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Some Dinosaurs Made Underground Dens

Posted by kdawson on Sat Mar 24, 2007 05:15 PM
from the dig-it dept.
Science
anthemaniac writes "Scientists have long puzzled over how some dinosaurs and other creatures survived the asteroid impact that supposedly caused the KT mass extinction 65 million years ago and wiped out all the big dinosaurs. One idea has been that smaller animals, including mammals, could have endured the fallout, the big chill, the subsequent volcanoes, and whatever else by burrowing. Now scientists have come up with the first evidence of burrowing dinosaurs. They speculate that underground dens might explain how some dinosaurs got through long, dark winters at high latitudes, too."
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[+] Study Provides Compelling Evidence of Single Impact Extinction Theory 382 comments
ectotherm writes to tell us that a new study at the University of Missouri-Columbia claims to provide compelling evidence that a single meteor impact was the cause of animal extinction 65 million years ago. From the article: "MacLeod and his co-investigators studied sediment recovered from the Demerara Rise in the Atlantic Ocean northeast of South America, about 4,500 km (approximately 2,800 miles) from the impact site on the Yucatan Peninsula. Sites closer to and farther from the impact site have been studied, but few intermediary sites such as this have been explored."
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  • Correction (Score:5, Funny)

    by Wonko the Sane (25252) <wts42@yahoo.com> on Saturday March 24 2007, @05:19PM (#18473843) Homepage Journal
    The fake dinosaur bones that god put in the ground to test our faith were positioned in a what was made to appear as an underground burrow.

    This all happened sometime last week.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Good bonings, and unfortunately bad bonings as well, have tested the faith of many. People experiencing these have been known to call out to God. Many that occur have been related to underground movements and many people and organizations just try to keep knowledge of such things buried, especially in relation to the bad bonings.

    • Re:Correction (Score:5, Funny)

      by Wavicle (181176) on Saturday March 24 2007, @05:38PM (#18473967)
      Yeah I was wondering how those dens saved them from drowning.

      (That was sarcasm. This is a note for the sarcasm impaired.)

    • Re:Correction (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 24 2007, @05:55PM (#18474087)
      man, the repetativeness of religion bashing and jokes about chairs and a certain microsoft executive make beavis and butthead look like a thinking mans comedy around here.
       
      seriously guys, it's getting old. if you can't find something more original to pull out of your ass either you're twice as dumb as they are or they're right.
      • man, the repetativeness of religion bashing and jokes about chairs and a certain microsoft executive make beavis and butthead look like a thinking mans comedy

              Not to mention the bad spelling and grammar!
      • As long as creationists keep saying stupid things, why shouldn't we keep pointing and laughing?
    • Actually, this article proves that a few thousand years ago (and maybe even now) dinosaurs were burrowing themselves so deep that it looks like they lived millions of years ago. You should now speak for god name in vain unless you do your "research", have received "holy enlightment" or been huffing kittens.
    • I think you, creationists, will be less confident once Godzilla will have waken up !
    • >This all happened sometime last week.

      Um, what now?

      The fact that we have to make up *more* untestable stories
      ("Uh, they burrowed! Yeah, that explains it ...") to make
      the earlier untestable stories hold together means that
      *other* people are dumb? ;)

  • Welllllll (Score:5, Funny)

    by Spazntwich (208070) on Saturday March 24 2007, @05:27PM (#18473895)
    if the dinosaurs were so smart, how come they're dead?
    • Because the cavemen killed them all, 6,000 years ago.

      And call them dragons, not dinosaurs. Otherwise you're courting hellfire, my friend!

    • Re:Welllllll (Score:5, Funny)

      by Walt Dismal (534799) on Saturday March 24 2007, @06:08PM (#18474163)
      if the dinosaurs were so smart, how come they're dead?

      Because they did extensive file sharing, and the RIAA sued them out of existence.

      • Re:Welllllll (Score:5, Funny)

        by drawfour (791912) on Saturday March 24 2007, @06:31PM (#18474293)

        they probably just typed in comments on slashdot and watched porn all day, so forgot to eat.
        Thanks for reminding me!

        • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

          by Anonymous Coward
          why would you need a reminder to watch porn?
  • ...I wonder where the branch is that sprouted modern burrowing/hibernating reptiles and mammals. And where did the branch bifurcate to give rise to non-burrowing/hibernating mammals? To my best recollection, all reptiles hibernate in one fashopn or another.

         
    • What you said makes no sense. Dinosaurs and mammals share an extremely ancient ancestor. There is no branch that sprouted burrowing dinosaurs/mammals.

      Your recollection is faulty. I'd say the Asian gliding lizard, komodo dragon and other tropical reptiles that never see fall, much less winter, do not hibernate. Estivate? Another story.
      • "Estivate? Another story."

        Point taken. I tend to overlook behaviors in climates other than temperate.

