Dinosaurs Rediscovered: The Scientific Revolution in Paleontology, Michael J. Benton, c. 2019.

Dinosaurs Rediscovered: The Scientific Revolution in Paleontology, Michael J. Benton, c. 2019.

While going through this book, I often went back to the internet to sort things out. This may be one of the better sites with a great cladogram and note the date: 2024! Link here.

This site at Reddit brought me to this source (above): https://www.reddit.com/r/Paleontology/comments/y8eft7/did_reptiles_evolve_from_amphibians_or_are_they/. 

Back to Michael J. Benton, 2019:

A reference book. It looks like the kind of book the professor might have used / developed for his students taking his course. 

Begins with the discovery of melanosomes in the feathers of feathered dinosaurs -- first time scientists could know the color of the dinosaurs. November 27, 2008.

In the big scheme of things, that's recent history. That's like "just yesterday."

SEM: scanning electron microscope.

Transformation of dinosaurian palaeobiology [dinosaur paleontology] began about 1970.

Reflects back on Sir Ernest Rutherford, New Zealand-born physicist, made his name at University of Cambridge -- with the discovery of hte half-life of radioactive elements. 

1995: Larry Witmer --- extant phylogenetic bracket [phylogeny is the evolutionary history of an organism or organisms). See page 16. Or at wiki.

 Benton and his team used phylogenetic bracketing to surmise that Sinosauropteryx had ginger-colored feathers. -- p. 17.

Finite element analysis (FEA): stress-testing designs; a process used by architects and civil engineers -- p. 18.

The aim of this book is to show all the latest amazing fossils, and to take the reader behind the scenes on the expeditions and in the museum laboratories. The key theme throughout is the transformation of a historial science from its roots in Victorian natural history to a highly technical, computational, and thoroughly scientific field today. These have been exciting times of rapid change and astonishing new discoveries, happening at a rate never seen before.

Chapter 1
Origin of the Dinosaurs

One thing is known for sure: dinosaurs originated during the Triassic period, between 252 and 201 mya.

Ecological relay, the Romer-Colbert relay model: with regard to dinosaurs, a three-step process --

• the synapsids, ancestors of mammals, were the key herbivores and carnivores (note: mammals were the first in this three-step process);
• the synapsids were replaced b rhynchosaurs as herbivores; and, early archosaurs as carnivores, and their ancestors;
• finally, the rhynchosaurs and early archosaurs gave way to dinosaurs

Romer-Colbert relay model:

• firmly framed within an assumption that large-scale evolution was progressive;
• the dinosaurs became dominant by fighting their way to the top.
• see this article, 2018, Michael J. Benton, lead author.

Benton:

• argues for opportunism, not progress.
• dinosaurs exploded onto the scene following a great dying off of rhynchosaurs, due to climate change and loss of flora those -saurs feasted upon. -- p. 22.

This is a good study, then, of evolution on the large scale, but it depends also on a good knowledge of the fossils, the rocks, and the models of large-scale evolution. We shall look at the ecology of Triassic beasts, then the rhynchosaurs (an odd, but endearing, group of Triassic animals that are key in many ways), then the question of the very first dinosaurs, and how we can put together the story of fossils, changing climates, and mass extinctions to see how dinosaurs rose to dominate the Earth.

 Ecology and The Origin of Dinosaurs

Reiterates the assumption that progress or progression was implicit in the theory of revolution -- each step along the way marked an improvement of some sort ...

Again, the same line -- dinosaurs replaced their inferior competitors (the synapsids, rhynchosaurs, and early archosaurs), and were replaced by mammals, 80 million years later.

In some says this was pure Darwin ...

Benton's theory grew out of his doctoral thesis on rhynchosaurs.

Benton: The dinosaur takeover was rapid, not gradual, and there was no evidence for direct competition. This grew out of my doctoral studies on rhynchosaurs, a group of reptiles that were ecologically dominant worldwide just before the dinosaur explosion.

[I think there's a corollary here: evolutionists put too much stock in mutations of genes that result in certain traits / proteins. But in fact, I think the "key" to evolution is not gene / protein mutation but changes in regulatory and Hox genes, assuming the latter are different. Yes, Hox genes are regulatory genes, but not all regulatory genes are Hox genes. Hox genes are a subset of regulatory genes:

Rhynchosaurs

1978 began his doctoral studies.

Assigned to study Hyperodapedon, a rhynchosaur from the late Triassic of Elgin, in Scotland.

What Was The First Dinosaur?

The dinosaur, Herrerasaura, late Triassic, probably fed on the most abundant animals of its day, the rhynchosaurs.

The year 2000: discoveries pushed the date of the origin of dinosaurs back by 15 million years, and placed it in an entirely new and unexpected context. -- p. 29.

2003: Poland, Jerzy Dzik, Silesaurus. Sort of looked like a dinosaur, but not quite.

Laurasia and Gondwanaland connected by a narrow isthmus, at the equator.

Then, 2011, the second Polish surprise, three-toed footprints discovered -- said to be dinosaurian. But there were doubters.

The clincher came in 2010, when Sterling Nesbitt reported a Middle Triassic silesaurid from Manda Formatin of Tanzania, called Asilsaurus. Unequivocally, re-dated the origin of dinosaurs back from 230 to 245 mya or older.

