Re:How Dinosaurs Shrank and Became Birds
by kijin on Tuesday June 02, 2015 @09:34PM
(#9650097)
Paedomorphosis (juvenile characteristics remaining in adults) is a really neat mechanism for producing radically different-looking animals in a short time.
In the short span of ~30,000 years, we've managed to turn wolves into corgis that look like puppies their entire lives. We ourselves are often said to be a result of paedomorphosis from other primates -- now with less hair, bigger heads, and weaker muscles.
Re:How Dinosaurs Shrank and Became Birds
by Synaesthesia on Wednesday June 03, 2015 @02:39AM
(#9650911)
You can see some chang s over 100's of years. Nothing as dramatic as this. I wouldn't call 10 million years quite a blip though. But dinosaurs were around for almost 200 million years! Some animals have not evolved much in hundreds of millions of years, like sharks and crocodiles.
In the short span of ~30,000 years, we've managed to turn wolves into corgis that look like puppies their entire lives. We ourselves are often said to be a result of paedomorphosis from other primates -- now with less hair, bigger heads, and weaker muscles.
Also air with less Oygen is lighter, another good reason for Dino-birds to loose weight.