Shape of Mesozoic dinosaur richness

Authors

David E. Fastovsky, University of Rhode Island
Yifan Huang, The Ohio State University
Jason Hsu, The Ohio State University
Jamie Martin-McNaughton, University of Rhode Island
Peter M. Sheehan, Milwaukee Public Museum
David B. Weishampel, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Document Type

Article

Date of Original Version

10-1-2004

Abstract

The richness of Mesozoic Dinosauria is examined through the use of a new global database. Mesozoic dinosaurs show a steadily increasing rate of diversification, in part attributable to the development of new innovations driving an increasing variety of behavioral strategies. The data do not suggest that dinosaurs were decreasing in richness leading to extinction during the last ∼10 m.y. of the Cretaceous. Refinement of the dating of dinosaur fossils, rather than the collection of more dinosaurs, is the best way to resolve globally the rate of the Cretaceous-Tertiary dinosaur extinction. © 2004 Geological Society of America.

Publication Title, e.g., Journal

Geology

Volume

32

Issue

10

Citation/Publisher Attribution

Fastovsky, David E., Yifan Huang, Jason Hsu, Jamie Martin-McNaughton, Peter M. Sheehan, and David B. Weishampel. "Shape of Mesozoic dinosaur richness." Geology 32, 10 (2004). doi: 10.1130/G20695.1.