Comments on: Tracking the Origin of Dinosaurs

By: Earth’s Worst Extinction May Have Been Key to Dinosaur Origins | Dinosaur Tracking

Wed, 06 Oct 2010 14:31:36 +0000

[...] descendants), dinosaurs have been one of the most successful groups of organisms on the planet. Why they originated in the first place, however, has been a much trickier subject to tackle. A study published today in the Proceedings of [...]

By: Articulated Skeletons Give a New Look at "Armadillodiles" | Dinosaur Tracking

Thu, 27 May 2010 14:40:23 +0000

[...] and other Triassic creatures have been in the news quite a bit lately. From a new review of the origin of dinosaurs to the recognition of a mistaken dinosaur and the discovery of the skeleton of a fearsome predator [...]

By: Azendohsaurus, the Dinosaur That Wasn't | Dinosaur Tracking

Azendohsaurus, the Dinosaur That Wasn't | Dinosaur Tracking — Fri, 21 May 2010 14:18:44 +0000

[...] the origins and early history of dinosaurs is a challenging task. A number of prehistoric creatures were a lot like some of the earliest [...]

By: Exceptional New Fossil Find Reveals Fearsome Triassic Predator | Dinosaur Tracking

Tue, 18 May 2010 13:42:31 +0000

[...] individual would have been over 20 feet long in life—and represents an apex predator from the time after the Permian mass extinction shook up the world’s ecosystems but before large [...]

By: jdaniel

jdaniel — Mon, 10 May 2010 14:17:15 +0000

Thanks for posting this. I can’t get access to the paper yet, so I was hoping you could answer a question about it for me. Did they cite the papers by William Sill who stated that the dinosaurs arose opportunistically and NOT via their own superiority making them better competitors. For some reason, even though Sill said this in, I think, 1971, this crew has not cited him in their other papers on this topic. I laud their work, as they bring to bear a much more sophisticated analysis and a great deal more data, but I think Sill’s contribution should be not be overlooked. It is simply not true that dinosaurs arising opportunistically is a new concept. That is what I was taught in college 20 years ago so it bothers me that Brusatte and crew are acting like they have come up with a new concept of dinosaur evolution.