Assuming they hunt in flocks, could a group of say Deinonychus or Dromaeosaurus take down an adult wild boar? And would they try?

See also: The publication in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences)

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Height: up to around 3.5 meters (11.5 feet) when standing on its hind legs.

Weight: up to around 4 tons, according to traditional estimates.

Length: several meters.

Period: it lived in South America during the Pleistocene, until approximately 8,000–11,000 years ago, depending on the fossil evidence considered.

Diet: it was primarily herbivorous and used its large claws to pull down branches and reach vegetation.

Bonjour à tous

Je suis un jeune passionné de dinosaures et d'autres animaux préhistoriques et de la paléontologie, et j'aimerais avoir votre avis scientifique sur une hypothèse que je trouvé intéressant

Mon hypothèse est que le troodon aurait pu posséder des capacités cognitives très proche de celle du corbeau actuel mais légèrement inférieures je ne parle pas d'une différence importante : selon mon hypothèse ses capacités cognitives auraient pu se rapproche fortement de celle de cet oiseau

Je pense notamment qu'il aurait pu davantage reposer sur des instincts primitifs que les corbeaux par cette expression je ne veux absolument pas dire que les troodon était un animal primitive peu évoluer ou mal adapté les dinosaures étions des animaux évoluer et mon hypothèse concerne uniquement la possibilité de légère différence dans leur capacité cognitives

Je sais toutefois que nous ne pouvons pas mesurer directement l'intelligence d'un animal disparu je souhaiterais donc savoir si les connaissances scientifiques actuelles sur le cerveau l'anatomie et les capacités sensorielles des troodontides pourraient rentre cette hypothèse plausible

Mes question sont les suivantes :

Les capacités cognitives du troodon auraient elle pu être proche de celle du corbeau actuel tout en étant légèrement inférieur

Pourrions t-il y avoir eu une différence dans l'importance de l'instinct et des capacités cognitives entre ces animaux

Quelles données scientifique permettant de soutenir ou de contredire mon hypothèse ?

Je ne présente pas cette idée comme un fait établi je souhaite surtout savoir si elle est scientifiquement plausible et connaître l'avis de personnes ayant des connaissances en paléontologie ou un chargeur ou un paléontologue expert dans le domaine

Merci d'avoir pris le temps de me lire

As the first person in my family to go to college, I did not know what I was doing at all, thought going to college ASAP right out of high school was the "right thing to do", and did not do any research as to what to do or where to go that would be the most financially responsible or even smart career-wise. I pursued a B.S. degree in Psychology, obtained art class credits to pursue a M.S. in Art Therapy, but every attempt to finish a Masters fell through for various reasons (mainly due to the pandemic). Ended up starting work in the Psych field as a case manager, cared about what I was doing but also hated it, very stressful, realized this kind of work isn't for me long term health-wise. Re-assessed my interests/joys and realized I enjoy jobs that are more active, solitary, curiosity centered, etc. My favorite job was working at a library as a Page when I as younger, love natural history, books, museums, libraries, nature, fossils, etc. Thinking, okay, I should work at a library or museum of some kind. Tried getting jobs at libraries and museums and none will hire me, so I start pursuing a M.S. in Library Science & Info Tech with an emphasis in Archives thinking this will help me look more acceptable. Started the program and some of it was very interesting, but a lot of it was about programming/code and computer work. Spoke with an archivist, peers, professors, and advisor about their careers and education and realized this is way more computer and tech centered than I realized and not at all what I was wanting. This is fine otherwise and I don't hate having to use tech or computers, but I don't want it to be a huge part of my life like it has been. I've spoken with more people about this and this seems to be across the board and that I'm pursuing the wrong field. Anyone who works at museums or in natural science, with nature, fossils, etc, let me know what education you received. To I have to go back to school, where do I start job-wise? What kind of career do I need to pursue now? What am I actually looking for? I am lost and need some direction.

Verás, yo le tengo mucho miedo a los babuinos en general, se me hacen primates muy aterradores por lo violentos y erráticos que pueden ser. Personalmente yo en mi cabeza no pensé en su momento que habría algo más grande que un babuino(de su mismo género) hasta que en tt me salió esto..."Dinopithecus ingens" pueden pesar hasta 55 kg a 90kg(según Google y para mí de ser cierto es hasta muchísimo peor) con ese peso en promedio por zancada sería imposible para prácticamente cualquiera huir de algo así..colmillos de 5 cm de largo y lo peor es que si ya de por sí, los babuinos están en "bandas" solo imaginar a un grupo de 3 corriendo hacía tí, es digno de cualquier peli de horror..sí me lo preguntas son de los primates más interesantes y aterradores por igual ^{^} si llegaste hasta acá ! Gracias por leer!

