• @Mothra@mander.xyz
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      533 months ago

      Plus palaeontologists would’ve picked up on other clues if the bones had large muscles attached to them like a buffalo.

    • @Kowowow@lemmy.ca
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      413 months ago

      And the jaw muscles would have to be equally built up to make grabbing and holding make sense, all arm strength no hand strength

    • SeekPie
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      3 months ago

      What is the purpose of the “fin” then?

        • @Anomalocaris@lemm.ee
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          103 months ago

          time to compare mass/cooling appendage area for dinosaurs and elephants (they use their ears for cooling).

          problem.

          Weren’t spinosaurs aquatic? cooling surfaces like those aren’t needed if you’re in the water.

            • @Krauerking@lemy.lol
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              -63 months ago

              This is such a paradoxical statement that it becomes like an answer to a puzzle on how to use 17 words to say nothing then.

              • @stephen01king@lemmy.zip
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                83 months ago

                He’s not an expert doesn’t equal he lacks any knowledge whatsoever. He might lack the knowledge to theorise what the bones are used for but has enough knowledge to know that it doesn’t work as a muscle attachment point. How is this paradoxical?

                • @Krauerking@lemy.lol
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                  -33 months ago

                  That’s such a fine point to be that knowledged but just shy of being able to actual speak confidently on the matter. It means they don’t have the knowledge to speak confidently on the matter that they just did. Paradoxical.

                  They don’t speak for their own credentials and it’s unwise to trust a confident statement made right after saying:
                  I’m not an expert but…

                  • @stephen01king@lemmy.zip
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                    33 months ago

                    Its pretty common to be that level of knowledgeable. A lot of people are casually interested enough about animals and biology to have heard discussions about muscular structures that they can determine when something doesn’t work. It doesn’t mean they can form their own hypothesis on what a spinosaurus skeletal structure is used for, especially if he knows that even experts are still arguing about it until today.

                    It’s wiser to trust the words of someone who knows his own limitations and admits to it than someone who confidently uses a word without knowing the meaning. You can’t seem to grasp that people can have a varied level of knowledge about different things within the same subject.

                    You’re basically saying that someone being confident about your car having a puncture is being paradoxical if he also doesn’t have the confidence to say what punctured it.

      • @Akasazh@feddit.nl
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        113 months ago

        Usually weird protrusions on dinosaurs have to do with sexual distinction, rather then function.

        Even the horns and neck shield on the triceratops are more about sex than about offense/defense

        • @andros_rex@lemmy.world
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          23 months ago

          As continued in modern male birds having the more extravagant displays.

          Part of the evidence for dinosaurs being birds is that female dinosaur bones show the same changes that female birds during their reproductive cycle - they build up like extra blood structures for support iirc.

      • @finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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        43 months ago

        Some recent evidence suggests the Spinosaurus may or may not be semi-aquatic. We’ve got a super limited fossil record from this region of Egypt.