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Some Dinosaurs Made Underground Dens

anthemaniac writes "Scientists have long puzzled over how some dinosaurs and other creatures survived the asteroid impact that supposedly caused the KT mass extinction 65 million years ago and wiped out all the big dinosaurs. One idea has been that smaller animals, including mammals, could have endured the fallout, the big chill, the subsequent volcanoes, and whatever else by burrowing. Now scientists have come up with the first evidence of burrowing dinosaurs. They speculate that underground dens might explain how some dinosaurs got through long, dark winters at high latitudes, too."

11 of 124 comments (clear)

  1. Correction by Wonko+the+Sane · · Score: 5, Funny

    The fake dinosaur bones that god put in the ground to test our faith were positioned in a what was made to appear as an underground burrow.

    This all happened sometime last week.

    1. Re:Correction by Wavicle · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yeah I was wondering how those dens saved them from drowning.

      (That was sarcasm. This is a note for the sarcasm impaired.)

      --
      Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army.
      Edward Everett (1794 - 1865)
    2. Re:Correction by gardyloo · · Score: 4, Funny

      So you're saying that sometimes, "Noah!" just means "Noah" ?

    3. Re:Correction by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      man, the repetativeness of religion bashing and jokes about chairs and a certain microsoft executive make beavis and butthead look like a thinking mans comedy around here.
       
      seriously guys, it's getting old. if you can't find something more original to pull out of your ass either you're twice as dumb as they are or they're right.

  2. Welllllll by Spazntwich · · Score: 5, Funny

    if the dinosaurs were so smart, how come they're dead?

    1. Re:Welllllll by Walt+Dismal · · Score: 4, Funny
      if the dinosaurs were so smart, how come they're dead?

      Because they did extensive file sharing, and the RIAA sued them out of existence.

    2. Re:Welllllll by drawfour · · Score: 5, Funny

      they probably just typed in comments on slashdot and watched porn all day, so forgot to eat.
      Thanks for reminding me!
  3. Underground dinosaurs? by malevolentjelly · · Score: 5, Funny

    These burrowing dinosaurs must be from the species of Skeletal Dinosaurs we've found living underground for millions of years.

    SECRET TIP: Use bludgeoning weapons when fighting skeletal dinosaurs, they're resistant to piercing! ;)

  4. College students burrow too! by physicsphairy · · Score: 5, Funny

    When the great cataclysmic meteorite strikes, only those of us sequestered in basements playing WoW and hacking up patches to the Linux kernel will survive the impact. And, even more certainly, when the atmospheric plume of debris blocks out the sun, others will starve, and only we who subsist on inorganics such as cheetos and mountain dew will live to assert our genes in the remnant ecosystem.

    1. Re:College students burrow too! by Dunbal · · Score: 4, Funny

      only those of us sequestered in basements playing WoW and hacking up patches to the Linux kernel will survive the impact.

            An alternative path:

            Only to die miserably of internet withdrawal in a caffeine-induced continual attempt to reconnect to the servers...

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  5. Re:On the evolutionary tree... by linguizic · · Score: 4, Informative

    Burrowing, like all behaviors, can't really be traced phylogenically for a couple of reasons:1.As this article shows us, it's hard to find evidence of behaviors that happened yesterday let alone millions of years ago (though under the right conditions burrowing does leave a trace, as the article shows), 2. Behaviors vary more wildly than the average allele. Though there is a large component of genetics at play with behavior, ultimately behaviors are products of the physiological phenotypes associated with said alleles and sensory input. Different environmental inputs yield different behavioral outputs for the same allele. Therefore there isn't an isomorphic relationship between genes and behavior. Behavioral traits tend to pop up independently of each other quite often, so it is impossible to say that there is one node on the evolutionary branch that "sprouted modern burrowing/hibernating reptiles and mammals".

    Granted this is coming from what I learned as an undergraduate so there are probably better people in the /. community to comment on this. (That's my way of saying: "Though I may sound like an expert, I very well may be full of crap and would love it if someone with more knowledge would fact check this post").

    --
    Does this sig remind you of Agatha Christie?