[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index][Subject Index][Author Index]

Solved (Re: T rex & smell)



> Having just finished the endocast of Camptosaurus, it 
> has huge olfactories as well. In fact, they are twice as wide as the 
> brain portion. We could argue as to why an ornithopod has such well 
> developed sense of smell, but obviously there is more to it than 
> locating carrion.


The purpose of the well-developed olfactory bulbs on a dino herbivore was
to facilitate the location of the closest marijuana fields and to zero-in
on any nearby sources of opium-producing plants.

Cretaceous Cannabaceae? (Johnson) type specimens: YPM 6203, YPM 6204, YPM
6205.

Cretaceous member of the poppy family: _Palaeoaster inquirenda_(Smith).
TYPE. YPM-6131

YPM = Yale-Peabody Museum specimen numbers.

Clearly, _T. rex_ was a lazy scavenger, and ornithopods were a bunch of
Mesozoic druggies.  A modern analog for this paleoecosystem is a college
fraternity house.  All artistic reconstructions of both Cretaceous
landscapes and dinosaurs should use a color scheme that Jerry Garcia
would have approved of.  Tie-dyed color patterns for dino integument
would be appropriate.

<pb> (who has personally witnessed intoxicated bluejays flying into the
sides of barns after they ate fermented berries.  Not a pretty sight).
--