Giants on the landscape: modelling the abundance of megaherbivorous dinosaurs of the Morrison Formation (Late Jurassic, western USA)

Farlow, James O.; Coroian, I. Dan; Foster, John

doi:10.1080/08912961003787598

Cited by 30 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 184 publications

(186 reference statements)

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“…These observations partially support (migration) and partially contradict (aridity) the assumptions made by the most refined effort to quantitatively describe a sauropod ecosystem [59], again that of the Morrison Formation. This study by Farlow et al incorporates the greatest range of information on extant animals as well observations from deep time, thus incorporating both approaches; its goal being to estimate the population density of dinosaurian megaherbivores, primarily sauropods.…”

Section: Update On Sauropod Evolution and Paleobiologymentioning

confidence: 61%

“…This study by Farlow et al incorporates the greatest range of information on extant animals as well observations from deep time, thus incorporating both approaches; its goal being to estimate the population density of dinosaurian megaherbivores, primarily sauropods. Farlow et al estimate that endothermic dinosaurian megaherbivores would have had densities of “a few tens” of individuals of all ages but only a few subadults and adults per square kilometer [59]. Counts for dinosaurs with an intermediate metabolism would have been up to an order of magnitude greater.…”

Section: Update On Sauropod Evolution and Paleobiologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Counts for dinosaurs with an intermediate metabolism would have been up to an order of magnitude greater. Farlow et al [59] make no explicit distinction between sexually reproductive animals and juveniles, but only distinguish between “large subadults and adults” and “others”. Making this distinction would be the first step in using the result of Farlow et al [59] to estimate the density of sauropod breeding populations in models of population growth rates, e.g., [12], [14], [49].…”

Section: Update On Sauropod Evolution and Paleobiologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent studies using the general ecological approach would suggest that limitations in food availability would have affected sauropod populations less than mammalian megaherbivore populations because of the much lower minimum population densities of the former [11], [12], [14], [49], [52], [59]. Low viable population densities could have been afforded by sauropods for two reasons: their ovipary [14], [49], [52] and the strong left skew of sauropod body mass distribution [9] combined with the scaling of basal metabolic rate (BMR) [11].…”

Section: Update On Sauropod Evolution and Paleobiologymentioning

confidence: 99%

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An Evolutionary Cascade Model for Sauropod Dinosaur Gigantism - Overview, Update and Tests

Sander

2013

PLoS ONE

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Sauropod dinosaurs are a group of herbivorous dinosaurs which exceeded all other terrestrial vertebrates in mean and maximal body size. Sauropod dinosaurs were also the most successful and long-lived herbivorous tetrapod clade, but no abiological factors such as global environmental parameters conducive to their gigantism can be identified. These facts justify major efforts by evolutionary biologists and paleontologists to understand sauropods as living animals and to explain their evolutionary success and uniquely gigantic body size. Contributions to this research program have come from many fields and can be synthesized into a biological evolutionary cascade model of sauropod dinosaur gigantism (sauropod gigantism ECM). This review focuses on the sauropod gigantism ECM, providing an updated version based on the contributions to the PLoS ONE sauropod gigantism collection and on other very recent published evidence. The model consist of five separate evolutionary cascades (“Reproduction”, “Feeding”, “Head and neck”, “Avian-style lung”, and “Metabolism”). Each cascade starts with observed or inferred basal traits that either may be plesiomorphic or derived at the level of Sauropoda. Each trait confers hypothetical selective advantages which permit the evolution of the next trait. Feedback loops in the ECM consist of selective advantages originating from traits higher in the cascades but affecting lower traits. All cascades end in the trait “Very high body mass”. Each cascade is linked to at least one other cascade. Important plesiomorphic traits of sauropod dinosaurs that entered the model were ovipary as well as no mastication of food. Important evolutionary innovations (derived traits) were an avian-style respiratory system and an elevated basal metabolic rate. Comparison with other tetrapod lineages identifies factors limiting body size.

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Section: Update On Sauropod Evolution and Paleobiologymentioning

confidence: 61%

Section: Update On Sauropod Evolution and Paleobiologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Update On Sauropod Evolution and Paleobiologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Update On Sauropod Evolution and Paleobiologymentioning

confidence: 99%

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An Evolutionary Cascade Model for Sauropod Dinosaur Gigantism - Overview, Update and Tests

Sander

2013

PLoS ONE

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“…This is an astounding conclusion given that the largest known sauropod femora measure well over 2 meters in length [51], [52] and mass estimates for many sauropods exceed 20,000 kg [6], [7], [9]! In contrast, although certain eutherian mammal taxa have achieved gigantism (proboscideans and Paraceratherium , maximum known femur lengths of approximately 1.7 m and 1.2 m, respectively [11], [53]), it was much rarer [7], [8].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Lies Beneath: Sub-Articular Long Bone Shape Scaling in Eutherian Mammals and Saurischian Dinosaurs Suggests Different Locomotor Adaptations for Gigantism

Bonnan

Wilhite

Masters³

et al. 2013

PLoS ONE

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Eutherian mammals and saurischian dinosaurs both evolved lineages of huge terrestrial herbivores. Although significantly more saurischian dinosaurs were giants than eutherians, the long bones of both taxa scale similarly and suggest that locomotion was dynamically similar. However, articular cartilage is thin in eutherian mammals but thick in saurischian dinosaurs, differences that could have contributed to, or limited, how frequently gigantism evolved. Therefore, we tested the hypothesis that sub-articular bone, which supports the articular cartilage, changes shape in different ways between terrestrial mammals and dinosaurs with increasing size. Our sample consisted of giant mammal and reptile taxa (i.e., elephants, rhinos, sauropods) plus erect and non-erect outgroups with thin and thick articular cartilage. Our results show that eutherian mammal sub-articular shape becomes narrow with well-defined surface features as size increases. In contrast, this region in saurischian dinosaurs expands and remains gently convex with increasing size. Similar trends were observed in non-erect outgroup taxa (monotremes, alligators), showing that the trends we report are posture-independent. These differences support our hypothesis that sub-articular shape scales differently between eutherian mammals and saurischian dinosaurs. Our results show that articular cartilage thickness and sub-articular shape are correlated. In mammals, joints become ever more congruent and thinner with increasing size, whereas archosaur joints remained both congruent and thick, especially in sauropods. We suggest that gigantism occurs less frequently in mammals, in part, because joints composed of thin articular cartilage can only become so congruent before stress cannot be effectively alleviated. In contrast, frequent gigantism in saurischian dinosaurs may be explained, in part, by joints with thick articular cartilage that can deform across large areas with increasing load.

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2012

Metabolic Ecology

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Giants on the landscape: modelling the abundance of megaherbivorous dinosaurs of the Morrison Formation (Late Jurassic, western USA)

Cited by 30 publications

References 184 publications

An Evolutionary Cascade Model for Sauropod Dinosaur Gigantism - Overview, Update and Tests

An Evolutionary Cascade Model for Sauropod Dinosaur Gigantism - Overview, Update and Tests

What Lies Beneath: Sub-Articular Long Bone Shape Scaling in Eutherian Mammals and Saurischian Dinosaurs Suggests Different Locomotor Adaptations for Gigantism

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