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Teenage T-Rexes edged out smaller dinosaur species, says study
February 25, 2021
A team of US scientists has demonstrated that the offspring of huge carnivorous dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus rex, who grew from the size of house cats to towering monsters, reshaped their ecosystems by outcompeting smaller rival species.
Their study, published in the journal Science on Thursday, helps answer an enduring mystery about the 150-million-year rule of dinosaurs: why were there many more large species compared to small, which is the opposite of what we see in land animals today?
<p>"Dinosaur communities were like shopping malls on a Saturday afternoon, jam-packed with teenagers," said Kat Schroeder, a graduate student in the UNM Department of Biology who led the research.</p><p>"They made up a significant portion of the individuals in a species and would have had a very real impact on the resources available in communities."</p><p>Even given the limitations of the fossil record, it's thought that overall, dinosaurs were not particularly diverse: there are only some 1,500 known species, compared to tens of thousands of modern mammalian and bird species.</p><p>What's more, during the Mesozoic era, from 252 to 66 million years ago, there were relatively more species of large bodied dinosaurs weighing 1,000 kilograms (a ton) compared to species weighing less than 60 kilograms (130 pounds).</p><p>Some scientists put forward the idea that since even the most gigantic dinosaurs begin life as tiny hatchlings, they could be using different resources as they were growing up -- occupying the space in ecosystems where smaller species might otherwise flourish.</p><p>To test the theory, Schroeder and her colleagues examined data from fossil sites around the world, including over 550 dinosaur species, and organized the dinosaurs by whether they were herbivores or carnivores, as well as their sizes.</p><p>They discovered a striking gap in the presence of medium-sized carnivores in every community that had megatheropods, or giant predators like the T-rex.</p><p>"There is a gap - very few carnivorous dinosaurs between 100-1000 kilograms (200 pounds to one ton) exist in communities that have megatheropods," Schroeder said. "And the juveniles of those megatheropods fit right into that space."</p><p>The conclusion was supported by the way dinosaur diversity changed over time. Jurassic communities (200-145 million years ago) had smaller gaps and Cretaceous communities (145-65 million years ago) had large ones.</p><p>That's because Jurassic megatheropods teenagers were more like adults, and there was a wider variety of herbivorous long-necked sauropods (like the brachiosaurus) for them to prey on.</p><p>"The Cretaceous, on the other hand, is completely dominated by Tyrannosaurs and Abelisaurs, which change a lot as they grow," said Schroeder.</p><p>- Treating juveniles as separate species -</p><p>Finally, to statistically test their theory, the team calculated what proportion of megatheropods would have been juveniles -- by multiplying their expected mass by how many were expected to survive each year, based on fossil records.</p><p>These figures, which effectively treated juveniles as their own species, neatly explained the observed gaps.</p><p>Beyond helping resolve a longstanding question, the research shows the value of applying ecological considerations to dinosaurs, she added.</p><p>"I think we're shifting a little bit more towards understanding dinosaurs as animals as opposed to looking at dinosaurs as just cool rocks, which is where paleontology started and has been for a long time."</p><p>© 2021 AFP</p>
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'Did you flunk math?' Republicans mocked for saying Biden failed his promise to 'reopen schools within his first 100 days'
February 25, 2021
In a post to Twitter this Thursday, the official account for the GOP slammed President Biden for what they say is his failure to keep his promise to reopen schools within his first 100 days in office.
In early December, Biden pledged to bring the coronavirus pandemic under enough control to open most schools in the U.S. during his first 100 days as president. But as many on Twitter pointed out, the tweet from the GOP makes no sense considering the fact that Biden has only been in office for 36 days.
<p><br/></p><div class="rm-embed embed-media"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Did you flunk math? <a href="https://t.co/tVWAlQfHTH">https://t.co/tVWAlQfHTH</a><br/>— Pete Souza (@PeteSouza) <a href="https://twitter.com/PeteSouza/status/1364983030583066627?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 25, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div><p><br/></p><div class="rm-embed embed-media"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none">100 days is more than 36 days, just like 81 million votes is more than 74 million votes. math, how does it work<br/>— Jeff Tiedrich (@itsJeffTiedrich) <a href="https://twitter.com/itsJeffTiedrich/status/1364986065476550658?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 25, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div><p><br/></p><div class="rm-embed embed-media"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none">Day 36. Still waiting. No deadly migrant caravans. No drive thru abortion clinics. Gas isn't $8 a gallon. But mostly because my "deregulated" TX electric bill was $12K last month. The water pressure in my shower sucks and I had to flush 3 times just to get a turd down this am.<br/>— Donald's Pandemic (@MustweSuffer) <a href="https://twitter.com/MustweSuffer/status/1364947496171110400?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 25, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div><p><br/></p><div class="rm-embed embed-media"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none">I'm confused, in which reality is 36 days the same as 100 days?<br/>— Jay Lionel (@JayLionel7) <a href="https://twitter.com/JayLionel7/status/1364980775632973829?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 25, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div><p><br/></p><div class="rm-embed embed-media"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none">Apparently being able to count to 100 isn't on the list of prerequisites to be a Republican.<br/><br/>Greene, Boebert and Gohmert are definitive proof.<br/>— Shells Bells (@ShelleyDeeeeee) <a href="https://twitter.com/ShelleyDeeeeee/status/1365001803364896770?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 25, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div><p><br/></p><div class="rm-embed embed-media"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none">The <a href="https://twitter.com/GOP?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@GOP</a> clearly got their degrees at Trump University. He's been in office 36-days, ladies. 36. <br/>36-days is less than 100.<br/>— PopWrapped (@PopWrapped) <a href="https://twitter.com/PopWrapped/status/1365021459660214274?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 25, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div><p><br/></p><div class="rm-embed embed-media"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none">The <a href="https://twitter.com/GOP?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@GOP</a> clearly got their degrees at Trump University. He's been in office 36-days, ladies. 36. <br/>36-days is less than 100.<br/>— PopWrapped (@PopWrapped) <a href="https://twitter.com/PopWrapped/status/1365021459660214274?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 25, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div><p><br/></p><div class="rm-embed embed-media"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none">What an embarrassment this Republican Party is in EVERY way. They can't spell, they can't do math, they can't check their writing, they can't speak the truth and if they become any more Trumpian they will not be able to read either.<br/>— Russell (@rafaguy) <a href="https://twitter.com/rafaguy/status/1365020353211301889?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 25, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div><p><br/></p><div class="rm-embed embed-media"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none">Congratulations -- this tweet is the best argument for funding Adult Learning in basic arithmetic.<br/>— barb dybwad (@doctorparadox) <a href="https://twitter.com/doctorparadox/status/1365015553811877895?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 25, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>
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By Nathan Layne and Joseph Ax EXTON, Pa. (Reuters) - C. Arnold McClure chairs the Republican Party in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania - deep in Trump country - and wants to punish fellow conservatives who have turned against the former president. McClure is among those pushing the state party to censure Pennsylvania's Republican senator, Pat Toomey, for voting this month to convict Donald Trump, at his second impeachment trial, of inciting the U.S. Capitol riots. McClure will apply the same standard to any Republican candidate in upcoming elections who seeks support in his rural county: Those ...
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