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Why Dinosaurs Were Not Mammals and Vice Versa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2017

Nicholas Hotton III
Nicholas Hotton III*
Affiliation:
Department of Paleobiology, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. 20560
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Extract

Everybody knows what dinosaurs are- or were. They were land animals which appeared first in the late Triassic, about 210 million years ago, and became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous, about 65 million years ago. They were extremely successful, being the most conspicuous and diverse terrestrial vertebrates for about 145 million years. The most impressive feature of dinosaurs is their large size, and though much is made of adult dinosaurs no bigger than a chicken, the fact remains that the smallest of these were larger than more than 70% of living mammals (Hotton, 1980).

Type
Thinking About Dinosaurs: Past, Present, and Future
Information
The Paleontological Society Special Publications , Volume 7: Dino Fest , 1994 , pp. 39 - 60
Copyright
Copyright © 1994 Paleontological Society 

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