17/2005 12:13:51 PM PDT
by
brownsfan
(Post No Bills)
To: brownsfan
Maybe - lol. But I am curious. I'm sure scientists know, though. I trust them.
16
posted on
05/17/2005 12:15:08 PM PDT
by
mlc9852
To: bkepley
So you find a bunch of bones here and a bunch of bones there and you find a few chewed pigs bone with each and can conclude what?......The pigs lost??....or they lived in tribal type villages of a kind, hunting chiefly pigs. We didn't find any children dinosaurs so they must have eaten their children when they got real hungry and that is why they are extinct. That seems reasonable to me.
17
posted on
05/17/2005 12:15:11 PM PDT
by
Sacajaweau
(God Bless Our Troops!!)
To: dead
18
posted on
05/17/2005 12:16:10 PM PDT
by
mlc9852
To: mlc9852
"Maybe - lol. But I am curious. I'm sure scientists know, though. I trust them."
I was teasing. Typically there are structural differences around the hips. Even egg laying requires a different structure.
19
posted on
05/17/2005 12:18:00 PM PDT
by
brownsfan
(Post No Bills)
To: doc30
The team's analysis of stegosaur plates lends support to a growing consensus among paleontologists that the weird adornments of many dinosaurs - the horns of triceratops, the helmet-like domes of the pachycephalosaurs, and the crests of the duck-billed hadrosaurs - likely served no function other than to differentiate species, akin to birds' colorful feather ornamentation. Maybe I'm missing it, but why wouldn't some of these things serve as defensive features in addition to recognition mechanisms? A triceratops' horns seem like pretty good weapons, for example.
20
posted on
05/17/2005 12:18:17 PM PDT
by
Modernman
("Work is the curse of the drinking classes." -Oscar Wilde)
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