Uglogical

Birds as well as the extinct dinosaurs, pterosaurs (flying contemporaries of the dinosaurs) and the ‘thecodontians’, a ragbag group that includes the ancestors of all the other archosaurs.

The archosaurs arose some 250 million years ago, as far as we can tell. The first group, the proterosuchids, spread nearly worldwide. Their fossils are known from the Soviet Union, southern Africa, Antarctica, Australia, India, China and South America. They show the archosaurs, but in no other animals: an antorbital fenestra (a particular hole in the skull), recurved flat -sided teeth and a fourth trochanter on the femur (a specific ridge on the thigh bone).

During the Triassic period, some 245-208 million years ago, the archosaurs radiated (evolved and diversified) as moderately successful carnivores and gave rise to one herbivorous group. The Triassic ‘thecodontians’ split into two main lineages. One included the superficially crocodile-like phytosaurs, the herbivorous aetosaurs (which also looked rather like crocodiles, but had snub noses for rooting up plant food, and narrow leaf-like teeth) and the often massive, carnivorous rauisuchians. Finally, in the Late Triassic, this Lineage sprouted some lightweight bipedal (two-legged); animals that probably fed on  insects and small lizard-like animals. These were, perhaps surprisingly, the first crocodilians. The group adopted its amphibious, quadrupedal (four-legged) fish-eating existing only some 20 million years later, after the extinction of the phytosaurs.

The second archosaur lineage included active carnivores such as Ornithosuchus, which could walk quadrupedally or bipedally, and the lightweight Lagosuchus, which was a biped. These animals are so close to being dinosaurs in many features, it now seems remarkable that many scientists had denied it until recently. Lagosuchus, in particular, shows a long list of ‘dinosaur’ characters: its bipedal posture; the long limbs with the shin bones (tibia and fibula) longer than the femur; the perforated acetabulum (the bowl-like depression in the hip bone that receives the ball-shaped end of the femur).

Uglogical

http://uglogical.com/

Winnipeg Auto Financing

• Markus Frind makes $10 million a year! Markus Frind. For people who are even somewhat familiar with the happenings of web business models, they either cringe or gleam when they hear his name. Love him or hate him, he found a way...
• Occupy Thanksgiving This year, we're having Thanksgiving at my Mother-in-Law's place. A 55+ community with a restaurant right in the building. I'm told that while turkey is a menu item, it's just one of many choices, so...
• The person's father singing tango I have no idea who this man is, but he sure has a voice! We really enjoyed the tango show we saw in Buenos Aires. My dad is a great tango singer but hasnt had...
• Obamas Made $2.7 Million Last Year WedNEWSday - April 15th, 2009 (As a conservative I say good for him.  I'd like to make $2.7 Million annually some day too.  See you liberals, we conservatives have the RIGHT attitude.) WASHINGTON — President...
• Americans Win The Ryder Cup After numerous failures and embarrassments, the Americans went on to win the Ryder Cup this weekend. Despite the fact that Tiger Woods couldn’t play, the team managed to win, thanks in a large part to...
• Stem Cells Could Halt Osteoporosis and Promote Bone Growth Image via Wikipedia While interferon gamma sounds like an outer space weapon, it's actually a hormone produced by our own bodies, and it holds great promise to repair bones affected by osteoporosis. In a new...