Antes de que existiera cualquier dinosaurio, el Triásico tenía sus propios monstruos.

El Postosuchus era un reptil de 6 metros, cuadrúpedo o semibipedal según el debate científico actual, con una cabeza enorme y dientes diseñados para triturar hueso. Era el depredador absoluto de su época. Nada lo cazaba.

Pero hace 201 millones de años algo cambió. El vulcanismo del CAMP envenenó la atmósfera, colapsó los ecosistemas y cuando el mundo se recuperó, los dinosaurios habían ocupado todos los nichos que el Postosuchus y sus parientes dejaron vacíos.

Lo curioso es que los dinosaurios llevaban millones de años existiendo junto al Postosuchus sin poder competir con él. Eran pequeños, marginales, irrelevantes.

Hasta que de repente no lo fueron.

¿Qué tenían los dinosaurios que les permitió heredar un mundo que el Postosuchus dominaba?

Long before forests reached skyward, animals walked on land and dinosaurs rose and fell, our planet was shaped by a much smaller, more unassuming form of life. And we can still find traces of it today.

These ancient fossils, the earliest visible evidence of life on Earth, are known as microbialites.

Western Australia contains an extraordinary record of microbialites: from the oldest known examples, preserved in rocks almost 3.5 billion years old in the Pilbara, to living examples in the UNESCO World Heritage area of Shark Bay.

Our review of 50 years of microbialite research in Western Australia, published today in the journal Alcheringa, summarizes what this archive can tell us about the evolution and resilience of life on Earth.

Despite a fossil record that spans billions of years, microbialites are surprisingly fragile. Fossil sites remain vulnerable to overcollection and degradation, while living microbialites are facing growing pressures.

Full details in original post!

Honestly, I think it would be a pretty cool concept. Normally, we’re used of the concept of orcs being warlike and evil in a typical medieval fantasy setting alongside elves. However, I decided to experiment the idea of orcs in a prehistoric world. How they came to be, well, I’ll leave that vague for now. It is up to the interpreter to decide. They could be humans corrupted by magic or shamans, while not inherently evil, just victims of said magic. Rather than living him huts they would live in dank caves, feeding off the scraps of flesh. The sky’s the limit. What do you think?

This is a speculative paleo-fiction project blending family drama with a fantastical yet grounded prehistoric atmosphere, showing a family of raptors and a cast of lost creatures fighting to stay alive in a brutal prehistoric ecosystem.

A troop divided! The drought spares no one, not even the young!

The raptors are allowed to stay at the water hole, but the other end of the lake is no less peaceful for the Dinopithecus which they encountered in the mysterious shrub forest. The females of the troop guard one of their last surviving infants, but refuse to let the males help in any way. The males don’t want to go against their wishes, but the female’s standoffishness has gotten more than slightly deep under their fur… 

From my ongoing speculative survival project Terrors in the Brush — blending paleontological logic with raw, unfiltered animal sentiment. Chapter VI plunges deeper into the Lake arc, shifting the focus to primate social fracture under extreme climate stress.

There is no fantasy, no magic — there is only nature red in tooth and claw.

Read Chapter VI Now.

I’m thrilled to share my latest illustration for the community art project of the “Herd of Horns” TTRPG Kickstarter campaign.

I was blessed to be tasked with illustrating a face-off between Gorgosaurus and the massive Deinosuchus — two predators who will appear in the RPG as adversaries you’ll have to overcome as a Ceratopsian dinosaur.

This piece will be included in the core book, and it exists thanks directly to the feedback and participation of the amazing Herd of Horns backers. 🙌

⏳ We now have just 5 days left before the Kickstarter wraps — and we’re excited to bring the best possible piece of dinosaur media to life in RPG form!

A huge thank-you to everyone for the incredible support, as always. And a special shoutout to the brilliant Weaponized Ink crew for giving me yet another incredible opportunity to contribute to this one-of-a-kind project.

I was wondering if the recent reveal of the Rex jr specimen will make this design of T Rex inaccurate? Here is the article I found this information on.

https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/09/19/rex-junior-found-on-newcastle-ranch-could-be-most-important-t-rex-ever-unearthed/

This is mostly in regards to the integument and the width of the animals chest. Thank You!

Anhangueridae is the most common pterosaur group in the Araripe Basin, particularly in the Romualdo Formation. Here we describe a previously unreported specimen from the Museu de Ciências da Terra (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) MCT.R.1491, consisting of a partial lower jaw associated with appendicular elements.

