On dinosaurs and power politics metaphors:

Some scientists have argued that dinosaurs came on with a bang during the period of Earth history called the Triassic, sweeping into power in what amounted to a geologic instant.

But the new fossils, found at Ghost Ranch near Abiquiu, upend that story. As dinosaurs were beginning their rise to power, other dinosaurlike creatures lived with them side-by-side for 15 million to 20 million years, the newfound fossils suggest.