Michael Ulian

O cara com foto de gaivota no perfil.

[Michael Ulian @Maicom_mur]

@Tessasaurus_rex Now I'm speaking of a biased position, I'm currently out of the academy due socioeconomic realities. Personal and national. But I'm also coming from a data angle, I've been digging on the why of naming choices for extinct taxa for over a decade now. And it seems a a strong factor

[Michael Ulian @Maicom_mur]

@Tessasaurus_rex It seems to me there's a strong socioeconomic component on this phenomena. Researchers are constantly pressured not just by publication volume, but also relevancy. lf you erect a genus on a paper, it will have vastly more reach and coverage and citations than if you play safe.

[Michael Ulian @Maicom_mur]

@nick_jiraar Considering that Megaraptora are either a early diverging tyrannosauroidea or a sister taxa to them, it's a bit odd that neither tyrannosauroidea or megaraptorans inhabited Africa at some point. The biogeography kinda favors them being there too.

[Michael Ulian @Maicom_mur]

@MesozoicDream @skeletaldrawing That said a mostly gondwanan branching of tyrannosauroidea (?) characterized by narrow triangular skulls and large, slender arm seems to be a thing. And magaraptor seems to be inside of it.

[Michael Ulian @Maicom_mur]

@MesozoicDream @skeletaldrawing Megaraptora is a very new clade based on generally poorly remains. So what's our current phylogies acuse as an unique clade might turn out to just be a wastebasket/paraphyletic grouping once we have more material and better resolution.

[Michael Ulian @Maicom_mur]

@ausar_the The thing is that you wouldn't think so seeing a skeleton mount. But that's also true for a jaguar or even a tiger mount. One thing that I think it helps though is comparing skulls. Put a human, a jaguar and a Deino skull side-by-side and you gonna think Jurassic Park nailed it.

[Michael Ulian @Maicom_mur]

@ausar_the Yeah... Let's ignore the (non) validity of the new taxa for a moment. While the hyena compharasion is actually a good one for tyrannosauroids, the rest is. How can I put it? People have a really skewed sense of scale. Poor Deinonychus suffers a lot with this.

[Michael Ulian @Maicom_mur]

@ausar_the Using Deino as an example because it's a relatively common one. Até arround 100-120kg in weight and close to 4 meters long on the largest specimens, that's a large jaguar weight and a volume similar to a big Tiger. That's a large sized predator for any modern ecosystem.

[Michael Ulian @Maicom_mur]

@Tessasaurus_rex rather than a restraint or combat tool. As tyrannosauroidea (here including both eutyrannosaurs but also megaraptorans) are really, really specialized at eating parts of carcasses other theropods didn't. Bonus for big arms, as those are great in threat and court displays!

[Michael Ulian @Maicom_mur]

@Tessasaurus_rex Theropod arms are really crappy in handling the forces involved in grappling. Specially those basal coelurosaurs. They are really good at grabbing and it seems they were quite dextrous. So for tyrannosauroidea in general I can see them being used for food processing+

[Michael Ulian @Maicom_mur]

@Evoincarnate I would like to add that the daspletosaurus paper also relies on hard isotopic data about the keratinization if I'm remember correctly. While theropod soft lip support comes from inferiment and comparative analysis.

[Michael Ulian @Maicom_mur]

@NatSciChannel The authors of the original Sinosauropteryx paper must be so gratefull social media didin't existed back then. If the feathered dragon was discovered today people would riot over it (and yeah, I know people tought it was a hoax back then too, thats the point).

[Michael Ulian @Maicom_mur]

@TaylorT69420 @Robotbeat We actually have the engineering and technology to do it today, right now. A Orion drive is as simple as it get, and a mini-mag Orion is likely already feasible too! We could already have actual in loci images of close start systems if not by the nuclear scare post WW2.

[Michael Ulian @Maicom_mur]

@QWho @DerekPederson3 We literally have the tecnology for interstellar travel, today. We developed it in the 60's! It's as simple as treating nuclear detonations as a tool rather than a weapon, the engineering also scales to known materials sciences.

[Michael Ulian @Maicom_mur]

@nick_jiraar With harpy generally used to refer to theropods and pterosaurs, griphons being used for many ornithscians. Thinking how people would classify does creatures without modern methodologies for me is a really interesting exercise to better help vizualize just how unique they where.

[Michael Ulian @Maicom_mur]

@nick_jiraar I'm working on a fantasy world, and since the societies in it have no concept of modern phylogeny, they actually do classify sauropods and ankylosaurs as turtles (and things like spinosaurids as crocodiles or river dragons). Instead of lumping them with 'harpies' or 'griphons'.

[Michael Ulian @Maicom_mur]

@CamdenNewm50775 The habit role goes deeep. Between modern turtles and birds, how many groups in Archelosauria seems to have idependently evolved toothless (or not so toothless) beaks? You probably gonna need more than two hands just for the ones in theropoda.

[Michael Ulian @Maicom_mur]

@Sketchy_raptor @TomHoltzPaleo @ARPHAPreprints I woundn't be surprised the PCA didin't agree because the data their referencing for it is biased. (there's no living tetrapod with beak and teeth!) I hope they have the chance to better develop this tough, its been a bias that is clawing at this topic a good part of a decade!

[Michael Ulian @Maicom_mur]

@MesozoicDream It actually makes a lot more sense for theropods to have a rigid extraoral covering, the cranial anatomy really wants a solid interface rather than 'soft' lips. I just realized that trying to explain why would do a great experimental paper tho! Might as well get started on that.

[Michael Ulian @Maicom_mur]

@dino_magenta + theropods most certainly had a higly cornaceous extraoral covering too, as much arbitrary proxy papers about lips there's is, so far the few papers about the actual isotopic traces on toothed theropods facial structures do seems to surport a higly ketarinized strucure.

[Michael Ulian @Maicom_mur]

@dino_magenta Don't be surprised if turns out beaks are a Archelosauria trait. We've going with a very similar problem of aesthetic acceptance with feathers too. In fact we still ongoing, some people would still refuse the ideia that fathers are older than dinosaurs.