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Related: About this forumRadical shakeup of dinosaur family tree points to unexpected Scottish origins
However, the latest analysis identifies a Scottish specimen, called Saltopus, as the closest thing in the fossil record to what the hypothetical common ancestor might look like.
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The system places dinosaur species into two distinct categories, Ornithischia and Saurischia, based on an early observation that dinosaur hip bones displayed either a lizard-like pattern (Saurischia) or a bird-like one (Ornithischia).
The Ornithischia group includes the relatives of Stegosaurus and Triceratops, while the theropods (such as T. rex), sauropods (Diplodocus) and another meat-eating group called Herrerasauridae, all fell within the lizard-hipped Saurischia group. Counterintuitively, the dinosaur group that later gave rise to modern birds (theropods) falls on the lizard branch of the family tree.
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The results, published in Nature, suggest that theropods should be switched over to become an off-shoot of the same branch that led to Stegosaurus and Triceratops. The revised grouping of Ornithischia and Theropoda has been named the Ornithoscelida, reviving a name originally coined by the evolutionary biologist Thomas Henry Huxley in 1870.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/mar/22/scottish-fossil-may-cause-radical-shakeup-of-dinosaur-family-tree-saltopus
...
The system places dinosaur species into two distinct categories, Ornithischia and Saurischia, based on an early observation that dinosaur hip bones displayed either a lizard-like pattern (Saurischia) or a bird-like one (Ornithischia).
The Ornithischia group includes the relatives of Stegosaurus and Triceratops, while the theropods (such as T. rex), sauropods (Diplodocus) and another meat-eating group called Herrerasauridae, all fell within the lizard-hipped Saurischia group. Counterintuitively, the dinosaur group that later gave rise to modern birds (theropods) falls on the lizard branch of the family tree.
...
The results, published in Nature, suggest that theropods should be switched over to become an off-shoot of the same branch that led to Stegosaurus and Triceratops. The revised grouping of Ornithischia and Theropoda has been named the Ornithoscelida, reviving a name originally coined by the evolutionary biologist Thomas Henry Huxley in 1870.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/mar/22/scottish-fossil-may-cause-radical-shakeup-of-dinosaur-family-tree-saltopus
The new tree fits more neatly with the observation that many meat-eating species and bird-hipped dinosaurs had feathers. The fact that previously they were in separate groups led some to speculate that all dinosaurs, including the long-necked sauropods were feathered. But there has been no fossil evidence for this, and it is a suggestion that never really took hold.
The latest work also indicates that dinosaurs evolved into meat-eaters on two separate occasions during their evolution and it even implies that the very first dinosaur was omnivorous and therefore ate both plants and meat.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-39305750
The latest work also indicates that dinosaurs evolved into meat-eaters on two separate occasions during their evolution and it even implies that the very first dinosaur was omnivorous and therefore ate both plants and meat.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-39305750
I thought it was important that they had discovered feathered bird-hipped dinosaurs - see http://www.democraticunderground.com/122831100 . If this new tree is correct, then the known feathered dinosaurs are in one half of it, and the sauropods, with no known feathers, in the other.
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Radical shakeup of dinosaur family tree points to unexpected Scottish origins (Original Post)
muriel_volestrangler
Mar 2017
OP
Girard442
(6,084 posts)1. OMG. The dinosaurs were kilt!
Ohioblue22
(1,430 posts)2. tag - dinos....... nt
Sculpin Beauregard
(1,046 posts)3. Nessie!