Scientists find growing quickly may have helped dinosaurs reign supreme

By Imogen Howse via SWNS

The earliest dinosaurs grew up fast – something which may have been the key to their prolonged success over other reptiles.

Researchers from Minnesota have discovered that rapid growth rates were common among early dinosaurs, making them more similar to modern-day mammals and birds than modern-day reptiles.

This likely set them apart from other animals in the Mesozoic Era, the team argues, which may be the reason the species reigned supreme for so long.

However, a new study, published in the journal PLOS, also found that dinosaurs weren’t the only animals that grew up rapidly.

Several non-dinosaur reptiles from 252 to 66 million years ago exhibited particularly fast growth too – suggesting that other factors were at play when it came to dinosaurs’ global prosperity.

The team studied bone tissue growth in fossils from the Ischigualasto Formation of Argentina, which date between 231 and 229 million years old.

Their analysis revealed that dinosaurs evolved with elevated growth rates – but so did animals from other lineages.

Lead author Kristina Curry Rogers, a professor at Macalester College, says the findings demonstrate that dinosaurs were fast growers, supporting the idea that this feature was crucial to their later success.

However, she adds that the fact that dinosaurs were not alone in this feature means that other factors likely contributed to their lengthy reigning period.

“Our sample comes from a time in which dinosaurs were the new kids on the block, restricted to relatively small, basic body plans, and evolving within a world rich with a diverse array of more specialized, non-dinosaur reptiles,” Rogers explained.

“We tackled the question of how all these animals grew and found that the earliest dinosaurs grew quickly and that these rapid growth rates probably played a significant role in dinosaurs’ subsequent ascent within Mesozoic ecosystems.

“But dinosaurs weren’t unique – many of their non-dino sidekicks shared rapid growth 230 million years ago.

“This suggests that this feature is only part of the story of dinosaurs’ eventual global prosperity.”

Rogers said that future studies could expand on their preliminary results by sampling a wider variety of ancient animals from additional Mesozoic fossil sites.