How can we know how good a dinosaurs sense of smell, vision, running speed etc is just from studying remains found in fossils? I have seen fact files on dinosaurs that goes into some pretty thorough detail and have always wondered how it is possible to speculate this when these creatures are 10s of millions of years old.
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We can evaluate their diet by examining the fossilized stomach contents and environment as well as things like shape of their teeth and bodies and what it would allow for. It’s almost like doing an autopsy. Granted, they’re not getting as much info as an autopsy would give them but they can still learn quite a bit from what they do have. If they’re found in groups they may guess that they were herd or pack animals or near their young can make assumptions about how long the young stayed with the adults.
There’s also quite a bit that’s just guesswork but it’s very educated guesses. What we actually know is updated over time as we learn more through more study. There are a **lot** of dinosaur fossils being studied
Inferences and comparisons to living animals.
Got lots of sharp pointy teeth? probably a predator. short flat teeth, probably an herbivore.
It’s their fossil so structures that are similar to animals receipt today or we assume that their structures perform a similar function of the things that we see today.
Personalities are just a guess. And educated guess, but still a guess.
We’re getting better with appearance because we keep finding better preserved specimens.
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