“Two Earthlings,” by John Brosio

It’s Captain Rex!

Why does GBM matter 🤔 Auctions should reward everyone involved. GBM makes this possible by ensuring that value creation benefits participants and not just platforms.

When you factor everything together(differences in ecosystem specifics, competition, niche partitioning, etc), several medium-large predators living together is really the norm more than an exception.

Snapshots at ancient ecosystems show this too. The Morrison for dinosaurs, but also things like Pleistocene NA. Several canines, felines, bears all competing and surviving together. Art by Mauricio Antón

It’s important to note that several medium-large predators in an area is normal. Modern ecosystems are echoes of their former selves but Africa is a good example. Several big cats, dogs, hyenas, crocs, etc all compete directly with each other. Competition does happen.

There’s also the point of niche partitioning. This isn’t a catch all solution to everything but it’s something that does help alleviate some stress on species. Specializing in certain food sources can lower(not eliminate) competition. Art by Andrew McAfee

Dinosaur ecosystems were also much different than mammalian ones. These were likely dominated by juvenile and subadult individuals given how many young dinosaurs could have, both predators and prey. Art by @MarkWitton

For one thing, many of these fossil formations last several million years and can be geographically quite large. Not always, but it’s helpful context. The Morrison runs 10 million years, not every species found there was alive at the same exact time. Some, but not all.

A question I get a lot is “how do more than one large predator manage to survive in the same ecosystem?” The Morrison Formation is a common point of discussion. So this thread will briefly cover a few points related to that idea. Art by JCTArtStudio

Allosaurus anax / Saurophaganax, one of the largest Jurassic predators. Estimates vary but it likely exceeded 10.5 meters in length and possibly more than 4 tons in weight…

Arguably the largest and most impressive terrestrial predator in the fossil record…

https://t.co/XCLQ05z6Aa

Lemme just remind everyone poster/abstracts should be taken with a grain of salt. That’s not to say they’re wrong or won’t hold up, but there’s missing details, context, and revisions that can be expected with full release. So don’t jump to conclusions 🙃

Pint sized terror Model by @TylerKeillor

Not a single thought in that head. No brain cells detected

30 centimeter teeth housed in a 1.5 meter skull backed by 57,000 newtons of force on a body that weighed over 8 tons. That’s T.rex for you…

-museum in Denver. Not a team of professional or trained paleontologists. Just 3 kids that made the find of a lifetime. Countless ranchers, collectors, enthusiasts, and every day folks find these animals. There’s no hidden agenda or conspiracy. It can and does happen to anyone

So it’s going around that “only paleontologists find dinosaurs.” Of course that doesn’t count the countless other fossils and it wasn’t in good faith but here’s just one of many examples of amateurs making a find. Teen Rex was found by 3 kids before being turned over to the-

The unholy trinity Skeletal by @DanPalaeon1

The Outer Banks are a barrier island chain off the coast of North Carolina. The islands formed a few thousand years ago in the wake of the last ice age. They have a distinct environment and host several species of plants and animals, including the famous Banker horses…

Today sea turtles are the largest truly marine reptiles alive. But during the Mesozoic, that was not the case…