Lootr2Core
08-12-2004, 12:38 AM
Well thank the Lord and sing his praise this will make my life happier and more meaninful now...and I'm sure it will be of interest to you.
On the FRONT PAGE of CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/08/11/science.dinosaurs.reut/index.html
CHICAGO, Illinois (Reuters) -- Tyrannosaurus rex grew incredibly fast during a teenaged growth spurt that saw the dinosaur expand its bulk by six times, but the fearsome beasts "lived fast and died young," researchers said on Wednesday.
By counting the age rings in fossilized dinosaur bones, much like botanists count tree rings, paleontologists have concluded that T. rex grew from 1 tonne to 6 tonnes in just four years before leveling off around age 18 and living out a brief adulthood of about 10 years.
"Almost every child asks: 'How did dinosaurs get so big?' That has remained one of the great mysteries in paleontology," said Florida State University scientist Gregory Erickson, a research associate at The Field Museum in Chicago where the findings were announced.
Erickson and his colleagues, who wrote about their research in the journal Nature, measured the circumference of femurs from T. rex and three of his ancestors to determine the flesh load they carried.
At the peak of its growth spurt, T. rex added 4.6 pounds (2.1 kg) to its frame each day, developing into an 11,000-pound (5,000 kg) bone-crushing giant.
It is not known how and why the carnivorous T. rex developed gigantism, as did plant-eating dinosaurs such as the long-necked Brachiosaurus, Erickson said. Earlier dinosaurs were quite small, though gigantism evolved in dinosaurs seven or eight times over the ages, he said.
"The T. rex growth curve is similar to that of the African elephant, an animal that attains comparable proportions within the same time frame," Erickson said. But elephants can live past 50, longevity beyond the reach of the carnivorous T. rex, he said.
Lived fast, died young
"T. rex lived fast and died young," Erickson said. "He's sort of the James Dean of dinosaurs," referring to the actor who died in a car accident at age 24.
The scientists compared age rings from 60 bones from 20 specimens that lived between 78 million to 67 million years ago -- seven T. rexes, five Albertosauruses, five Gorgosauruses and three Daspletosauruses -- to those of modern-day descendants such as snakes, lizards and crocodiles.
T. rex grew the fastest and had a growth spurt, unlike crocodiles that tend to grow steadily if food is plentiful.
Thanks to the discovery in recent decades of more complete fossil skeletons of T. rex -- such as the 67-million-year-old "Sue" on display at the Field Museum -- paleontologists have learned much more about how dinosaurs moved, lived and died.
"Sue," it turned out, was 28 years old when it died -- Erickson described it as an elderly "train wreck" with infectious lesions, broken bones and arthritis -- and had stopped growing 9 years earlier.
Sue's gender is not known -- it was named for Sue Hendrickson, the amateur dinosaur hunter who found the fossil in 1990, embedded in a South Dakota hillside.
The increasing availability of the giants' fossilized bones have allowed scientists to dig in.
While the growth rings disappeared in large bones such as the femur as bone marrow expanded, Erickson discovered the rings on smaller bones like the ribs, shins, and hips could still be deciphered.
While mammalian bones do not have rings, the conclusion that each dinosaur ring corresponds to a year of life in dinosaurs was drawn because it is true in their reptilian descendants and it is supported by vascular evidence of how fast dinosaur bones grew.
On the FRONT PAGE of CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/08/11/science.dinosaurs.reut/index.html
CHICAGO, Illinois (Reuters) -- Tyrannosaurus rex grew incredibly fast during a teenaged growth spurt that saw the dinosaur expand its bulk by six times, but the fearsome beasts "lived fast and died young," researchers said on Wednesday.
By counting the age rings in fossilized dinosaur bones, much like botanists count tree rings, paleontologists have concluded that T. rex grew from 1 tonne to 6 tonnes in just four years before leveling off around age 18 and living out a brief adulthood of about 10 years.
"Almost every child asks: 'How did dinosaurs get so big?' That has remained one of the great mysteries in paleontology," said Florida State University scientist Gregory Erickson, a research associate at The Field Museum in Chicago where the findings were announced.
Erickson and his colleagues, who wrote about their research in the journal Nature, measured the circumference of femurs from T. rex and three of his ancestors to determine the flesh load they carried.
At the peak of its growth spurt, T. rex added 4.6 pounds (2.1 kg) to its frame each day, developing into an 11,000-pound (5,000 kg) bone-crushing giant.
It is not known how and why the carnivorous T. rex developed gigantism, as did plant-eating dinosaurs such as the long-necked Brachiosaurus, Erickson said. Earlier dinosaurs were quite small, though gigantism evolved in dinosaurs seven or eight times over the ages, he said.
"The T. rex growth curve is similar to that of the African elephant, an animal that attains comparable proportions within the same time frame," Erickson said. But elephants can live past 50, longevity beyond the reach of the carnivorous T. rex, he said.
Lived fast, died young
"T. rex lived fast and died young," Erickson said. "He's sort of the James Dean of dinosaurs," referring to the actor who died in a car accident at age 24.
The scientists compared age rings from 60 bones from 20 specimens that lived between 78 million to 67 million years ago -- seven T. rexes, five Albertosauruses, five Gorgosauruses and three Daspletosauruses -- to those of modern-day descendants such as snakes, lizards and crocodiles.
T. rex grew the fastest and had a growth spurt, unlike crocodiles that tend to grow steadily if food is plentiful.
Thanks to the discovery in recent decades of more complete fossil skeletons of T. rex -- such as the 67-million-year-old "Sue" on display at the Field Museum -- paleontologists have learned much more about how dinosaurs moved, lived and died.
"Sue," it turned out, was 28 years old when it died -- Erickson described it as an elderly "train wreck" with infectious lesions, broken bones and arthritis -- and had stopped growing 9 years earlier.
Sue's gender is not known -- it was named for Sue Hendrickson, the amateur dinosaur hunter who found the fossil in 1990, embedded in a South Dakota hillside.
The increasing availability of the giants' fossilized bones have allowed scientists to dig in.
While the growth rings disappeared in large bones such as the femur as bone marrow expanded, Erickson discovered the rings on smaller bones like the ribs, shins, and hips could still be deciphered.
While mammalian bones do not have rings, the conclusion that each dinosaur ring corresponds to a year of life in dinosaurs was drawn because it is true in their reptilian descendants and it is supported by vascular evidence of how fast dinosaur bones grew.