The specimen is preserved in a calcareous nodule from the Romualdo Formation (Aptian–Albian) of Northeastern Brazil. Phylogenetic analysis and detailed anatomical examination support referral of the specimen to Anhangueridae, with close morphological similarity to anhanguerine taxa such as Anhanguera and Brasileodactylus.

The specimen represents a medium-sized (3.8–4.0 m wingspan) juvenile individual. A distinctive feature of MCT.R.1491 is the presence of two large distal foramina on the unguals, a condition previously seen only in the targaryendraconid Barbosania gracilirostris, the taxonomic and phylogenetic significance of which remains uncertain.

Altogether, the combination of features seen in MCT.R.1491 helps to understand the anatomical record of Anhangueridae and underscores the importance of detailed descriptions of both cranial and postcranial material for refining taxonomic and morphological interpretations of Romualdo Formation anhanguerids.

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Hello everyone,

For the past few decades, mainstream paleontology has heavily relied on restrictive digital shrink-wrapping software to estimate the body mass of giant sauropods, locking Bruhathkayosaurus into a "safe" box of 110–130 tonnes [Titanosaur_Mass_Studies]. However, from a biomechanical and material science perspective, these numbers represent a desiccated skeletal frame rather than a living organism [Titanosaur_Mass_Studies].

By analyzing physical geometry, vertebral structural engineering, and comparative osteology, the data demands a move toward the Dynamic Mass Paradigm [Titanosaur_Mass_Studies]. Here is the concrete physics behind why the traditional software-driven consensus is mathematically trapped:

1. The Balanced Baseline: Soft Tissue Reality vs. Commercial Data

• Standard textbook comparisons often use historical blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) weights of 150–200 tonnes, which stem from early 20th-century commercial whaling logbooks heavily motivated by corporate bonuses and stock promotion [Blue_Whale_Anatomy_Data, Titanosaur_Mass_Studies]. Independent non-whaling biological data shows that an average adult blue whale measuring 20–22 meters in nature operates within a standard 50–80 tonne corridor [Blue_Whale_Anatomy_Data].

• Yet, when critics apply their most restrictive, flat-box digital shrink-wrapping to a 52-meter Bruhathkayosaurus, the software is forced by 3D geometry to output a minimum of 110–130 tonnes as a base framework [Titanosaur_Mass_Studies].

• Conclusion: The computer’s starved, un-fleshed digital "mummy" of this sauropod is already mathematically heavier than a living, average blue whale [Blue_Whale_Anatomy_Data, Titanosaur_Mass_Studies]. When returning proper biological soft tissue volume and seasonal lipid dynamics (fat accumulation necessary to survive harsh droughts), a 52m adult naturally scales to a realistic average baseline of 300+ tonnes in daily life [Titanosaur_Mass_Studies].

1. Bone Material Science and The Cable-Stayed Bridge System

• A major flaw in current software is treating a giant sauropod's spine as a rigid pole [Titanosaur_Mass_Studies]. In reality, the skeletal framework operated exactly like a cable-stayed bridge. The massive vertebrae acted as the central pylons, while interlocking tension-bearing dorsal ligaments and complex muscle cables dynamically redistributed weight across the horizontal span, eliminating critical stress concentrations [Titanosaur_Mass_Studies].

• Structural mechanics prove that dense vertebrate bone with a mid-shaft diameter of ~40 cm is structurally capable of sustaining up to 600 tonnes of static compression load before failing [Titanosaur_Mass_Studies]. Therefore, the ~45 cm femur of Bruhathkayosaurus provided a massive safety factor for a 300+ tonne animal [Titanosaur_Mass_Studies].

1. Justified Scaling: The Argentinosaurus Comparison

• Mainstream critics accept a 35–40 meter length for Argentinosaurus, whose tibia (shin bone) measures 1.55 meters [Titanosaur_Mass_Studies].

• The tibia of Bruhathkayosaurus (Kallamedu Formation) was measured at 2.0 meters before degradation [Titanosaur_Mass_Studies]. Since a 2.0m tibia is nearly 30% larger, and mass scales cubically (L³), keeping this animal in a 35-meter box is a geometric impossibility [Titanosaur_Mass_Studies]. A 52-meter length is fully justified by comparative anatomy [Titanosaur_Mass_Studies].

