'Lack of deep sleep led to dinosaurs' demise'

[The Straight Story]

'Lack of deep sleep led to dinosaurs' demise'
RHIANNON EDWARD

DINOSAURS were most likely killed off because they never got a good night's sleep, scientists have claimed.

Giant meteorites from outer space, fire storms, tidal waves and an ice age have all been suggested by experts to explain the demise of T-Rex and other giant dinosaurs.

However, the latest theory to explain their extinction claims they did not survive because their reptilian sleeping patterns meant their brains did not learn new skills properly.

Unlike mammals and birds, reptiles are unable to experience slow wave sleep, the type of sleep believed to be responsible for boosting memories, especially those connected to performing new tasks.

As a result, reptiles are much more limited in the type of complex behaviour they can experience than other animals such as mammals and birds.

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=447482006

[Sequoia]

1. No, it was because they didn't

accept Jesus as their personal savior.

[DBoon]

5. no the great flood killed them

nt

[rexcat]

16. Noah couldn't fit them in the damn ark!

[Nihil]

22. Stop Press!

Noah now believed to have invented the liquidizer!

:evilgrin:

[benburch]

2. BULLSHIT.

Dinosaurs were NOT Reptiles.

They had feathers.

Birds are their living relatives.

[Odin2005]

6. Most still had reptillian brains though.

The smartest dinosaurs (raptors and troodontids) was about as smart as the smallest-brained birds, like ratities and Galliform birds such as chickens and turkeys. They had a high metabolism but it isn't a high metabolism that makes you smart. ;-)

[benburch]

12. Yes, but they probably did sleep!

And we really no have no behavioral evidence that they were either smart or stupid.

[frogmarch]

17. Many, if not most,

modern biologists recognize Dinosauria as a clade within Reptilia, and Aves as a clade within Dinosauria within Reptilia. Modern taxonomy leans toward the elimination of the old group classification system based on ranks like Class, Order, etc.

[MrMonk]

23. OK.

Time to buy a new biology survey.

[Teaser]

3. but since dinosaurs are birdlike

what is to say that they didn't experience slow wave sleep?

Since it is a common trait in birds and mammals, it is possible that some common ancestor to birds and mammals might have also possessed the trait. Perhaps this ancestor predated the dinos and also passed the trait to them.

[tanyev]

4. I'm sensing an Ambien commercial in the making.

[Chulanowa]

7. Uh, but...

Why did it take them 125 million years to die of insomnia? I dunno, I would classify them as being pretty damned successful...

[Ian David]

9. They were out-competed

Cro Magnons were were 3% more successful in surviving to reproductive age than Neanderthals were.

Cro Magnons became our ancestors. Neanderthals went extinct.

It wasn't that Neanderthals were defective-- they were out-competed. CroMag was fitter.

[LiberalEsto]

8. They're still alive

We call them Republicans.

[zonmoy]

13. I think you would have to go a lot farther down the evolutionary chain

to find republicans.

[mcscajun]

10. According to Eddie Izzard....

...it's 'cause Jesus first preached to the dinosaurs, and one bit his head off. :)

[Rocknrule]

11. I thought Clinton's penis killed them

[rman]

14. A complicated way of saying dinosaurs where not advanced

enough to adapt to changing circumstances. Which isn't exactly news.

As the article states, lack of the ability to develop complex behavior, lack of deep sleep and limited evolutionary development all are directly linked.

This does not exclude meteorite impact as the cause of changes to the environment to which dinosaurs could not adapt. Nor does it mean there is no evidence of large meteorite impacts.

[Ediacara]

15. Completely absurd

1) Dinosaurs are ancestors of birds, not "modern reptiles."
2) It's impossible for an entire clade to simultaneously lose the ability to sleep....

[northzax]

19. i don't think that (although I bow before your moniker)

they meant that they lost the ability to sleep, but that they didn't have REM sleep in the first place.

seems like iffy reasoning to me, but then what do I know, I'm just a poor, humble, circus performer.

[Johonny]

18. I could be true

and still not explain why Dinosaurs went extinct. The ancestors of lizards, crocs, frogs... all survived the meteor. What is clear is Dinosaurs clearly survived through a long range of time. That time shows changes in environment. Thus it seems an unlikely explaination for extinction.

[NickB79]

20. How many natural disasters did the dinosaurs survive?

The rise of the dinosaurs was directly linked to a mass extintion that took place in the Triassic period, allowing dinosaurs to expand into now-vacant niches previously held by mammal-like reptiles.

They then went on to survive for over 100 million years as the dominant lifeforms on the planet. In this time there were numerous natural disasters, yet dinosaurs survived and flourished. Why did it take so long for their purported inability to adapt to finally kill them off?

[depakid]

21. 200 million years is a long time

to survive on poor sleep....