23 April 2012

"Dinosaur time"


From the Smithsonian:
[We] throw around Deep Time estimates, framed in millions of years, so often that it’s easy to become inured to the wider context of life’s history...

Diplodocus, Apatosaurus, Allosaurus, Stegosaurus and their neighbors roamed western North America about 150 million years ago. This slice of time falls in the latter portion of the Jurassic. The traditional representatives of the latest Cretaceous scene—Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops—did not evolve until about 67 million years ago. By themselves, these dates are just labels, but think of them falling along evolution’s timeline. About 83 million years separated Apatosaurus from Tyrannosaurus and Allosaurus from Triceratops. The so-called Age of Mammals—which began when the non-avian dinosaurs were wiped out—has been going on for about 66 million years.

Less time separates us from Tyrannosaurus rex than separated T. rex from Stegosaurus.

1 comment:

  1. "Less time separates us from Tyrannosaurus rex than separated T. rex from Stegosaurus."

    Eh, that's nothing. The Little Mermaid is closer to the moon landing than the present day!

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...