A few graphics...
Posted on 10/21/2002 10:48:21 AM PDT by Enemy Of The State
This glowing report has the sound of a nation trying to prove it's own relevance. "Yes, we have a thriving scientific community that is making groundbreaking discoveries that are leading the world in it's understanding of Tectonics and Paleontology." Uh hugh...
Haven't you heard? According to the creationists who hang out in our threads, all of evolution is an atheist-communist-Nazi-abortionist-liberal plot. Just ask them. From their point of view, it was probably inevitable that the chicoms would join in.
A few graphics...
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This much larger Sinosauropteryx specimen of what appears to be a more mature or adult animal was discovered in 1997. The fossil contains the remains of the creature’s last meal, the jawbones of an early mammal.
Most early theropod dinosaurs retained the meat-eating habits inherited from the distant ancestor they share in common with living crocodilians. Sinosauropteryx was no exception: the large, sharply pointed, prehensile teeth that lined its jaws had serrated edges well suited to rending prey too large to be swallowed whole. By that standard modern-day birds have unusual diets of insects, fruits and seeds. But that variety seems less unusual when birds, some species of which weigh less than a penny, are considered as part of a huge array of dinosaurs that have adapted to fill many ecological niches.
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The last common ancestor shared by crocodilians and birds was a macrocarnivore, that is, it regularly fed on large prey. Plant eating evolved later in such important dinosaur lineages as ornithischians (e.g., Stegosaurus, Triceratops) and sauropods (e.g., Apatosaurus, Camarasaurus). But the teeth and jaws of bird-line archosaurs were well suited to seizing, subduing and ingesting large prey. As in the ancestral archosaur, for example, the lower jaw was set lower on the skull, thus increasing the gape of the bite. Its heavy jaw muscles were modified to magnify the speed and power of that bite.
Theropod dinosaurs added further refinements. One, a joint between the muscle- and tooth-bearing parts of the lower jaw, increased the width of the gape, facilitating the ingestion of even larger food items. Note that in Sinosauropteryx the lower jaws are not fused together at the chin as they are in modern birds; instead elastic ligaments enabled the jaws to spread apart at their tips, also contributing to a wider gape.
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Discovered only three years ago in 1996, this small Sinosauropteryx was the first non-flying dinosaur fossil found to have feather impressions. We think it was a juvenile because a similar looking but much larger individual was found nearby the following year. The joint coincidence of small body size and downy plumage at such an early stage in theropod evolution—well before the evolution of the modern avian flight apparatus—suggests that the role of feathers in retaining body heat preceded their function in flight.
Sinosauropteryx retains several primitive features—such as very short arms—indicating that it is the least bird-like of the theropod dinosaurs preserved in this ancient Chinese lake bed. Nevertheless, its body is already covered with downy plumes that provide a glimpse of the earliest known stage in feather evolution. Sinosauropteryx feathers are composed of fine filaments branching from hollow quills, rather like down feathers in birds today.
Although individual feathers in Sinosauropteryx are hard to pick out, they all appear about the same size and shape. This contrasts with feathers on the hand (remiges), tail (retrices), and body (contour) feathers that evolved later in dinosaurs. These feathers can vary considerably in size and shape on different parts of the body. And unlike Sinosauropteryx feathers, the filaments in “aerodynamic” feathers of living birds are tightly bound together by tiny hooks, thus forming clean, sharp-edged outlines and broad, fixed, aerodynamic surfaces.
Sinosauropteryx Adult | Sinosauropteryx Juvenile | Protarchaeopteryx | Caudipteryx | Confuciusornis
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Their idea of independent and earlier evolution in China is an official state theory comparable to the Americans' official state theory of the earliest humans in America. Comparable in that both are subject to revision as actual data pours in.
Dino-noodle soup bump.
Cladograms depend on two main scientific ideas. The first is that time flows in one direction only. The cladogram represents this by moving strictly from left to right. Thus, common ancestors of related groups must arise prior to these descendants in time, just as in genealogy parents arise before their children.
Date:
| middle Barremian |
Date:
| middle Barremian |
Date:
| Tithonian |
Age estimates are in millions of years ago (Mega anna, or Ma). Margin of error is in millions of years to two standard deviations.
| Era | Period | Epoch | Age | End | Error | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cenozoic | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Mesozoic | Cretaceous | Late | Senonian | Maastrichtian | 65.0 | 0.1 |
| Campanian | 71.0 | 0.5 | ||||
| Santonian | 83.5 | 0.5 | ||||
| Coniacian | 85.8 | 0.5 | ||||
| Gallic | Turonian | 89.9 | 0.5 | |||
| Cenomanian | 93.5 | 0.2 | ||||
| Early | Albian | 98.9 | 0.6 | |||
| Aptian | 112.2 | 1.1 | ||||
| Barremian | 121.0 | 1.4 | ||||
| Neocomian | Hauterivian | 127.0 | 1.6 | |||
| Valanginian | 132.0 | 1.9 | ||||
| Berriasian | 137.0 | 2.2 | ||||
| Jurassic | Late | Malm | Tithonian | 144.2 | 2.6 | |
| Kimmeridgian | 150.7 | 3.0 | ||||
| Oxfordian | 154.1 | 3.2 | ||||
| Middle | Dogger | Callovian | 159.4 | 3.6 | ||
| Bathonian | 164.4 | 3.8 | ||||
| Bajocian | 169.2 | 4.0 | ||||
| Aalenian | 176.5 | 4.0 | ||||
Laugh out loud funny. I can see a whole new set of creationist posts from this point forward. I only speak Cantonese though.
Look at the source of the article Patrick! Another great fountain of truth eh! The Chicomm People's Daily! You guys are a riot!
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