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A vast majority of the world has heard of dinosaurs. Most would tell you that they were scary creatures that went around terrorizing the rest of the globe. How did they become so fierce and well known? Chiefly, how did dinosaurs become the rule of the world? There are two prevailing hypotheses: the court jester hypothesis and the red queen hypothesis. The court jester hypothesis bases that dinosaur evolution was shaped by biotic factors where as the red queen hypothesis states dinosaur evolution was because of biotic factors.
The court jester hypothesis is correct because the expansion of dinosauria in two steps, climate and plate tectonics are abiotic factors that drastically effected dinosaur evolution.
The court jester hypothesis says that environmental changes shaped dinosaur evolution, which allowed them to take advantage of extinctions in other groups and grow themselves.Dinosaurs expanded in two separate steps, both after extinctions. The first one came in 225 Ma after the extinction of dominant herbivores took place allowing herbivorous dinosaurs to rise.
The second came for carnivorous dinosaurs where the extinctions of other carnivores occurred in 200 Ma and the second expansions of dinosaurs occurred (Benton).
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Plate tectonics are another abiotic factor that shaped dinosaur evolution. On the other hand, the red queen hypothesis is behind that competition with other organisms shaped evolution-meaning dinosaurs out competed other organisms. In other words, biotic factors influenced the evolution of dinosaurs. The major argument for this is bipedalism. Bipedalism is a form of locomotion that allows land organisms walk and move about on their two back limbs.
The earliest forms of known dinosaurs were bipedal.
They could accomplish this with the right adaptations. To be able to walk on two legs the plane of the legs must be parallel to the vertical plane of the torso and the head of the thighbone ninety degrees to the shaft. The head of the femur is barrel-shaped restricting motion to forward and backward movement. As well, the metatarsal ankle joint allows movement of the foot forward and backward as well. All of these factors allows for efficient and reliable cursorial locomotion in dinosaurs. Bipedalism supports the red queen hypothesis because being able to run on two limbs is a much faster method than moving on four limbs. Having this adaptation would put you a step above your competition for food. Speed allows you to outrun other competitors and get to prey quicker. Not only that but using the back hind limbs solely for running allows the two front limbs to be free to preform other functions such as further facilitation in grabbing and holding prey.
Bipedal dinosaurs have a huge competitive advantage over other organisms of that time allowing them to survive and pass on these successful genes and adaptations. Although dinosaurs did have this adaptation, archosaurs were bipedal organisms as well. Dinosaurs would not have been outcompeting these organisms since they had they same adaptions as well. Competition would have been rather even and bipedal adaptation would not have given them the upper hand to evolve and survive more readily. They would have had to evolve with them around too making competition not the source shaping dinosaur evolution. It would have had to been left up to other factors such as the two extinctions. Biotic factors do effect the local-scale successes and failures such as diseases and r-selected life history but have little effect on the diversity of modern organisms as a whole (Benton).
Court Jester Hypothesis and Dinosaur Evolution Analysis. (2022, Dec 12). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/an-analysis-of-the-concept-of-the-court-jester-hypothesis-and-the-dinosaur-evolution-essay
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