• HaSch@lemmygrad.ml
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    1 year ago

    I live 800 kilometres from the nearest coast, I DARE this plesiosaurus to come and get me

        • Shrike502@lemmygrad.ml
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          1 year ago

          It’s fairly simple with dinosaurs, imo. If it flies or swims - it’s not a dinosaur. So plesiosaurs, mosasaurs, ichthyosaurs are not dinos. Se goes for pterosaurs. It’s terrestrial animals where it gets difficult

            • Shrike502@lemmygrad.ml
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              1 year ago

              Rule of thumb, it’s not perfect. Plus AFAIK archaeopteryx was more of a glider, rather than a dedicated flyer (the way pterodactyl was). You can also tell bird-like theropods from pterosaurs by the legs - birds have long-ish legs, while pterosaurs have short-ish legs (like bats).

              As for the spinosaurs, while a swimmer (it’s hard to keep track, poor sod is getting retconned every other day) it was not an open sea kind of swimmer - just compare spinosaur’s limbs to that of a mosasaur

      • ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml
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        1 year ago

        Not technically, but it was a prehistoric animal, which makes it a “dinosaur” in my eyes. Also, does it really matter?

        • Shrike502@lemmygrad.ml
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          1 year ago

          It matters if you’re a paleontologist or just a bore (like me). Gotta be pedantic about some things, otherwise people might think dolphins are fish because they live in the ocean. No offense meant, comrade

          • ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml
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            1 year ago

            True, but this is hardly a college lecture, so for the fun of the game I felt like my answer was “close enough”. I feel like it definitely makes sense to be pedantic in most places, but a discussion of favorite dinosaurs feels a but much.

            Also dinosaur has become more of a colloquial term over the years as well, which has bent its popular definition to simply include many prehistoric non-mammal animals. However you are right in the paleontological definition.

  • fire86743@lemmygrad.ml
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    1 year ago

    Probably spinosaurus. I have no weapons and their weapon is their teeth, I’d be dead in less than five seconds.

    My younger self loved the triceratops. Similar results, only that the triceratops was vegetarian, so I must really deserve it if it kills me.

  • ButtigiegMineralMap@lemmygrad.ml
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    1 year ago

    I always liked the Mamenchisaurus. No way on Earth I could even come close to killing it. Also kinda unrelated but I heard that some Dinosaurs may have had feathers, how do yall feel about that?

  • SpaceDogs@lemmygrad.ml
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    1 year ago

    Ankylosaurus was a herbivore so it wouldn’t eat me but it was also heavily armoured with a giant club of a tail so realistically it would either ignore my presence as I don’t pose much of a threat or it’d clobber me to death.

    Tyrannosaurus? I’m screwed. They’re the top predator, amazing eyesight (contrary to the movies), incredibly fast (I think they can run up to 30km/h), has the strongest bite force of any animal that has ever lived, I don’t even know why I’m bothering to list all these traits since everyone knows a T-Rex could fuck you up no matter what.