Archaeologists have recently found a fossil of a 150-million-year-old mammal known as Repenornamus 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 psittacosaur 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 passage describes in detail as to why R. robustus, a 150 million-year-old mammal, could not be considered as an active mammal. However, the professor explains clearly with evidence that it is a hunter that had hunted baby dinosaurs or other animals of a similar size.
The reading talks about the mammal being smaller than psittacosaurs and hence could not have hunted it. In the lecture, the professor provides details that the mammal had hunted small dinosaurs and animals of the same size, since R. robustus is of a mass twice more than the mass dinosaur in stomach.
Furthermore, the length and position of legs suggest that R. robustus cannot be as fast moving as that of psittacosaurs. The professor illustrates that the mammal is an active and successful predator using the example of a modern mammal known as Tasmanian devil which can achieve speeds of 50km per hour.
Moreover, the passage suggests that there are no teeth marks on the bones of animals and hence could not have hunted the dinosaur found in the stomach of R. robustus. Nevertheless, in the lecture, it is stated that for grabbing and holding, it didn’t use back teeth for chewing and swallowed the prey as a whole or in big pieces. Therefore, no tooth mark was found.
To put in a nutshell, one can see that theories are contrasted in the passage as well as in the lecture regarding the hunting, positioning of the legs and the teeth.
Transition Words or Phrases used:
furthermore, hence, however, moreover, nevertheless, regarding, so, therefore, well, as to, as well as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 10.0 10.4613686534 96% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 6.0 5.04856512141 119% => OK
Conjunction : 10.0 7.30242825607 137% => OK
Relative clauses : 10.0 12.0772626932 83% => OK
Pronoun: 13.0 22.412803532 58% => OK
Preposition: 26.0 30.3222958057 86% => OK
Nominalization: 2.0 5.01324503311 40% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1193.0 1373.03311258 87% => OK
No of words: 246.0 270.72406181 91% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.84959349593 5.08290768461 95% => OK
Fourth root words length: 3.96035189615 4.04702891845 98% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.73034288902 2.5805825403 106% => OK
Unique words: 134.0 145.348785872 92% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.544715447154 0.540411800872 101% => OK
syllable_count: 358.2 419.366225166 85% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 2.0 3.25607064018 61% => OK
Article: 8.0 8.23620309051 97% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 2.5761589404 155% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 13.0 13.0662251656 99% => OK
Sentence length: 18.0 21.2450331126 85% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 49.9514557245 49.2860985944 101% => OK
Chars per sentence: 91.7692307692 110.228320801 83% => OK
Words per sentence: 18.9230769231 21.698381199 87% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.84615384615 7.06452816374 111% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 4.33554083885 92% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 2.0 4.45695364238 45% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 7.0 4.27373068433 164% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.26817871687 0.272083759551 99% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0844449648915 0.0996497079465 85% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0865095731585 0.0662205650399 131% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.133095225283 0.162205337803 82% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0743429996348 0.0443174109184 168% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 10.9 13.3589403974 82% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 61.67 53.8541721854 115% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.1 11.0289183223 83% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 10.85 12.2367328918 89% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.44 8.42419426049 100% => OK
difficult_words: 61.0 63.6247240618 96% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 10.7273730684 75% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.2 10.498013245 88% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.2008830022 98% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 80.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 24.0 Out of 30
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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.