Archaeologists have recently found a fossil of a 150-million-year-old mam-mal known as Repenomomus robustus (R. robustus). Interestingly, the mammal's stomach contained the remains of a psittacosaur dinosaur. Some researchers have therefore suggested that R. robustus was an active hunter of dinosaurs. However, a closer analysis has made the hypothesis that R. robustus was an active hunter unlikely. It was probably Just a scavenger that sometimes fed on dinosaur eggs containing unhatched dinosaurs.
First, R. robustus, like most mammals living 150 million years ago, was small—only about the size of a domestic cat. It was much smaller than psittacosaurs, which were almost two meters tall when full grown. Given this size difference, it is unlikely that R. robustus would have been able to successfully hunt psittacosaurs or similar dinosaurs.
Second, the legs of R. robustus appear much more suited for scavenging than hunting: they were short and positioned somewhat to the side rather than directly underneath the animal. These features suggest that R. robustus did not chase after prey. Psittacosaurs—the type of dinosaur found in the stomach of R. robustus—were fast moving. It is unlikely that they would have been caught by such short-legged animals.
Third, the dinosaur bones inside the stomach of the R. robustus provide no evidence to support the idea that the dinosaur had been actively hunted. When an animal has been hunted and eaten by another animal, there are usually teeth marks on the bones of the animal that was eaten. But the bones of the psittaco-saur inside the R. robustus stomach do not have teeth marks. This suggests that R. robustus found an unguarded dinosaur nest with eggs and simply swallowed an egg with the small psittacosaur still inside the eggshell.
The professor in the lecture tried to introduce a different point of view than that of the reading passage about whether robustus was an active hunter or not. While the reading passage holds that robustus was only a scavenger, the lecture argues that it must have been an active hunter.
To begin with, the reading passage claims that robustus was too small to be an active hunter. However, the lecture states that robustus was twice the mass the dinosaur fossil we found inside its stomach and this exactly matches the predator prey size ratio we see today. Of course, it was not possible that robustus hunted and fed on full-grown dinosaurs which was far bigger than its size but it's quite possible that it could have hunted baby dinosaurs where the difference in size, robustus being bigger, gave it a leg up over the baby dinosaurs.
In addition, the reading passage holds the opinion that the robustus was not fast enough because it had short legs and they were positioned somewhat to the side rather than underneath the animal. this would not allow the robustus to chase and hunt a fast-moving dinosaur like the Psittacosaurs. In contrast, the lecture illustrates that this could not be true especially if we consider the modern-day animals like the Tasmanian Devil which even though it has almost the same leg design, it can reach speeds of fifteen kilometers per hour which apparently would have been enough for robustus to be an active hunter during the dinosaurs age.
Furthermore, the lecture refutes the claim from the reading passage that the absence of teeth marks on the fossil recovered from inside robustus' stomach proves that it was just an egg scavenger not an active hunter. Mentioned in the lecture, the way robustus consumed meat was a little bit different because it used to swallow its prey in whole or in big pieces without chewing and the evidence for this is the absence of wear on its back teeth from different specimen. As a result, teeth marks are not expected to be on the bones of its preys.
In conclusion, the lecture challenges all the three arguments mentioned in the reading passage adding doubt to the writer's conclusions that the robustus was only an egg scavenger.
- Sea otters are a small mammal that lives in the waters along North America's west coast from California to Alaska. A few years ago some of the sea otter populations off of the Alaskan coast started to decline rapidly and raised several concerns beca 73
- In many organizations, perhaps the best way to approach certain new projects is to assemble a group of people into a team.Having a team of people attack a project offers several advantages. First of all, a group of people has a wider range of knowledge, e 80
- Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? People are never satisfied with what they have; they always want something more or something different. Use specific reasons to support your answer. 76
- Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? People should read only those books that are about real events, real people and established facts. Use specific reasons and details to support your opinion. 83
- Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?One of the best ways that parents can help their teenage children prepare for adult life is to encourage them to take a part-time job.Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer. 76
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 550, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...ve it a leg up over the baby dinosaurs. In addition, the reading passage holds t...
^^^^^
Line 5, column 197, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: This
...side rather than underneath the animal. this would not allow the robustus to chase a...
^^^^
Line 7, column 280, Rule ID: LITTLE_BIT[1]
Message: Reduce redundancy by using 'little' or 'bit'.
Suggestion: little; bit
...e, the way robustus consumed meat was a little bit different because it used to swallow it...
^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
apparently, but, furthermore, however, if, so, while, as to, in addition, in conclusion, in contrast, of course, as a result, to begin with
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 20.0 10.4613686534 191% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 6.0 5.04856512141 119% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 7.30242825607 110% => OK
Relative clauses : 16.0 12.0772626932 132% => OK
Pronoun: 35.0 22.412803532 156% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 43.0 30.3222958057 142% => OK
Nominalization: 5.0 5.01324503311 100% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1840.0 1373.03311258 134% => OK
No of words: 379.0 270.72406181 140% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.85488126649 5.08290768461 96% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.41224685777 4.04702891845 109% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.44784074468 2.5805825403 95% => OK
Unique words: 184.0 145.348785872 127% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.485488126649 0.540411800872 90% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 572.4 419.366225166 136% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 3.25607064018 92% => OK
Article: 9.0 8.23620309051 109% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 1.25165562914 160% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 5.0 2.5761589404 194% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 12.0 13.0662251656 92% => OK
Sentence length: 31.0 21.2450331126 146% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 77.3805082405 49.2860985944 157% => OK
Chars per sentence: 153.333333333 110.228320801 139% => OK
Words per sentence: 31.5833333333 21.698381199 146% => OK
Discourse Markers: 11.5833333333 7.06452816374 164% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 4.19205298013 72% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 4.33554083885 92% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 4.45695364238 67% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.27373068433 117% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.143501390625 0.272083759551 53% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0639229604804 0.0996497079465 64% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0336906922611 0.0662205650399 51% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0867094106298 0.162205337803 53% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0368055662941 0.0443174109184 83% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 17.2 13.3589403974 129% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 48.47 53.8541721854 90% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 14.2 11.0289183223 129% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.44 12.2367328918 93% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.09 8.42419426049 96% => OK
difficult_words: 70.0 63.6247240618 110% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 9.0 10.7273730684 84% => OK
gunning_fog: 14.4 10.498013245 137% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.2008830022 80% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Write the essay in 20 minutes.
Rates: 73.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 22.0 Out of 30
---------------------
Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.