        Of course, the obstinate might argue that estivation is the complement of hibernation, but you will get no such argument here.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by TapeCutter (624760)
        "What you said makes no sense."

        True, but I think there is a good question underneath it: When did animals that "sleep" on a seasonal timetable diverge from animals that "sleep" on a daily timetable, or is an animals sleep pattern a recuring mutation in the wiring for the "sleep instinct" that is triggered by climate/daylight/resources/whatever?

        "Estivate?"

        I'm nearly 50 and would also have said "hibernate". You taught me a new word today, thanks.

    • Re:On the evolutionary tree... (Score:5, Informative)

      by linguizic (806996) on Saturday March 24 2007, @06:58PM (#18474463)
      Burrowing, like all behaviors, can't really be traced phylogenically for a couple of reasons:1.As this article shows us, it's hard to find evidence of behaviors that happened yesterday let alone millions of years ago (though under the right conditions burrowing does leave a trace, as the article shows), 2. Behaviors vary more wildly than the average allele. Though there is a large component of genetics at play with behavior, ultimately behaviors are products of the physiological phenotypes associated with said alleles and sensory input. Different environmental inputs yield different behavioral outputs for the same allele. Therefore there isn't an isomorphic relationship between genes and behavior. Behavioral traits tend to pop up independently of each other quite often, so it is impossible to say that there is one node on the evolutionary branch that "sprouted modern burrowing/hibernating reptiles and mammals".

      Granted this is coming from what I learned as an undergraduate so there are probably better people in the /. community to comment on this. (That's my way of saying: "Though I may sound like an expert, I very well may be full of crap and would love it if someone with more knowledge would fact check this post").
    • FWIW, humans too have a burrowing reflex [wikipedia.org].

  • Comparison to human-size (Score:4, Funny)

    by gardyloo (512791) on Saturday March 24 2007, @05:32PM (#18473919)
    The images shown in the story are quite informative. Apparently, the http://images.livescience.com/images/070323_dino_s cale_02.jpg [livescience.com] people's noses were much larger back then, too.
  • These burrowing dinosaurs must be from the species of Skeletal Dinosaurs we've found living underground for millions of years.

    SECRET TIP: Use bludgeoning weapons when fighting skeletal dinosaurs, they're resistant to piercing! ;)
    • These burrowing dinosaurs must be from the species of Skeletal Dinosaurs we've found living underground for millions of years.


            Cool! That explains why these fossils skeletal dinosaurs are always found underground!
  • Viva* Randomness!

    Over the long run, before all life is extinguished from Earth, I predict random forms of life will survive.

    I can make my PayPal account available for those of you who wish to put a wager amount into my account for the duration of human history.

    I pay 22:7 odds that I am right. Make your deposit today!

    * "Viva"; dictionary.com def #5 = "long live"

  • How does a burrowing dinosaur 91 million years ago prove or disprove anything about the asteroid impact 65 million years ago? I must have missed a leap of logic somewhere...

  • College students burrow too! (Score:5, Funny)

    by physicsphairy (720718) on Saturday March 24 2007, @06:20PM (#18474227) Homepage
    When the great cataclysmic meteorite strikes, only those of us sequestered in basements playing WoW and hacking up patches to the Linux kernel will survive the impact. And, even more certainly, when the atmospheric plume of debris blocks out the sun, others will starve, and only we who subsist on inorganics such as cheetos and mountain dew will live to assert our genes in the remnant ecosystem.

    • Re:College students burrow too! (Score:5, Funny)

      by Dunbal (464142) on Saturday March 24 2007, @06:24PM (#18474251)
      only those of us sequestered in basements playing WoW and hacking up patches to the Linux kernel will survive the impact.

            An alternative path:

            Only to die miserably of internet withdrawal in a caffeine-induced continual attempt to reconnect to the servers...
    • The dinosaur in TFA, Oryctodromeus cubicularis, or "digging runner of the lair" may share some genes with the homo sapiens surviving this. This is probably office workers who work all hours and dont take much time outside. Maybe future archaeologists will name these new hominoids "homo cubicularis"
    • But you won't know how to reproduce.
  • So, did dinosaurs have to endure those irritating "Duck and Cover" films in school, too?
  • Denizens......

    Their Zen in Cavedwelling was quite earthly...

  • What's so puzzling? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by tompaulco (629533) on Saturday March 24 2007, @07:23PM (#18474655) Homepage Journal
    I don't see why dinosaurs would have had to burrow to survive. I'm sure many dinosaurs died because they were close to the blast. But others were on the other side of the world. Global climate changed as a result of the impact, and most of the larger dinosaurs probably died of starvation. The smaller ones probably found enough to stay alive. Notably, most of the early mammals were also small.
    • As a citizen of a very snowy country, it's also apparent that small creatures manage much better in cold and snowy conditions than large onces. If there was a global "nuclear winter" following an impact, small nimble creatures would do quite well in snowy areas, using snow for isolation, digging tunnels. Also, imagine the massive death of vegetation and animal life that follows. If the cold set, this could make a refrigrated decent lunch box for smaller animals in the time to come.

