Hey, Sexy Dino, Show Me Your Feathers
Some of the weirdest animal behavior is about romance. That's especially true with birds — they croon or dance or display brilliant feathers to seduce the reluctant. This sort of sexual display apparently has a long pedigree: There's now new evidence that some dinosaurs may have used the same come-on. The source is a kind of dinosaur that was built like a 400-pound ostrich. It lived about 75 million years ago and is called ornithomimus, meaning "bird mimic." Scientists in Canada found the fossilized bones of one in 1995 that looked different from what they'd seen before. It had mysterious markings on the forearms. Two more were found recently with even more pronounced markings. When paleontologist Darla Zelenitsky took a close look at them, she was surprised. "We were finding these winglike structures in these relatively primitive dinosaurs," she says. The markings were the remains of primitive feathers.
Keywords:
feathers dinosaurs sexual display Prum Royal Tyrrell feathered dinosaurs these things educated guess animal behavior fan dance Yale University North America skeleton fossil forearms ornithomimid ornithomimus adult communication seduce appendage paleontologist fossilized mimic attractiveness quills boldly downy ostrich courtship croon Two more another chance about romance reproductive Calgary bird expert recent Canada the dinosaur the idea the need The two the wings The juvenilePeople:
Darla Zelenitsky
Overall Sentiment: -0.111403
Relevance: 0.822671
| Sentiment | Quote |
|---|---|
| -0.1479 | "We were finding these winglike structures in these relatively primitive dinosaurs," she says. ... |
| 0 | "So because we are only finding them in the adult individuals," says Zelenitsky, ... |
| 0 | "So because we are only finding them in the adult individuals," says Zelenitsky, "this suggests that the wings were used for purposes later in life, like reproductive activities for example, such as display or courtship." |
| Sentiment Stats: |
|
Richard Prum
Overall Sentiment: 0.121502
Relevance: 0.717313
| Sentiment | Quote |
|---|---|
| 0 | "The idea is that these were for communication," says Prum, ... |
| 0.121615 | "The idea is that these were for communication," says Prum, "and that's fascinating, because we recently have new evidence that the feathers of dinosaurs were pigmented, and perhaps pigmented very boldly, so that already implied that there was a communication function for early feathers." |
| 0 | Prum says the need for dinosaurs to "look hot" ... |
| 0.108841 | "The evolution of attractiveness or beautiful traits may have had an important role in the origin and early diversification of feathers," Prum says. ... |
| -0.065439 | Prum says he expects it will encourage scientists to look harder for signs of feathers: "These are the kinds of things that would have been overlooked years ago." |
| Sentiment Stats: |
|
Royal Tyrrell
Overall Sentiment: 0
Relevance: 0.382348
Key:
- Aggregate Sentiment is meant to be an indicator of an individual's overall sentiment.
- The Mean is meant to be an indicator of an individual's average comment sentiment.
- The Standard Deviation, when there are enough quotes, will indicate an individual's consistency of sentiment (i.e. a Standard Deviation of 0 would mean they were very consistent in their sentiment and 1 would mean they were very inconsistent).
Note that quote stats are likely to be meaningless beyond the aggregate score due to the tiny sample size. However, they are always provided just in case you find something useful there.
Additional Info:
PrintMedia: Science
Overall Sentiment: 0
Relevance: 0.318094
Disambiguation: JournalReferences:
Continent: North America
Overall Sentiment: -0.0109869
Relevance: 0.343465
Disambiguation: LocationReferences:
Country: Canada
Overall Sentiment: -0.367184
Relevance: 0.328669
Organization: University of Calgary
Overall Sentiment: -0.0307491
Relevance: 0.318266
Disambiguation: Location | CollegeUniversity | UniversityReferences:
Organization: Yale University
Overall Sentiment: 0.106461
Relevance: 0.311424
Disambiguation: Location | FieldOfStudy | Company | AcademicInstitution | PeriodicalPublisher | CollegeUniversity | UniversityReferences:
Webpage Meta Tags Details
Source Webpage: http://www.npr.org/2012/10/26/163654780/hey-sexy-dino-show-me-your-feathers?ft=1&f=1007
Provided Title:
Webpage Provided Keywords:
Webpage Provided Desc:
Provided Title:
Hey, Sexy Dino, Show Me Your Feathers
Webpage Provided Keywords:
Webpage Provided Desc:
The ornithomimus dinosaur was built like a 400-pound ostrich and lived about 75 million years ago. But recent research suggests the adult dinos had big, showy, colorful feathers with quills that were most likely used for sexual displays or courtship.
No comments:
Post a Comment