All silesaurids. The oldest silesaurids, the Asilisaurus.

Silesauridae were the nearest relatives of the Dinosauria (the formal name for diosaurs, invented in 1842, as we shall see in Chapter 2), meaning they shared an immediate common ancestor.

So, oldest dinosaurs, 245 mya, Early Triassic rather than Late Triassic.

The Macroecology of Dinosaur Origins

By going back to the Early Triassic, we are going to a period that was very turbulent, soon after 252 mya, during the largest mass extinction of all time -- the Permian-Triassic mass extinction.

The Siberian volacanic eruptions.

Life: one step forward; two steps back. This is when dinosaurs first appeared and took their chances in this turbulent world.

New Methods and New Models -- p. 35.

The Origin of Dinosaurs as a Three-Step Proces -- p 39.

Dating Dinosaurian Diversification -- p. 44.

How Can We Identify Ancient Climates?  -- p. 46

 

How Different Was The Triassic World From Our? -- p. 47.

Chapter 2
Making The Tree

 

What Was The Cladistic Revolution? -- p. 53

Discovery of the Clade Dinosaurs -- p. 57.

The Triassic Explosion -- p. 62
dinosaurs originated deep in the Triassic, 252 - 201 mya
then diversified in two to three steps
by the late Triassic, many key forms had emerged

The Jurassic World -- p. 64.

New Discoveries of Jurassic Dinosaurs From China -- p. 68.

Foodwebs and the Cretaceous Heyday Of The Dinosaurs -- p. 71.

Constructing the Dinosaur Supertree -- p. 76.

The Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution: The Trigger For Modern Life -- p. 78

125 mya: flowers

Chapter 3
Digging Up Dinosaurs

How do palaeontologists find dinosaurs? -- p. 87.

How do we record the excavation? -- p. 92.

How are the bones extracted from the rock? -- p. 97.

How do we see the whole animal? -- p. 99.

How can dinosaurs be used in education? -- p. 101.

Chapter 4
Breathing, Brains, and Behaviour

Were The Dinosaurs Warm-Blooded? -- p. 109.

Are Birds Living Dinosaurs? -- p. 110.

 Bone histology and Being Huge -- p. 115.

Mesozoic Birds From China -- p. 118.

Can We Tell The Colour Of Dinosaurs? -- p. 124.

Were Dinosaurs Brainy Or Not? -- p. 128.

Can Dinosaurs Be Preserved in Amber?  p. 131.

Chapter 5
Jurassic Park (Or Not ...)

Has Dinosaur DNA Ever Been Identified? -- p. 136.

Do Organic Molecules Survive In The Fossil Record? -- p. 138.

Can We Identify Dinosaur Soft Tissues And Blood? -- p. 141.

Can We Identify The Sex Of A Dinosaur? -- p. 143.

Could We Bring Dinosaurs Back To Life By Genetic Engineering? p. 148.

Can We Say Anything About The Dinosaur Genome? --. p. 151.

Chapter 6
From Baby To Giant

a

 

 Chapter 9
Mass Extinction
p. 254

Survival of the birds: almost all birds died out with the dinosaurs (by the way, purely semantic to discuss the "last dinosaur" and the "first bird") when the asteroid hit, see pp 279 - 281. 

Ground-dwelling birds and tree-dwelling birds (based on length of femurs can tell the difference). The tree-dwelling birds died out; the ground-dwelling birds survived, but just barely (p. 291). It was very, very close. The ground-dwelling birds survived and tree-dwelling birds "re-evolved." Absolutely fascinating.

Other Links

Role of oxygen: link here. 15% and 21%. Also, here. Note the reference to "fetal" hemoglobin in birds. And, again, here.

Roger Smith, Karoo, Permian extinction: link here.

The Karoo Supergroup is a 12 km thick succession of sedimentary rocks that accumulated in a large intracratonic retroarc foreland basin in southwestern Gondwana. The strata record 100 million years of almost continuous sediment accumulation from the Permo-Carboniferous (300 Ma) through to the Early Jurassic (190 Ma) under a range of climatic regimes and within several tectonically controlled sub-basins. Alluvial sediments dominate the succession from the Late Permian onwards. Fossils of synapsid reptiles and early dinosaurs are sufficiently common to be used in a ten-fold biostratigraphic subdivision of these strata. The Permian/Triassic boundary in the Karoo succession is marked by a major extinction of the herbivorous dicynodonts which co-incides with a rapid change in fluvial facies. This study uses field observations of the sedimentary facies, palaeosols and in situ fossils of well exposed PTr …

Theropods, wiki:

Theropoda from ancient Greek (therion) "wild beast"; (pous, podos) "foot") whose members are known as theropods, is an extant dinosaur clade that is characterized by hollow bones and three toes and claws on each limb.

Theropods are generally classed as a group of saurischian dinosaurs.

They were ancestrally carnivorous, although a number of theropod groups evolved to become herbivores and omnivores. 

Theropods first appeared during the Carnian age of the late Triassic period 231.4 million years ago and included the majority of large terrestrial carnivores from the Early Jurassic until at least the close of the Cretaceous, about 66 Ma.

In the Jurassic, birds evolved from small specialized coelurosaurian theropods, and are today represented by about 11,000 living species.