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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Sallent, post: 3116280, member: 76194&quot;][USER=74863]@Collecting Nut[/USER]&nbsp; I think more people should get in touch with our synapsid ancestors. Twenty years ago the greatest controversy in paleontology was the difference between dinosaur-like birds and bird-like dinosaurs, but today the fun at paleontology meetings lies in the discussions about whether something is a reptile-like mammal or a mammal-like reptile. Thanks to many new fossil finds we are finding out a lot about when synapsid reptiles first took the leap towards becoming mammals, and for a while <b>around 250 million years ago, it looked like mammals were about to become the dominant species on the planet,</b> like this ancestor of ours...</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]791914[/ATTACH]</p><p>Cynognathus</p><p><br /></p><p><b>But then arkosaurs came along and crashed the party...</b></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]791919[/ATTACH]</p><p>Euparkeria Capenesis</p><p><br /></p><p>Before you know it they evolved to dinosaurs and started taking over, and mammals were delegated near irrelevance and prey for the big dinosaurs in town.</p><p><br /></p><p>But hey...66 million years ago we got our revenge when the big rock put an end to non-Avian dinosaurs...right?</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]791920[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Then mammals got to be the boss again, right?</b> Wrong! Avian dinosaurs (ie. giant birds) continued to terrorise us mammals for millions of years...<img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie3" alt=":(" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> Turns out that even after the meteor strike we were still playing second fiddle to our dinosaur overlords.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]791921[/ATTACH]</p><p>Phorusrhacids</p><p><br /></p><p>At over 10 feet tall, these beasts made a meal of our ancestors and it took millions of years for the mammals to start asserting themselves as the dominant species over these terror birds.</p><p><br /></p><p>But hey, we got our revenge.<b>&nbsp; Look at how far the mighty dinosaur has fallen now</b>. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> I love me some stuffed dino on Thanksgiving.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]791926[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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