Mark Witton on Nostr: Food for thought on #FossilFriday: infographic summarising theropod growth rates ...

Food for thought on #FossilFriday: infographic summarising theropod growth rates based on D'Emic et al. 2023. Some theropods raced to giant sizes in just 20 years, but others plodded to max size over 40-50 years. Interesting implications for ageing #paleoart reconstructions.

Shown here:
Giganotosaurus: poss. slow or fast - variable growth rates are seen in allosauroids.
Spinosaurus: slow. Big spinos were probably decades and decades old.
Tyrannosaurus: super-fast grower, full size in 20-ish y.