[caption id="attachment_6803" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="A selection of flamboyant ornithischian dinosaurs. Why were so many dinosaurs so very flamboyant? So that they could tell each other apart, or because - like many living flamboyant animals - their evolution was dominated by sexual selection? Image by Darren Naish."] [/caption]Mesozoic dinosaurs of several lineages famously possessed horns, frills, bony bosses, crests, frills, blah blah blah - you've heard all this a million times before. Pterosaurs were flamboyant creatures too. Why did these animals possess these so-called exaggerated structures? Together with Dave Hone, I've just published my latest missive on this issue (Hone & Naish 2013). [More]














Source: Dinosaurs and their exaggerated structures : species recognition aids, or sexual display devices?