Early dinosaurs grew up incredibly fast (and they weren’t the only ones)

Scientists from Macalester College in Minnesota, USA, have the anatomical development of early dinosaurs and the animals that liv around them. They came to the conclusion that the first dinosaur species grew very fast, and the same was true for the other reptiles of that time.

The dinosaurs that liv in the early Mesozoic era shot out of the starting blocks surprisingly quickly after hatching from their eggs. In that period, between 252 and 66 million years ago, the continents still form one large landmass, the supercontinent Pangaea. Sea levels rose in the early Mesozoic era and remain relatively high throughout the era. Large parts of the continents were cover by shallow seas, such as the Cretaceous Sea that flood much of northern Europe.

Steep growth curves

But back to the early dinosaurs and their rapid growth. Paleontologists have long assum that rapid development was the key to the whatsapp database worldwide success of dinosaurs, but until now little was known about the growth curve of those first dinosaurs. That is why the researchers start looking at the early structure and body functions of fossiliz tissues of various animals that liv in one of the oldest known Mesozoic ecosystems. They analyz the growth patterns via fossiliz bones of early dinosaur limbs and discover the steep growth curves.

A colorful mountain of bones

The fossils studi come from the Ischigualasto basin, a geological formation that is part of the Unesco Ischigualasto Park in PHP 8.4 (Beta 3) nou beskikbaar op SiteGround-bieners Argentina. The fossil remains are between 231 and 229 million years old and were part of the skeletons of some of the earliest known dinosaurs, but bone remains of various non-dinosaur reptiles were also examin, and even a fossil of an early ancestor of mammals.

The analysis show that most asb directory of the species studi had surprisingly high growth rates. They grew much faster than modern reptiles and almost as fast as modern mammals and birds. But they were not alone. Similar growth rates have been observ in many other reptile species from that time.