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But this opens so many possibilities. For starters it means therizinosaurs probably returned to what would today be North America at the end of the Cretaceous. The track was found in Denali National Park, where the tracks of Albertosaurus, hadrosaurs and troodonts have been found as well. I wonder if any of these North American therizinosaurs made it to the south. Who knows! Maybe we'll find a Therizinosaur in Hell Creek one day!
PS- If this creature was living in Alaska, it probably had a thick feather/dino-fuzz coat. Interesting if we consider Beipiaosaurus from the early Cretaceous was also seemingly well adapted to cold climate. :>
Balance is definitely a sense. The whole '5 senses' idea has never really been held up in scientific circles, despite being one of those things people 'know'.
Side note: THIS is the best image they could come up with for therizinosaurs :rolleyes:
some snakes can track body heat and the tuatara has that third eye
It's amazing how often we've designed new sensors and then found that they pre existed in nature - the fixed focus of trilobites eyes and the fractal antenna of moths
Elephants can hear lower frequencies than we can. We can't hear mice sing because it's too high pitched.
So perhaps the sauropods would use very low frequency since they have chests big enough.
Actually, the inner ear of Tyrannosaurus rex seems adapted to perceive infrasounds like those produced by elephants, which may suggest that:
a) T. rex could produce and communicate with infrasounds
b) T. rex's prey- such as large hadrosaurs or ceratopsians- could produce and communicate with infrasounds, and T. rex found it very convenient as it could detect them from great distances
or c) both of the above.
I've read that T-Rex had a similar adipose tissue thing on its feet that allowed it to walk silently despite its great size- again, just like elephants. I am not sure how exactly this elephant sense works but, they are known to perceive the infrasounds produced by other elephants- and earthquakes- via their feet, so maybe T. rex could do the same?
And truth is, many large animals use infrasounds, from giraffes and rhinos to tigers, crocodiles and cetaceans, and perhaps more interestingly, cassowaries (which have the deepest call of any bird and seemingly use their helmet/crest to either amplify or perceive infrasounds (Parasaurolophus, Cortyhosaurus and friends, anyone?).
Very interesting considering that these tracks are from about 69 million years ago, a time from which no therizinosaur fossils are known from North America. Now it is only a matter of time before they are found. Who knows! There's a chance T. rex itself may have coexisted with something similar to Therizinosaurus at the very end of the Cretaceous (Therizinosaurus and Tarbosaurus (Tyrannosaurus bataar?) in the picture)
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Inside the head of Nothronychus:
Nothronychus was a therizinosaur, not unlike the later, Asian Therizinosaurus, but somewhat smaller. This study takes an in depth look at its skull, braincase, etc. Among other things, it would appear (unsurprisingly) that Nothronychus was capable of hearing (and most likely producing) infrasounds.