Living Dinosaurs

They're lazy even by reptile standards. Watch them for any length of time and you understand why they live so long. Sit, blink every once in a while, fall asleep, wake up, blink a couple times, fall asleep again.

>>2368980
Sounds perfect. Where do I get one as a pet?

>Dinosaur
>Lepidosaur
REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

>>2368990
They are endangered species here in NZ
You can't get them as pets

>>2369059
From what that other anon said about them,it's no wonder why they're endangered.

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>>2369059
It always seemed weird to me why they don't just a give a few pairs of those to breeders.

In a few years they would have thousands of those lizards with all kinds of autistic morphs.

Instead they'll remain in nature where they can get fucked over by all kinds of things.

>>2369108

I get you. There's times where I wonder about zoos and why they will have little success or marginal success in breeding reptiles or even other animals when some retard with too much time on his hands can easily end up mass producing an entire species.

San Diego needs to let an autists take those Fiji iguanas

>>2368995

Ok, so they aren't really dinosaurs. But they existed when dinosaurs did and they never evolved any differently. The only other species older are fish, sea creatures and single cell organisms.

>>2369108
you retard what do you think they've been doing all this time. they have tons of captive breeding facilities that have professional breeders and researchers working to breed them and get their populations up. they just haven't figured out how to reliably stimulate them into breeding in captivity. not to mention they live over a hundred years, eggs take over a year to hatch, and they 10-20 years to even reach sexual maturity Also, the females only mate once every 4 years.
>>2369129
>when some retard with too much time on his hands can easily end up mass producing an entire species.
because those species work differently. the ones that get mass produced are ones that just breed really easy and would have been able to be mass produced by zoos too

>>2369489
I think you're underestimating just how autistic private hobbyist breeders can be.

Hell some of them can do an even better job than most Zoos.

>>2369520
It's not for lack of trying. Trachyrhynchus geckos, one of the most rare New Caledonian species, would be just as popular as leachianus geckos if they were easier to breed in captivity. Getting them to breed is not a problem but the output is slow. They have to be 3-4 years old to start, they're live bearing, and can only produce a maximum of two babies a year. Since the species is rare to begin with, there are few breeding pairs in captivity.

This is contrary to, say, crested geckos who breed readily and produce many eggs per year.

>>2369560

are they 100 million years old??

>>2369520
yeah because autism someone makes them grow faster?
> try to breed tuataras
>if they mate, incubate the eggs for a year and see if they hatch
>wait 20 fucking years to be able to breed the offspring
it doesn't matter how autistic you are. you cannot mass produce something that grows this slow. especially with a private breeder because these animals will outlive them.

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>>2368957
The fact they have a literal third eye with a tiny lens and everything is the coolest thing about them for me.

Dinosaurs were birds not reptiles
You fell for the spielberg meme

>>2369489
>10-20 years to reach sexual maturity
>rarely mate after that
What's the fucking point then? I doubt they have much of a function in their ecological niche if their breeding cycle is that inefficient. It's almost as retarded as trying to save the fucking pandas.
Conservationists need to get a new hobby or, better yet, focus on animals who could cause actual devastation to the balance of their ecosystem if they were made extinct.

>>2369564
>20 years for sexual maturity, what are they humans?

>>2369590
>What's the fucking point then? I doubt they have much of a function in their ecological niche if their breeding cycle is that inefficient.
anon you ought to realize a slow breeding cycle doesn't equal ecological unimportance. Many large mammals reproduce slowly but are still a large influence on their communities.

>>2369437
No they didn't. Sphenodon appeared in the Pleistocene, or probably late Pliocene.

>>2369590
>It's almost as retarded as trying to save the fucking pandas.
We've done a pretty good job of that. They aren't considered endangered anymore.

>>2369590
>ignorant about ecology
>brings up pandas as if it's bad
Everytime.
In the process of saving pandas many other creatures that share the same environment are benefited.

Is this panda hate thing that common in popular meme websites?
Some friends talk to me about how panda are useless and show me 9gag memes that match their opinion.

>>2369572
All birds are reptiles but not all reptiles are birds.

>>2369800
The pop-ecology op-eds shat across so called "scientific" news sites are to blame for this. Retards can't come up with insights of their own, they have to rely on a "higher source" to regurgitate all their "correct" opinions to them like parrots. They then spam you with their supposed "objective conclusions" about life.

>>2369800
>lol dude pandas are like lazy and stuff.
that's basically it.
>hey man why don't we just remove an entire species I'm sure they aren't that important
I hate how much I see this even on an animal and nature board

>>2369593
They live longer than we do.

>>2369828
Nobody on this board cares about animals or nature, they're all just petfags or zoophiles/furries with the occasional /k/ expat popping in. Nobody volunteers, nobody tries to conserve, everyone spews nihilism and edgy conspiratard theories to justify being living human trash. Anything that assigns blame to a group of people that isn't anon is shilled at you repeatedly.

>>2369867
I'm pretty disappointed. I thought this board might be better.

>>2369902
It's not as bad as he is saying.

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>>2368957
>Bearded vulture

>>2369567
don't some of the Caribbean rock iguanas have third eyes too?

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Ancient reptiles are not dinosaurs.

Dinosauria are essentially a clade that descended from a specific branch of archosaurs. To be clear, all dinosaurs are technically archosaurs, but archosaurs (crocodilians and pterosaur) are dinosaurs.


