Dinosaur evolution tree yields diversity secrets

by Rich Bowden - Jul 23 2008, 22:27

An evolutionary family tree, known as a "supertree", has revealed that dinosaurs stopped evolving 50 million years before they became extinct. The evidence, gained through an international effort, contradicts previous scientific thought which said they continued to evolve during their later years of existence on Earth.

Photo: Allosaurus at the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch, New Zealand/Public Domain

A new study published this week in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, has found that dinosaurs did not evolve during the Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution, a time when modern ecosystems were established on land with an explosion of living things such as flowering plants, social insects, lizards, snakes, birds and mammals.Graeme Lloyd from the University of Bristol, who led the study, explained that: "Supertrees are very large family trees made using sophisticated computer techniques that carefully stitch together several smaller trees which were previously produced by experts on the various subgroups.""Our supertree summarises the efforts of two decades of research by hundreds of dinosaur workers from across the globe and allows us to look for unusual patterns across the whole of dinosaurs for the first time," he said."It is the most comprehensive picture ever produced of how dinosaurs evolved."

Image:Megaraptor namunhuaiquii. Credit: Jordan Mallon

The study states that: "new evidence confirms that the [Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution] was a key in the origination of modern continental ecosystems, but that the dinosaurs were not a part of it." The supertree concludes the main evolutionary period for dinosaurs occurred during the Late Triassic, around 200 to 225 million years ago, with a smaller diversification during the Mid-Jurassic, around 160 to 170 million years ago.

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C. David Parsons, author, The Quest for RightJul 24th, 2008 - 03:36:32

A study published this month in The Quest for Right has found that dinosaurs were contemporary with the first man Adam. Further scoring the point, the 26-year investigative effort -- the first of its kind -- proves that the earth was created on September 13, 2007 BC, only 6000 years ago. Moreover, the investigation reveals the mysterious death that overtook the dinosaurs. Nothing will be the same after this.

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Evidence is everythingJul 24th, 2008 - 12:54:24

Not one of Darwin's biggest fans then? Creationalist perhaps? Personally, I'd rather put my 'faith' in actual scientific evidence. But that's just me.

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Dinosaur evolution tree yields diversity secrets

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