

Fossil female pterosaur found with preserved egg - JacobAldridge
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12242596

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electromagnetic
Since hearing of fragment T. Rex DNA being found a few years back I find
myself only reading these articles to see if they've found intact DNA of a
species.

I would pay more to go to a 'Jurassic Park' than I would on any of those
flights to 'space'. I mean make an Eden Project somewhere naturally
inhospitable to the majority of dinosaurs and clone me some T. Rex's

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kijinbear
As much as I fancy the prospect of a real world Jurassic Park, I'd much rather
they began with herbivores rather than a T. Rex, velociraptor, or these flying
creatures.

But then again, Jurassic Park without a T. Rex would be like an amusement park
without a roller coaster.

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DanI-S
According to this article, elephants and hippopotamuses are the two of the
most dangerous animals, and neither of those eat meat...

<http://www.blurtit.com/q6533369.html>

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hugh3
You could be right. A brontosaurus, unlike a velociraptor, could easily kill
you without trying. Heck, it could probably kill you without noticing. And if
it _did_ try, you're just as dead from an angry brontosaurus as you are from
an angry T-Rex.

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kijinbear
I doubt that a brontosaurus will try to kill you (or even notice you) unless
you did something stupid at close range. A velociraptor on the other hand WILL
hunt you down and try to kill you. It will not stop until it feels your blood
on its claws.

Or at least that's what they did in the movies :)

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electromagnetic
Yes, but unlike the movies a velociraptor weighs 30lbs, my dacschund x Jack
Russell weighs 10lbs and I'd be more afraid of my dog than I would the
velociraptor. My in-law's Labrador weighs 80lbs.

In reality, a velociraptor would not step anywhere near you. A pack might, but
given that in the wild a wolf pack would still easily have triple to quadruple
the weight of a raptor pack. A coyote pack would likely be double the weight.

Given the presence of feathers in velociraptors the best outcome we could
expect in the wild is for Big Cats to be playing with a raptor like a house
cat plays with a baby pigeon.

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kijinbear
You're right, real velociraptors were pretty small. I was talking about the
puffed-up version that appears in the movies, which more closely resembles the
deinonychus (160lb). A pack of those monsters would weigh more than a pack of
wolves or coyotes.

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electromagnetic
You're probably right, but consider your average wolf has a bite strength of
1,500lbf/in^2 (compared to 750lbf/in^2 for German Shepherds), which is enough
to bite through bone, and would stand around the same height if not taller.

A dog would bite for this things head and neck, which is what has been
selectively bred into dogs for thousands of years as most of the big dogs are
related to bulldogs. However a wolf generally bites at the extremities to
bring an animal down.

Given the deinonychus is very likely to be a proto-bird, like the
velociraptor, it likely had little covering its legs and given its scales
would have been replaced with feathers, then it would be very vulnerable to a
wolf biting for a take down.

It'd be impossible to tell what species would win such a fight, given we have
little idea about velociraptor and deinonychus hunting habits. However, give
me a pack of trained English Mastiffs (AKC register-able above 150lbs and
below 250lbs) and even the deinonychus would be no match. These dogs were used
for lion-baiting, even back to the Colosseum in Rome, but were known for
winning.

I think the "oh no they might escape and destroy the environment" front is
extremely naive to human nature and history. Our ancestors wiped out the wolf
in the majority of Europe before the Chinese had even invented gunpowder. A
dinosaur is no match for present day mammals.

Even if we collectively bred a few hundred T. Rex and they somehow all escaped
when fully grown, it still wouldn't be a huge deal. They'd likely starve to
death through the inability to hunt modern prey. Or, you could just get the
military to shoot one with basically anything they have to kill it.

I mean unless we're talking Godzilla here, anything the military throws at any
dinosaur will kill it. Whilst on the subject of Godzilla, the military could
have simply got a SeaKing to drop a frigging nuclear depth charge on it and
vaporize a hole in its head... but that would have made a rather boring movie.

