Answer to fossil record puzzle may lie with teenage T rexes, study finds

Absence of smaller dinosaurs may be result of adolescent megatheropods crowding them outTeenage T rexes and othercarnivorous dinosaurs the size of lions or bears may have crowded out smaller species, explaining why there are so few of them preserved in the fossil record, research suggests.Despite dominating the land for more than 150 million years, dinosaurs were not particularly diverse, and most known species were giants weighing 1,000kg or more – including massive, meat-eating megatheropods such asTyrannosaurus rex.Continue reading...

Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - February 25, 2021 Category: Science Authors: Linda Geddes Tags: Dinosaurs Evolution Biology Fossils Science Zoology Palaeontology Source Type: news