Mr. Investi-Gator! Did you know that...? Username: Fatal Irony Prize Preferences: 1, 2, 4, 7, 3, 5, 6 Prompt: BONUS ROUND What's so interesting about that?
Honestly the most surprising fact was that soft tissue could survive for millions of years. I'm blown away that we can even see the blood vessels and proteins that once made up dinosaurs. It's also incredible to me that we can find feather evidence, and that such minute details survived this long. I still have trouble believing how much information the fossilized bones of these creatures can tell us. Scientists were able to determine if the T-rex in which they found the red blood cells was pregnant (which she was) just by looking at the bones. It's also interesting to realize that we don't understand the process of decay thoroughly, since until this accidental finding of soft tissue no one had bothered looking for it, since we all assumed there was no way it could have survived.
Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2016 2:42 pm
Revolutionary Roniel
Just wanted to let you know I won a pony in another game, so you can remove me from the lists X-D
Hello! I'm afraid that you need at least four sentences in your answer to earn a ticket. Feel free to repost with a longer answer! biggrin
Mr. Investi-Gator! Did you know that...? Username: Seleena Prize Preferences: 7,2,1,4,3,5,6 Prompt: One What's so interesting about that? The closest living relative to crocodilians are birds. Through intensive genome studies upon bird species and crocodilian species scientists have been able to make a phlynogenic scale to view where each species sits on a scale on evolutionary tactics, Birds being far more superior at evolving after the big bang.
Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2016 8:36 pm
Mr. Investi-Gator! Did you know that...? Username: one over three Prize Preferences: 1, 3, 2, 7, 4 - pass on remainder Prompt: (1) Crocodiles, alligators, caimans, and gharials are all part of the order Crocodilia. What animals are the closest living evolutionary relatives to crocodilians? How do we know? What's so interesting about that? Looks like the closest living relatives of crocodilians are birds! I knew dinos split off from chomp-chomps well before birds hit the scene but I never clued in that this meant birds were so closely related. *v* That would be pretty much the coolest family relation ever. "Yeah, I'm related to the crocodiles via dinosaurs. No big." Looks like the main evidence comes from markers in DNA that scientists were able to use to connect the two.
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Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2016 8:57 pm
Mr. Investi-Gator! Did you know that...? Username: one over three Prize Preferences: 1, 3, 2, 7, 4 - pass on remainder Prompt: (2) Poposaurids and rauisuchians are very interesting branches of the crocodilian evolutionary tree. Tell me about either poposaurids or rausuchians. Tell me about both for an extra ticket! What's so interesting about that? Poposaurids- Oh lawd, they look like little kangaroo gators. Except they were between 2.5-5 meters long? Yeek, never mind. BIG kangaroo gators. Fossils are found in the Americas and it looks like they chilled here during the Triassic. Wish I could find a map that shows their range. ;A; I wanna know if they came far enough north to live in Toronto...
Rausuchians- Oh wow, these guys had really weird hips. I tried searching 'Pillar-erect' posture to see if any modern animals had it and the first result was just rausuchians again... and captain america made a cameo in the image search. For some reason. The weird hips developed independently in dinosaurs, though in this case it looks like they're just referring to the erect posture. Like the Poposaurids they lived in the Triassic and could be found all over Europe and the americas during different time periods!
Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2016 9:27 pm
Mr. Investi-Gator! Did you know that...? Username: one over three Prize Preferences: 1, 3, 2, 7, 4 - pass on remainder Prompt: (3) Convergent evolution is when organisms that aren't closely related evolve similar features independently. An example of this is that birds, bats, and insects all fly, but they all evolved their wings separately.
Crocodiles prowl our waterways today, but animals that look and act like crocodiles have evolved independently several different times throughout the history of life. What is one example of an ancient reptile that looked and acted like a crocodile but evolved its body plan independently? Why do you think animals that look and act like crocodiles keep evolving? What's so interesting about that? Champsosaurus looks so much like a crocodile that it was once mistaken to be part of the same family. It's likely that these forms keep evolving because they're well suited to fill a niche between water and land. While Champsosaurus was almost entirely water bound it surely had an ancestor that did a better job at hunting both the water and land. *v* If it hadn't died off it might have become entirely aquatic like whales did!
According to this Champsosaurus were also great at tying a room together!
Entirely unrelated but just look at this cutie pie!
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Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2016 9:41 pm
Mr. Investi-Gator! Did you know that...? Username: one over three Prize Preferences: 1, 3, 2, 7, 4 - pass on remainder Prompt: (4) How are ancient crocodile relatives like aetosaurs, rauisuchians, and sphenosuchians different from modern day crocodilians? (1 ticket) What's so interesting about that? These three anscestors all seem to be land dwelling. Their legs look longer (some of them are bi-pedal!). Aetosaurs in particular are armored and look more like than ankylosaurus a modern crocodile. oAo And even though gators can certainly run well some of these guys look like they were MADE for running. I will take my chances with the modern gators tytytytytyty.
