Some dinosaurs may have traits that allow them to endure cold winters during the Late Triassic and the early Jurassic period. It can explain how he came to be in control of the planet for the next 135 million years. Analysis of rocky soils at the Junggar basin in northwestern China, where dinosaur footprints have been found in the past, adds to the growing evidence that dinosaurs did not simply live happily ever after. green, tropical areas, but also cold, snowy forests. Paul Olsen at Columbia University in New York and colleagues have found indications that the region was once a hotbed of prehistoric reptiles. The sediment contains unusually large particles that are common in the freezing lakes each year.
Dinosaur fossils have been found near poles, but models suggest that temperatures below freezing between 237 million and 174.1 million years ago have been disputed, so no one knew whether reptiles actually lived in the cold. describe how the dinosaurs continued to rule the Earth after almost all the major terrestrial and marine creatures in the tropics were wiped out.
The fossil record indicates that the middle and large reptiles abruptly disappeared at the end of the Triassic, when temperatures plummeted and a decade-long eruption clouded the air with sulfur. But giant dinosaurs in the middle reappeared almost everywhere after the extinction event, says Olsen, and the adaptation of cold dinosaurs to the cold probably explains why.
When temperatures plummeted during the end of the Triassic era, these dinosaurs were prepared for them, as they survived eating vegetation from the northern hemisphere and endured cold with feathers that served as heat, Olsen said. The dinosaurs then spread throughout the Jurassic world, replacing large, unsealed reptiles, which were extinct. Evidence is the latest to suggest that our concept of dinosaurs needs to be reconsidered, said Olsen. He says: “What our paper shows is that our view of the dinosaur world is really wrong. “Tropical dinosaurs are not on the edge. They are common. And, of course, dinosaurs are basically cold animals. ”
For reference: Journal reference: Science Advances, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abo6342
