But why did they lose the evolutionary race to the dinosaurs (except for the obvious superiority of diapsids over synapsids)?
So giant synapsids still existed in the Triassic.
But why did they lose the evolutionary race to the dinosaurs (except for the obvious superiority of diapsids over synapsids)?
Dinosaurs were just better designed for a shitty world. More generalized diet, superior lungs, and quicker reproduction
I hate how the birds were the dinosaurs that managed to survive. They're way too specialized due to evolving flight. A more basal therapod would have been ideal.
Closest you could've gotten were sebechosuchians who were croc-relatives that basically filled the same niche as predatory theropods. They had a pretty good run, transitioning from the cretaceous to the cenozoic, and were fairly widespread but they ultimately fell into the classic hyper-carnivore traps and the last members died due to the andes forming.
Doesn't matter.
While the synapsids dominated the dipasids underwent a very specialized evolution that gave them certain advantages over the synapsids, but until a calamity hit they couldn't use their superior surviving skills.
Then the next big calamity happened, and the mammals which kept evolving new things in the same way the diapsids used to during the Permian, which gave them that edge during the Triassic and later, took over because they could adapt better.
The birds tried but ultimately failed, and now provide eggs, feathers and companionship to the chad synapsid.
My ancestor Dimetrodon is smiling at me from the afterlife, can the T-Rex say the same you chicken?!
Kek
> diapsids
Why are you ignoring parareptiles... or this guy, an eureptile that isn't a diapsid.
Rude of you
If mammals had air sacs and the efficient lungs of the diapsids, they would be the perfect lifeform.
And the nervous system. And the structure of the joints and limbs.
Whats so great about that
Made to be food for archosaurs.
the hell is that big mouth thing?
Some temnospondyl. Doesn't really matter. I'm more interested in what that smok is? Early theropod or bipedal "thecodont"? In any case, the tendency of archosaurs to be bipedal is striking.
This is just the answer to your question. Archosaurs tend to be bipedal, which not only gives them high mobility, but also allows them to become taller and unloads their forelimbs.
And as for the nervous system, they have about three times the density of neurons. Accordingly, with equal brain sizes, the archosaur will be smarter than a mammal.
>they have about three times the density of neurons
This is based solely off modern birds. This is almost certainly not the case with triassic dinosaurs. The reason birds have such dense neurons is to save weight for flight. You can see this in the difference between flighted and flightless birds. Also with bats have much denser neurons than other mammals.
The Triassic/Jurassic extinction.
Dinos were more efficient breathers.
this. Archosaurs just took big breathes and won over the competition.
Synapsid Floyd
Floyd already is a synapsid.