Then you'd lean in close and go, "Bet you won't be able to sleep now because you need to know about pelican-baleen crocodiles." And I would just glare at you silently while I click through web pages because I really should have been in bed before now but damnit Roni, when you're right you're right.
Now I need to go find out if baleen mouth is real and what he did with those teeths. Thanks Roni. I really did need to go to bed...
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Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2016 10:05 pm
Mr. Investi-Gator! Did you know that...? Username: Teh Cheryl Prize Preferences: 6 5 Prompt: 8 What's so interesting about that? A researcher has found that the troodontid dinosaur reaches its adult size in less than five years. This was discovered by the observation that that bone records the growth and life cycles of an animal. Bone deposits occur in cycles, like tree rings, or they can be continuous. The speed of these bone deposits can be seen in bones that allow us to see how fast or slow an animal was growing through its life cycle.
Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2016 10:08 pm
Teh Cheryl
Please update your pref list on all of your posts (so I don't get confused if I roll you!)
Mr. Investi-Gator! Did you know that...? Username: Teh Cheryl Prize Preferences: 6 5 Prompt: Bonus Round! What's so interesting about that? Gosh, there was so much cool stuff that these questions had us look into it. I think one of the more interesting things was that the crocodile form was so common even when evolved through completely different ancestors. Having certain aspects of the crocodile form be found in completely different and almost unrelated creatures makes it super cool that their form is that useful in surviving! Also, I think it's super awesome that soft tissue has been recovered from fossils, especially considering the condition most fossils are found in. That idea that soft tissue could be preserved is really mind blowing. The implication that DNA may one day potentially be found just makes me fangirl.
EDITED! Won a Soq and preffing only the familiars!
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Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2016 10:35 pm
Mr. Investi-Gator! Did you know that...? Username: Cuppa_Darjeeling Prize Preferences: 3, 7 (pass on the rest) Prompt: 2 What's so interesting about that? Native to the Americas, Poposaurids lived in the late Triassic. They were thought to be dinosaurs though they were reclassified later. They are large , up to five meters long, and carnivorous. They are also bipedal, which greatly surprised me. Rausuchians, on the other hand, are quadrupeds. They have a pilar-erect posture which differs from that of dinosaurs by the way of the hip socket and femur.
Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2016 10:36 pm
Mr. Investi-Gator! Did you know that...? Username: Cuppa_Darjeeling Prize Preferences: 3, 7 (pass on the rest) Prompt: 6 What's so interesting about that? Structural color comes from the way the actual feather plays with visible light. Pigment color, in modern day birds, comes from three sources: Carotenoids (from ingesting plants, melanin, and by modifying amino acids. I would say that knowing what color the dinosaur’s feathers were by way of pigment might be hit or miss, actually. Modern birds often times have skin that is a different color than their feathers. It also depends on which feathers left pigmentation behind because if modern birds are to give any indication, sometimes, feathers that get a lot of use, are darker, which means more melanin and more strength in feathers that get a lot of use, such as my Quaker parrot, whose main body is a light green and gray and his flight feathers are a dark blue.
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Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2016 3:01 pm
Revolutionary Roniel
I just won a soquili. No longer eligible for this contest!
Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2016 10:32 pm
Mr. Investi-Gator! Did you know that...? Username: SwordOfTheDarkOnes Prize Preferences: 5. 6. [won a pony so familiars only] Prompt: One What's so interesting about that? Well, its really simple. Their closest relative is the common everyday...bird. Those beady eyed stalkers of the skies or your living room if you own one. The two species share a common ancestor in the Archosauria. Oh! Another cool common factor is that like birds, their lungs have a unidirectional air flow. [which is something I'm going to be looking into]
Mr. Investi-Gator! Did you know that...? Username: Celestial Requiem Prize Preferences: 2, pass Prompt: 1 What's so interesting about that? While crocodilians are classified as reptiles, their closest living relatives are actually birds. The two share a common ancestor way down the evolutionary line that makes them closer to each other than any other living creatures today. We know this because of the similarities in the genomes of birds and crocodilians. They share enough DNA to link them back to the same ancestor that existed 250 million years ago.
Mr. Investi-Gator! Did you know that...? Username: Celestial Requiem Prize Preferences: 2, pass Prompt: 2 What's so interesting about that? Poposaurids were a family of bipedal, carnivorous archosaur that lived during the late triassic period. They stood at roughly three feet tall and were about fourteen feet long. The fossil remains of Poposaurids have been found in several states within the southwestern United States, including Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, and Texas. Rauisuchians were a large group of archosaur that lived during the triassic period as well. They were quadrupedal with a hip and femur structure that differed from both quadrupedal dinosaurs and that of modern crocodilians. The fossil remains have been found in Europe as well as North and South America.
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