New theory reverses the truth about dinosaurs

For over 100 years, the facts about dinosaurs have been widely known. However, a recent study questioned the need to rewrite the dinosaur family diagram because the scientific community was probably mistaken.

The things people know about dinosaurs have changed in recent years. We know that most dinosaurs are covered by a fur. And one of the causes of dinosaurs to the brink of extinction is the time for dinosaur eggs to hatch out very long young.

We also know another fact: dinosaur eggs can grow even in the cold winter, in the snow covered in the Arctic.

But in nearly 130 years, the hypothesis that dinosaurs can be divided into two main groups has not changed at all. This division is so popular that even the children with the passion for dinosaurs know.The first group is the Ornithschia, a bird dinosaur, including Stegosaurus, Triceratops, platypus.

The second group is the lizard hip-dinosaur Saurischia, which includes lizard-legged dinosaurs such as Brontosaurus and zooplankton like Tyrannosaurus Rex, Velociraptors. These types of dinosaurs have been recreated brilliantly in films and are known and loved by the majority of the public.

Recently, however, a new study published in Nature has shaken these assumptions. The article requires the scientific world to rewrite the entire family tree of dinosaurs. This is a huge problem.

"When I first read Matthew Baron's new dinosaur study, I was really surprised," said Ed Yong, a researcher.

The division of dinosaurs into two types dates back to 1888. At that time, researcher Harry Govier Seeley discovered a big difference in the pelvis of some dinosaurs.

This division is so credible that for nearly a century, many scientists have even suggested that dinosaurs do not necessarily evolve from a common ancestor - as Berkeley paleontologist Kevin Padian wrote in a Nature commentary.

Genealogy of dinosaurs: traditional (left), rewritten (right).(Photo: Nature).

But Baron and his colleagues decided to simply review the division of dinosaur family tree in such a way. The team examined 74 types of dinosaurs and looked at 457 different characteristics to see what similarities and differences they had.

And instead of relying on a division on a major trait, they argue that some other aspect of dinosaur surgery will be able to make the family tree divided in new ways. Inheritance features such as the shape of the femur, shoulder length, and spine on the jawbone, show that the successor models differ from the hip-based division.

Specifically, the team said that Onithschia and Theropods are closely related, not divided into two separate branches. This divides Sauropods (lizard-legged dinosaurs) , making them closely related to the first dinosaurs - the Herrerasaurs.

"If you redistribute dinosaurs in this way, it's like having someone with you dogs and cats you're familiar with not as you think. And the animals you once called" cats "turned out to be "dog " again, Yong witty wrote in the report.

This is a very big hypothesis and it can make the entire textbook of paleontology to rewrite. But so far, this hypothesis has not been fully accepted.

It will take a while for the paleontology community to come to a conclusion about whether the dinosaur family diagram needs to be reevaluated or not? If so, then perhaps there will be many changes in how the group of dinosaurs has existed for over 100 years.

Thomas Holtz, a paleontologist at the University of Maryland, said: "If this hypothesis continues to develop, it may be necessary to change textbooks. Although it is only an analysis, this new study is extreme. periodic ".

The ideas proposed by Baron and his team may have different interpretations. They claim that the first dinosaur - the Herrerasaurids (which appeared before the familiar dinosaurs) were omnivores that were on their legs and forearms. This is consistent with other recent studies.

More surprisingly, the reconstruction of the genealogical tree shows that dinosaurs may have originated in the Northern Hemisphere and not in South America (Gondwana) - although this is less certain.