How dinosaurs originated

This video is called Brief Lecture on the Origin of Dinosaurs.

From Current Biology, Volume 24, Issue 2, R87-R95, 20 January 2014:

Summary

Dinosaurs arose in the early Triassic in the aftermath of the greatest mass extinction ever and became hugely successful in the Mesozoic. Their initial diversification is a classic example of a large-scale macroevolutionary change.

Diversifications at such deep-time scales can now be dissected, modelled and tested. New fossils suggest that dinosaurs originated early in the Middle Triassic, during the recovery of life from the devastating Permo-Triassic mass extinction. Improvements in stratigraphic dating and a new suite of morphometric and comparative evolutionary numerical methods now allow a forensic dissection of one of the greatest turnovers in the history of life. Such studies mark a move from the narrative to the analytical in macroevolutionary research, and they allow us to begin to answer the proposal of George Gaylord Simpson, to explore adaptive radiations using numerical methods.

13 thoughts on “How dinosaurs originated”

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petrel41 on January 22, 2014 at 8:45 am said:

Congratulations, dear Tazein! Thanks for nominating my blog! I do accept, and will blog about this later 🙂

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I was hoping for something new here, but whoever presented the video misrepresented the permian extinction (Siberian traps, et al) and to a lesser extent, the cretaceous extinction. Timelines of archosaurs (which he mispronounced) wasn’t but where did he get the characterization of having downy feathers?

In spite of my complaints, the video was still informative.

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petrel41 on January 22, 2014 at 8:44 am said:

There is much discussion about feathers in dinosaurs:

Most dinosaurs did not have feathers, new research

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- Daniel Digby on January 22, 2014 at 9:25 am said:
  
  The reason I mentioned feathers is that the staurikosaurus, which is what the video mentioned, dates to the mid-triassic, and to my knowledge (which means nothing), has never been found with skin intact. The fossils are not found in shale or other fine-grained stone that might preserve feather imprints, so only fossilized skin would show feather attachments. There are features that stand on a lot firmer ground. For example, it is usually displayed or drawn with 5 fingers and toes, which is uncommon except in very primitive theropods — in this case, the herrerasaurids.
  
  Then, again, I just like to argue. Thanks for putting up with it.
  
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