"What gave archosaurs the edge as large predators at this time, and therapsids the edge as smaller ones? Frankly, I am not sure. Both seem to have had heightened metabolic rates and fur or feather insulation... Perhaps the chief advantage enjoyed by thecodonts centered around their big, slashing attack jaws. These may have made them better big-game hunters, while the more precise cutting teeth of therapsids were more suitable for smaller prey."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
People from Washington, D.C.IllustratorsScience authorsAuthors from the United StatesPaleontologists from the United States
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Gregory S. Paul (1988) Predatory Dinosaurs of the World, Simon and Schuster, p. 53
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gregory_Scott_Paul
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Gregory Scott Paul
21 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Gregory Scott Paul →
Related Quotes
"Put a leopard and a [Deinonychus] together and the former would be in trouble."
"The dinosaur world I grew up in was classical. They were universally seen as scaley herps that inhabited the immobile…"
"Ever since the early '80s I have applied feathers to many of the small dinosaurs, and never did smaller theropods wit…"
"Novelist Michael Crichton wrote Jurassic Park as a screenplay option for the Steven Spielberg flick. I am ambiguous a…"
"[Deinonychus] is usually considered a small dinosaur. But the largest individual was an eleven-foot-long animal whose…"
"Dinosaur remains have been found by humans for millennia and probably helped form the basis for belief in mythical be…"
"Alas, producers of commercial dinosaur products continue to churn out low quality product that is either obsolete or …"
"The biggest living terrestrial predator, the Siberian tiger, at about a third of a metric ton (300 kg) pales in compa…"
"How would we think and feel about predatory dinosaurs if they were alive today? Humans have long felt antipathy towar…"
"If not for the long tail, one might mistake a theropod for a big, toothy, marauding bird in the dark. That theropods …"