Comments

1. #1 Coturnix

   July 20, 2008

   Therozinosaurus! My favourite!

2. #2 Turdus

   July 20, 2008

   Darn you! I saw the headline and got ready for an interesting read, scrolled down and…BAM a tease! Don’t keep us waiting.

3. #3 Gray Stanback

   July 20, 2008

   Sorry, Coturnix, but that’s not a Therizinosaurus. That’s Deinocheirus, the infamous “giant ornithomimid” from late Cretaceous Asia.

4. #4 Laelaps

   July 20, 2008

   That must be a really big tree…

5. #5 Christina

   July 20, 2008

   just thought id say nice blog! im hoping mine will eventually be quite biology based – although at the moment its rather random. only made it yesterday though!
   i did a whole essay on this! ^

6. #6 Neil

   July 20, 2008

   tree climbing Deinocheirus!?!?!? Laelaps is spot on…

7. #7 Zach Miller

   July 21, 2008

   Tree-climbing dinosaurs? That’s un-possible! Everyone knows that the only tree-climber was Hypsilophodon, and it climbed trees out of pure boredom.

8. #8 Jerzy

   July 21, 2008

   I guessed for years that many known dinosaurs were tree climbers.

   Its simple. Forest treetops are rich ecological niche for plant-eaters and predators. Treetops in mesosoic forests were one, too. Life evolves to occupy every empty niche. So, either big community of mesosoic tree-dwelling animals magically hid itself from fossil records. Or mesosoic tree-dwellers are before our eyes but paleontologists overlook it.

   For example, I interpret famous enlarged foot claw of dromaeosaurids and similar as tree-climbing aid for bipeds, all aggressive functions being secondary.

9. #9 Tengu

   July 21, 2008

   Thats great, Darren, when are you going to get it out of the tree when it gets stuck?

   (I once saw my father rescue a stuck cat…its not easy or particularly safe…and the blighters are never grateful to be rescued…)

10. #10 Smnt2000

    July 21, 2008

    Deinocherius is a gian basal ornithomimosaur, it isn’t?So why is climbing in that picture???And, if it is one of the greatest theropod that ever lived (9-13 m long), it’s too big for live on trees!!There are a lots of tree-living dinosaur, but they are very small, like Microraptor, Scansoriopteryx, Epidendrosaurus, Archaeopteryx (i know, it’s a bird, but birds are only flying dinosaurus)!!!

11. #11 christina

    July 21, 2008

    is the bone structure thats supposed to indicate they climbed trees? i can see how the wing claws of archaeopteryx would have enabled it to sort of climb/push itself up rocks/trees to get to a nest or something

12. #12 Graham King

    July 21, 2008

    Darren, since you’re covering tree-climbing dinosaurs, I hope you may find time to comment also on the liana-dangling theropod pair who met their demise in a gorge at the hands of Peter Jackson’s King Kong…