That the past role of crocodiles has been underestimated wassuggested a few years ago by Paul Sereno. Dr Sereno, a palaeontologist at the University ofChicago, uncovered a crocodile-dominated ecosystem from about 100m years ago , in what is now north Africa. Besides water-dwelling giants similar to todays animals, he found a range of forms including vegetariansand species that ran on elongated legsmore like dogs than crocodiles. That discovery hasprompted other fossil hunters to look elsewhere. As a result, even the well-studied rocks ofNorth America are revealing that dinosaurs did not have it all their own way in the ecosystemsof the Mesozoicas Stephanie Drumheller of the University of Iowa and Clint Boyd of theUniversity of Texas at Austin explained to the meeting.
几年前,芝加哥大学古生物学家保罗?赛伦诺博士提出鳄鱼过去的角色被低估了,在今天的北非,他发现了一个一亿年前由鳄鱼占主导地位的生态系统。除了与现代鳄鱼同为水生巨兽外,他还发现了一系列包括食草的、用长腿行走的比起鳄鱼来更像狗的种群及形态。这一发现促使其他化石探寻者着眼于其它地方。结果是,即便是那些出自北美的已经研究得很透彻的化石也显示出恐龙并非占据中生代生态系统全部位置。正如衣阿华大学的斯蒂芬妮?庄姆海勒以及位于奥斯汀的德克萨斯大学的克林特?博依德在会上说的那样。
【2015考研英语阅读谁吃了恐龙】相关文章:
最新
2016-10-18
2016-10-11
2016-10-11
2016-10-08
2016-09-30
2016-09-30