Score one for the mammals!

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Philip Bowles - 15 Jan 2005 10:00 GMT

>>Science press releases are so annoying. Once again all of our views

>>the Mesozoic have been revolutionized by a single fossil. Yawn.
>
>Given its size, the fact that this mammal ate (young) dinosaurs is
>no surprise at all. It's the size that's a surprise (at least to
>me). Did we know for sure, before now, that mammals in that time

.period got that big?

According to one press release I read - in New Scientist - teeth and
other fragments from what appear to be larger mammals than R.
giganticus are known from the same period and have been for some time,
but there has never been enough supporting fossil evidence to confirm
that these were in fact large mammals. So it seems that for the
researchers involved the surprise wasn't so much the animal's size but
more its state of preservation.

Philip Bowles

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rcook5@TAKEOUTmindspring.com - 15 Jan 2005 22:35 GMT

>>>Science press releases are so annoying. Once again all of our views
>of
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
>
>Philip Bowles

One of the besetting vices of science writers (he says as a science
writer) is false -- or exaggerated -- opposition. To emphasize the
importance of the new theory/discovery/whatever there's a tendency to
almost caricature what came before.

--RC
"Sometimes history doesn't repeat itself. It just yells
'can't you remember anything I've told you?' and lets
fly with a club.
-- John W. Cambell Jr.

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Natural Science Forum / Biology / Paleontology / January 2005

Score one for the mammals!