How Dinosaurs Grew and how we know

Friday seminar by Kevin Padian

Abstract

The traditional view of dinosaurs is of large, sluggish reptiles that lived in hothouse environments and only survived because environmental conditions were so conducive to their slow metabolism and large size. New research from the insides of the bones themselves tells quite a different story. Dinosaurs grew at rates comparable to birds and mammals, and we know a great deal about how long it took them to get to their immense size. Analyses of how the bone tissues grow also give us insight into interpreting the "bizarre structures" of many dinosaurs such as horns, frills, crests, and plates.

Kevin Padian
Professor, Dept. of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley
Curator of Paleontology, University of California Museum of Paleontology


NOTE: Don't miss Kevin Padian's lectures at Litteraturhuset this Friday evening, and at Gamle festsal Saturday.

Published Feb. 3, 2012 2:55 PM