All true dinosaurs are dead, except for a general branch that turned into the order we now call birds. Birds survived, thrived, and diversified all across the globe and now out number mammals 2 to 1.

>>2370050
I MADE A TYPO
>To be clear, all dinosaurs are technically archosaurs, but archosaurs (crocodilians and pterosaur) are NOT dinosaurs.

>>2369590
Pandas are thriving in the wild you moron
They breed like crazy in their natural habitat
They hate breeding in captivity
Stop believing facebook and 9gag memes

>>2369800
Normalfags believe bullshit """""facts""""" from I FUCKING LOVE SCIENCE XDDDDD and 9GAGGG XDDD because they're borderline functionally retarded
Those stupid meme pages spread the lie that pandas don't breed, which logically makes no sense because Pandas thrived before human existence
Normalfags can't think logically so they believe the blatant lies about pandas

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>>2368957
Looks exactly like how paleontologists originally view dinosaurs (especially iguanodon) in the 1800s. It's the main reason why they get their family name 'dino-saurs', which is Latin for 'terrible-lizards'

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>>2370124

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>>2370126

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>>2370127
Predator being the original but very inaccurate depiction of megalosaurus

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>>2370129
http://www.eura.co.uk/parks-gardens-fountains/parks-historic-sites/crystal-palace-park/

It birds aren't Dinosaur-looking enough for you, then crocodilians are the closest you can get to living dinos, they're at least archosaurs and are mostly unchanged since the crown group first emerged in the cretaceous period and diverged into the three living clades.

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>>2369489
>Also, the females only mate once every 4 years.
like my wife

>>2369572
dinosaurs were dinosaurs, not birds.

>>2370124
I love this. Maybe in 50 odd years we'll once again completely change our understanding of dinosaurs.

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Behold the closest we have to a dinosaur

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dcQO6Zb8Eg

>>2370325
Every bird is the closest to a dinosaur since birds are dinosaurs so they're the closest to themselves.

>>2370347
I know but put a tail on a Cassowary and it basically is a living prehistoric dinosaur

>>2369567
it's not an actual eye

>>2370124
because those old designs were actually inspired by tuataras and crocodiles and iguanas and komodo dragons

>>2369567
It's called the parietal eye and it's not exclusive to the Tuatara.

Speaking of Tuatara, these guys are pretty much like the Monotremes are to mammals.
- shit for fossil records
- really few other branches in their evolutionary line
- shit worldwide distribution
It's yet another case of "why do these guys even exist anymore"

>>2370386
it has a retina and a lens and it's photoreceptive so it's still an eye just a different kind of eye

>>2369593
pfft, humans can start reproducing at ~13 if we're desperate.

>>2370505
it doesn't have a lens lol. it's just a bunch of light sensitive cells in a hole

>>2369800
Which species specifically benefit from the existence of pandas? They aren't predators that keep other animal species in check, nor are they frugivores that fertilize and redistribute seeds. All they do is eat bamboo, one of the hardiest plants on the planet, which most definitely doesn't need their help.

I stopped giving a shit about them when I saw them in person. They're really just uninteresting animals, that evolved a diet with a central principle of "fuck it, at least this can't run away." That said, if they really are beneficial to their ecosystem, i wouldn't mind knowing how.

>>2370549
>Which species specifically benefit from the existence of pandas?
Watch this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEMtc1w4z6c

>>2370551
That was more or less a direct confirmation of my thoughts on pandas. They're just conservation posterchildren because they're cute. They don't really contribute anything to their ecosystem, nor does their popularity really help other endangered species.

>>2370551
>being retarded enough to shill a jewtube cartoon
>>2370556
>being retarded enough to confirmation bias on a jewtube cartoon

this board is an abomination of stupidity and all of you should be on /b/.

>>2370564
Nice argument, turbo choad

>>2370564
I love you too anon

>>2370530
it literally has a lens, dummy. look it up

>>2370551
well other animals deserve more focus than pandas of course, but you're retarded if you think any native species going exticnt won't have negative indirect affects on the entire ecosystem

>>2370652
the source for those texts comes from 2002 where it's actually an old quote from the early 20th century. truth is up there are no actual recorded pictures and examinations of tuatara hatchlings until much later than that.
if you reverse search that image of the tuatara hatchling it comes to an article where they actually finally examine not only the hatchlings but also embryos. the third "eye" is a much simpler structure than what was originally described. first of, it never invaginates, thus it's not an actual complete cavity like the regular eyes vertebrates have. second, the anatomical "lens" is actually the retina that condenses into a histologically similar body to a lens.
it really only works to detect light and is connected to the pineal gland which is responsible, we think, among other things, to the circadian rhythm. so it may partially just be a light detecting gland on a burrowing animal when it first emerges from the egg in case its underground and needs to find as much light as possible. quite honestly we don't know what it's for. but to call it a complete eye is a bit of a stretch. it's a much smaller redundant organ and we're still trying to figure out exactly why it's there.
http://bjo.bmj.com/content/89/3/256

>>2370549
>>2370556
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150916-why-we-really-should-save-pandas
http://www.livescience.com/52194-panda-protections-save-other-species.html

You could have googled this very easily, instead you chose to believe a fucking youtube video of opinions vomited around.

>>2370694
Also this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gansu#Flora_and_fauna

>>2370694
on that anon's defence I was the one who posted the video and that was my first post related to this topic.

Also what I was trying to reach by posting that video is that "cute" animals help gathering the funds to help other less "cute" creatures.