Dinosaurs Coexisted With Ancestors

[Klingan]

Dinosaurs shared the Earth for millions of years with the species that were their ancestors, a new study concludes.

 

Dinosaurs arose in the Late Triassic, between 235 million and 200 million years ago, and came to dominate the planet in the Jurassic, 200 million to 120 million years ago.

 

Scientists had thought the dinosaurs rapidly replaced their ancestor species. Indeed, until 2003, when a creature called Silesaurus was discovered in Poland, no dinosaur precursors had been found from the Late Triassic.

 

Read more here.

[Pertinax]

Damm, I was hoping for something like this....

 

http://home.comcast.net/~othastar/One_Mill...Years_B.C..jpeg

[caldrail]

Predating the classic dinosaur is the mammal-like reptile group including such beasties as dimetredon (hope the spelling was close...), the famous sail-back carnivore so beloved of low budget hollywood films about victorian scientists. By the triassic period, early mammals were in evidence, and small furry animals were well established and annoying their dino-superiors during the cretaceous. Its a little ironic that the small size of these mammals was the main reason they survived the K/T event. Later they grew a lot, lot bigger, way bigger than we see today. One african elephant species was twice the size of a modern pachyderm within the last few million years. Oh boy. The romans would have loved that one!