• Hillock@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    As another idiot, there is a difference between tusks and teeth. They are different, tusks don’t contain enamel for example and I think aliens could also determine this difference. It’s rare for teeth to stick out like in the reconstruction.

    They would also be able to determine that hippos can open their mouth extremely wide. Making it more likely for the long “fangs” to be at least partially covered and not exposed like the tusks of elephants.

    • lugal@sopuli.xyz
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      1 year ago

      Often, dinosaurs are depicted with mouths showing their tooth. This is debated and more and more scientists think they had closed mouths, like most animals today.

      Other than that, the proposition of fat is very hard to reconstruct. Reconstructing a hippo you would have other mammals in mind and reconstructing dinosaurs, scientists take reptiles but they could as well take birds so this is a big question.

      For context: I’m an idiot too