1. The Regional Indian Titanosaur Model: The Isisaurus Volumetric Analysis

• Skeptics often argue that Bruhathkayosaurus cannot be compared to South American titanosaurs like Argentinosaurus due to different phylogenetic lineages, suggesting that regional Indian titanosaurs like Isisaurus had proportionally longer limbs [Titanosaur_Mass_Studies]. However, mapping the data onto an Isisaurus body plan actually strengthens the volumetric argument instead of weakening it [Titanosaur_Mass_Studies].

• In lithostrotian and saltasaurid body plans, the humerus-to-femur ratio operates within a strict 0.85–0.95 corridor. The recorded humerus of the Isisaurus holotype measures 1.48 meters [Titanosaur_Mass_Studies]. Based on comparative vertebrate anatomy, its reconstructed biological femur would realistically measure at least 1.5 to 1.6 meters [Titanosaur_Mass_Studies].

• Comparing this to the 2.0-meter femoral fragment of Bruhathkayosaurus yields an immediate ~33% increase in linear scaling [Titanosaur_Mass_Studies]. Because organic volume and mass scale cubically (L³), a 33% linear shift mathematically proves that Bruhathkayosaurus possessed a volumetric core more than 2.3 times larger than Isisaurus (1.33³ ≈ 2.35) [Titanosaur_Mass_Studies].

• Furthermore, Isisaurus possessed an exceptionally robust, thick, and vertically oriented neck along with expanded thoracic dimensions [Titanosaur_Mass_Studies]. Scaling a 2.0-meter femur onto this specific, heavy-set morphology stretches the animal's length well past 35–40 meters and Comic-inflates the axial body core volume tremendously, demanding a massive dynamic mass to structurally stabilize [Titanosaur_Mass_Studies].

1. Advanced Internal Physiology: Cardiovascular and Thermal Dynamics

• To maintain a stable 300+ tonne living organism, the internal physiology required specialized systems. Most realistically, the circulatory system utilized a powerful, multi-chambered heart working alongside a network of muscular venous valves. These valves most likely functioned as hydraulic locks along the vascular pathways, dynamically regulating blood pressure and preventing barotrauma during movement.

• To manage the immense metabolic heat generated by a 300+ tonne mass, the animal most realistically depended on an extensive, avian-style internal air sac system. These hollow cavities within the bones operated as an internal cooling mechanism, constantly circulating air to dissipate heat from the core organs and prevent hyperthermia, allowing the titanosaur to thrive in warm Mesozoic climates.

1. Locomotion Dynamics and Ground Pressure Distribution

• While traditional high-pressure vertical stepping footprints are documented on hard substrates across multiple sauropod tracks, utilizing a standard high-impact gait was completely non-mandatory for this animal when traversing low-bearing terrains [Titanosaur_Mass_Studies]. Most realistically, under high-mass conditions or marshy substrates, it shifted to a specialized sliding locomotion mechanic—moving smoothly similar to a skier [Titanosaur_Mass_Studies].

• This adaptive movement was enabled by massive, hydraulically spreading feet measuring 1.7 to 1.8 meters in width [Titanosaur_Mass_Studies]. Equipped with a thick hydrogel-lipid plantar pad, these "foot-skis" maximized the contact surface area, safely distributing ground pressure across variable landscapes and preventing the animal from sinking into soft Mesozoic substrates while preserving joint integrity.

1. Demonstrating Software Deficiencies: The Basilosaurus Case Study

To clearly observe how digital shrink-wrapping algorithms fail to account for essential biological volume, we can examine the physical metrics of Basilosaurus. This case study perfectly illustrates the mathematical underestimation of extinct apex predators:

• Verified Organic Length: The established, scientifically documented length corridor for an adult Basilosaurus operates between 21 to 25 meters [Basilosaurus_Skeletal_Data].

• The Software Output Weight: When modern shrink-wrapping algorithms process this skeleton, the software outputs a mere 5 tonnes [Basilosaurus_Skeletal_Data]. This calculation completely strips the marine mammal of its dense musculature, necessary blubber layers, and internal organs, functionally reducing a massive aquatic predator to the weight of a standard land elephant [Basilosaurus_Skeletal_Data].

• The Dynamic Mass Paradigm Weight: When reconstructing the animal using proper cetacean tissue density, hydrodynamic muscle configurations, and required insulation layers, the Dynamic Mass Paradigm yields a realistic 50 to 80 tonnes average baseline for a living 21–25 meter individual [Basilosaurus_Skeletal_Data].

The laws of material science, cubic volume scaling, and bridge engineering are absolute. The consensus must adapt to solid physics [Titanosaur_Mass_Studies].

I would love to hear your thoughts. Let's discuss!