  • Dinosaur extinction breaks my brain (Score:3, Insightful)

    by robson (60067) on Saturday March 24 2007, @07:34PM (#18474761) Homepage
    *Why* were dinosaurs the ones to be wiped out completely?

    Mammals survived because they're small? There were small dinosaurs.

    Fish survived because they're water-dwelling? There were water-dwelling dinosaurs.

    Reptiles survived because...?!?

    I'm sure it's more complicated than this, and that's why I'm asking -- can someone help me understand? Why every dinosaur on the planet, regardless of habitat/diet/size died, while so many non-dinosaurs survived?
    • Maybe dinosaurs, being cold-blooded, could not adapt to suddenly much colder climate, whereas warm-blooded mammals just had to eat more and run more to stay warm. Lizards that we have today could be the last dinosaurs alive.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by am 2k (217885)

      Actually, many scientists believe that dinosaurs evolved into what is now known as birds.

      You wouldn't find any of the mammals that lived back then in today's world, either.

      • We have a small flock of what I now call the "cluckeraptors", because they certainly *act* like I imagine dinosaurs would act. I mean, they may be small and feathery and soft looking, but watch them run around the yard and interact with each other and you can see how utterly ruthless and focused they are. A few primary drives to them and not much else. For instance if one of them gets injured or the least bit "off" or ill, the others will be merciless with them, it's like they can't stand weakness and trans
        • Your post may be very insightful and everything, but you cannot argue with centuries of human's equating cowardice to the word "chicken". The day I get nightmares thinking about giant chickens will be the day I finally admit that psychotherapy may in fact have uses. They're not scary dammit. I refuse to follow your reasoning.

          Lean down close and look a rooster right in the eye, you can see the miniature power there.

          No, you can see the "utter stupidity and cluelessness inherent in being a chicken" there. And I wouldn't put my eyes very close to a rooster's beak, by the way. Insurance companies don

      • Actually, many scientists believe that dinosaurs evolved into what is now known as birds.

        You wouldn't find any of the mammals that lived back then in today's world, either.

        Yet there are plenty of fish and reptiles that have remained virtually unchanged since the time of the dinosaurs, right? And I think it's a small subset of dinos that are said to have evolved into birds; that certainly doesn't resolve the big questions...

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by orkysoft (93727)
      Dinosaurs is what we call the reptiles that went extinct about 65 million years ago.

      That should answer your question why all the dinosaurs went extinct. They're defined that way.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by robson (60067)

        Dinosaurs is what we call the reptiles that went extinct about 65 million years ago.

        That should answer your question why all the dinosaurs went extinct. They're defined that way.

        Okay, riddle me this: Why did no reptile whose legs extended below the body ("dinosaur") rather than to the side ("lizard") survive, regardless of their scale, location, or diet?

        That aside, while researching a reply, I found something close to what I was looking for on Wikipedia [wikipedia.org] (though the section is marked as needing citations):

        Possible patterns and trends

        Despite its overall severity, the K-T extinction was rather patchy. This raises the question of why some groups died out while others did not.

        The

  • yeah so getting through long dark winter is fine for non-hibernating animals, they just burrow down and then suddenly they don't need to eat any more, no matter that their prey / food-vegetation has gone, oh yeah and burrowing down is also a preventative against molten lava and thirst

    no, no, i didn't RTFA, i got hungry and was too busy burrowing

  • More evidence... (Score:3, Informative)

    by Brad1138 (590148) * <brad1138@yahoo.com> on Saturday March 24 2007, @11:49PM (#18476115)
    Now scientists have come up with the first evidence of burrowing dinosaurs. They speculate that underground dens might explain how some dinosaurs got through long, dark winters at high latitudes, too.

    I believe this [photobucket.com] proves it beyond a doubt.
  • I find it odd that people get so angry when evolution is attacked. Science should be attacked so that science can be explored.I don't think that the fact that all things that exist in corralation to one another. Sand, water, air, creatures, plants, why are they in delicate balance>? Not to mention everything has a mathmatical base. And why do chemicals relate in solid, clear, reactions to one another? Why are there creatures that live in symbiotic relation with certain plants or parasites>? Why does

    • If evolution does exisit, that means man had to have had relations with a monkey in order to get more of the same species and a purifying of this to the human species we have now.

      Your questions are nicely summed up in your thought above.
      No of course man did not have to have relations with monkeys, according to general evolution theory there is just a common ancestor, nor man nor monkey.
      An other example is the relation between bear and dog, they probably share a common ancestor too.

      And when you go sufficiently back in time you'd probably find some simple microbe as ancestor to all living beings.

      That includes the bible belt/no sex/no evolution education communities that were

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