The structure of their skulls also resembles those of elephants, so it’s possible they also had long trunks.
This is an old theory that is no longer supported by most paleontologists AFAIK. Trunks require specific musculature, more blood vessels, and more nerves than a regular nose does, and those things leave evidence in the structure of the facial bones.
I’m no scientist and I’ve never seen one in real life, but I can promise you penguins do not have trunks iirc
Reminds me of an XKCD strip about spiders. A time traveler comes to the present to see a live spider since they only had remains to look at. They’re astounded that spiders can make webs.
This honestly reframed dinosaurs for me forever. Science is extremely conservative with its interpretation, but the reality is that we only know very basic details. Millions of years is a long time to develop some really strange physiology.
Big big Chungus!
Yeah, I just realized this is the wrong thread :P It’s okay, I moved it. Sorries
