![]() ![]() ![]() "They say dinosaurs went extinct, but only the non-avian dinosaurs went extinct. "Dinosaurs are still with us," Maidment said. Birds evolved from meat-eating dinosaurs, and thus in strict biological definition, everything that evolved from this common ancestor is a dinosaur, sharing the same anatomical characteristics, she said. But we wouldn't describe a dolphin as an ichthyosaur because they don't possess the anatomical characteristics that allow them to be ichthyosaurs." īesides, dinosaurs never quite died out in the first place, Maidment said. "Today we see the dolphin, and they probably occupy a similar ecological niche. "We can see an animal that is closely related occupying a similar ecological niche - for example, ichthyosaurs were marine reptiles with long pointy snouts and dolphin-like body shapes and tails," she told Live Science. However, while evolution might not be directional in any particular sense, something we do know is that we don't see the same animal evolving again, Maidment countered. This, in turn, could create the right conditions for evolution to take a path toward reinventing the ancient reptiles. ![]() "Clearly, one could imagine viral pandemics that might disrupt our genomes, our physiology and behavior beyond our control," he told Live Science. Of course, Nasir pointed out, the right conditions would have to exist for dinosaurs to reappear. I would argue that going back to dinosaurs is more likely to happen in reverse, because the building blocks are already there." "Evolution is largely stochastic, and evolution doesn't necessarily have to go in a forward direction it could have multiple directions. In his opinion, evolution isn't fixed or planned. Jamal Nasir, a geneticist at the University of Northampton in the United Kingdom, said he wouldn't rule out the idea of dinosaurs evolving back from the dead. ![]()
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