No, we do not descend from quadrupedal savannah apes. There has never been a quadrupedal savannah ape (I suppose the baboons were simply there first). We descend from upright (brachiating and walking) woodland apes. Aaronovitch makes the story sing, building momentum until the ending is literally breathless.”—SF Revu

As a side issue: feathers are fine, but there's a argument that they could have lost them, at least in part, like we did with a lot of hair. The most entertaining book that I have read in such a long time…. It’s very funny, it’s very clever, it’s very nicely written…. It’s such a treat.”—Nancy Pearl What would be the hallmarks of our civilisation in the future? Decrease in species worldwide over thousands of years. Large number of farmed herbavore bones found. Weird carbon spheres and metals found in the environment. General climate change killing off species, poisoning the sea, causing mass species loss. DOES THIS SOUND FAMILIAR?The book's title refers to the idea, loosely 'explained' in the very last chapter, that anthroposaurs lay sleeping, though whether this is meant literally (that they are hiding under the ground) or figuratively (that they are somehow within our psyche) is never made clear. It might be both, as he writes of Typhon, Echidna, Tiamat and the serpent from the Garden of Eden as if they and other mythological semi-reptiles might be racial memories of smart dinosaurs, and of course there's the fact (I use the term loosely) that H. P. Lovecraft had a telepathic connection with anthroposaurs, and that this explains his references to the Old Ones, the fallen city of R'lyeh, his loathing of immigrants, desertion of his attractive wife, and poekilothermic physiology. Err, yup.

I have often wondered if there is any correlation between play behaviour and self awareness or sentience. Mammals and birds generally seem to show play behaviour at least at some stages in their lives - with the apparently more intelligent forms showing more developed play behaviour. Outside of mammals and birds, the most convincing evidence I know of is for play behaviour in some Lamniform sharks, though other potential instances exist for a few reptiles, some large teleosts and cephalopods. Except for the sharks I dont find the others particularly convincing. Any thoughts on play behaviour as an indicator of sentience, and highly developed play behaviour as an indicator of significant intelligence? Only now is the child finally divested of all that he has been. His origins are become remote as is his destiny and not again in all the world's turning will there be terrains so wild and barbarous to try whether the stuff of creation may be shaped to man's will or whether his own heart is not another kind of clay.Yes, apes can walk upright, somewhat, for a short space of time. Versus our walking the entire world, our ideal method of travel--while holding tools--previously unknown in the world! (Or not!!!--wink, wink--). This fact also proves my point--apes are frankly pretty useless at doing any of the things that are signatures of the evolution from them to us. You must have been sleeping for the last twenty years. The K-Pg* boundary mass extinction event is the best-explained mass extinction event of them all. It's understood in remarkable detail.

You can opt out of our newsletter at any time and we will delete the information you have given us. An opt out link is included on all our newsletters. Expanding (sorry!) on this linear mass ratio (body::brain) common among avian and non-Homo hominid species... I'm not adverse to radically different solutions. But Troodons becoming just like ground birds sure isn't one of them! Blood, he said. This country is give much blood. This Mexico. This is a thirsty country. The blood of a thousand Christs. Nothing. Lovecraft and Howard, despite being very different writers in terms of style, did actually collaborate quite a lot, along with several other members of a circle they were the most famous of, and intended their works to be part of a single "continuity", IIRC. They were also both notorious racists, sadly, but, well, pulp fiction has always overlapped heavily with actually-believed-in pseudoscience...Theropods, with their air sacs and hollow bones, are rather light. An dinosauroid about a high as an average man would have a weight of maybe 20 or 30 kg. How many homeothermic animals in this weight class exist that are naked or scaly? Well, maybe armadillos, but they have a rather slow metabolism, so calling them fully homeothermic requires a stretch of imagination. The judge smiled. It is not necessary, he said, that the principals here be in possession of the facts concerning their case, for their acts will ultimately accommodate history with or without their understanding. But it is consistent with notions of right principle that these facts—to the extent that they can be readily made to do so—should find a repository in the witness of some third party. Sergeant Aguilar is just such a party and any slight to his office is but a secondary consideration when compared to divergences in that larger protocol enacted by the formal agenda of an absolute destiny. Words are things. The words he is in possession of he cannot be deprived of. Their authority transcends his ignorance of their meaning. Thanks to Steve Bodio, Jeff Hecht and Jeff Liston for instigating it all. And to see what's happening with Russell's dinosauroid these days, visit Michael Ryan's article here. London is a magical place, especially for Peter Grant, Detective Constable and apprentice wizard. Peter is a member of an elite unit of the London Metropolitan Police, known as the Folly, which is tasked with investigating magical crimes and protecting the city from all sorts of magical threats. The person at the top of the Folly’s most wanted list is Martin Chorley, also known as the Faceless Man, a magical criminal mastermind who is determined to do whatever it takes to gain power. However, despite the Met and the Folly’s considerable resources, Chorley is always able to stay one step ahead of those chasing him. So what with the feathers? If you are suggesting all feathered dinosaurs have hollow bones and air sacs like modern birds, I think you need to take some time out.

The good book does indeed count war an evil, said Irving. Yet there's many a bloody tale of war inside it. If you treated our ancestor like you do Troodon, you'd say we'd still be some Chimp-Orangutan-Gibbon like thing. An small, defenceless theropod that tried to waddle upright in a terrestrial environment would not last long. But, on the topic of evolved prehistorics, lest we forget the Mahars, Edgar Rice Burroughs' super-intelligent pterosaurs that spoke telepathically, ate humans, watched gladiatorial theatre, and eliminated the need for male members of their species through artificial insemination. [Also of note, the Weiroo from his book "Out of Time's Abyss" which were bat-like people who appeared to somehow be the next step in human evolution. Don't know how that one worked, but it was cool when you're 12.] others seem from their comments to have anti-religious ideas (though this seems to be more that it doesn't fit with their idea of how theology should be, rather than it actually being a problem for any religious belief).All of them cheat: they already have very short tails, and they hold their very, very, very short thighs horizontal when the body is vertical.