The Biped Triceratops

What do you make of this @T.j_Runyon and @Joel_Duff?

What will AIG write about it?

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I don’t see anything controversial about this find.

One can’t predict what AiG will find to crow about, but this is obvious. The ancestral ornithischian was bipedal. The closest relatives of ceratopsians, psittacosaurs and, beyond them, pachycephalosaurs, were bipedal. What would be slightly surprising would be if this new ceratopsian were nested deeply within quadrupedal ceratopsians. But I suspect not.

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What @John_Harshman said. As far as AIG goes I don’t even think they consider ceratopsia a single kind. So who knows what they will say about this one

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Its all guessing about relationships. I suspect its bipedalness is more likely evidence its just another tupe of theropod and so just another bird. Probably no relation to a four legged creature. just having some like features in the skull is just like adaptation. once again they just are grouping traits that are trivial.
An important point from the article is how in the past so many so-called dinosaurs only had remnants of skeletons or just a few members of types. As research gets better, they will find more, and discover thye ideas of the past were wrong.

That was my favorite sentence. Does anyone else have a different one?

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@John_Harshman that was my favorite sentence. Bipedalism = theropod? Who knew?

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Well, of course we all have our favorites.

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It’s so hard to choose! :smile:

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Why? doesn’t bipedalism mean walking upright on two legs?? like in the pictures they showed?

That one wasn’t bad either. It’s either an embarrassment of riches or just an embarrassment, period. Perhaps both.

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Yes. But that isn’t what makes a theropod a theropod.

What? i fail to see why i’m not understanding bipedalism! little help!

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Good move @Robert_Byers1. It is important to ask questions. That is how we all learn.

You said it’s bipedalism is evidence that it’s a theropod. But this doesn’t follow. Bipedalism isn’t a defining characteristic of theropoda. You have bipeds in Ornithischia. Pachycephalosaurs for example.

I think I’m a biped too. Does that make me a therapod?

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Do you have hollow bones? Three toes? I
Hope not haha

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As a matter of fact, I have three toes and some more to spare! I also have a few hollow spaces in y bones to speak of. Perhaps I am part therapod?

No, but you’re a therapsid.

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Oh . Hmmm. I meant that its bipedalism is likely evidence its just a giant bird. All theropods are birds to me. So having like features means its just another one. No reason to segregate them.
Its classification again. All these types , as I see it, are just a spectrum of diversity of ground birds and probably all flightless.
Thanks.