Dinos' dining habits matter?

A proposed move to reclassify certain carnivores and herbivores — hitherto regarded as being from the same family — into different species could find approval in certain quarters.

After all, culinary preferences are very much a part of what makes all creatures — including humans — what we are. So, there is no reason to believe that was not the case in prehistoric times too, when the long-toothed, long-clawed, two-legged, decidedly non-veg Tyrannosaurus Rex roamed the planet along with the long-necked, long-tailed, four-legged vegetarian Brontosaurus.

So, 250 million years after their advent and a few million less after their exeunt, it may finally be time to consider the proposal made last week by some paleontologists to overhaul the 130-year-old manmade dinosaur family tree to separate meat-eaters from plant-eaters. The additional contention that the new categories — or clades — evolved from a common omnivorous ancestor, sounds familiar too.

The minutiae of the proposed reclassifications into Ornithocelida and the existing Saurischia — which would drop the "bird-hipped" and "reptile-hipped" distinctions and see theropods becoming first cousins of stegosaurs and ankylosaurs instead of sauropods — will only enthuse dino buffs.

But will it also add a new dimension to the old Animal Farm contention, "four legs good, two legs bad"?