The Washington Post: Study indicates that dinosaurs were warm, though maybe not warm-blooded
Scientists have figured out a way to take the temperature of dinosaurs, and it turns out that theirs was almost the same as ours.
Of course, you can’t just stick a thermometer under the tongue of a gigantic creature that’s been extinct for millions of years. So they did the next best thing. They studied dinosaur teeth, which can reflect body temperature.
They found the long-necked brachiosaurus had a temperature of about 100.8 degrees , and the smaller camarasaurus had a temperature of about 98.3 degrees. People average 98.6.
But their findings, reported online in the journal Science, won’t settle the debate over whether dinosaurs were warm-blooded or cold-blooded.
When dinosaurs were first discovered, the theory was that they were lumbering and cold-blooded, but in recent years the consensus has been moving more toward warm-blooded, which would have allowed them to be more active, like the velociraptors in the “Jurassic Park” movies.
“Our analysis really allows us rule out that they could have been cold, like crocodiles, for example,” lead researcher Robert A. Eagle of the California Institute of Technology said in a briefing.
But, he added, “this doesn’t necessarily mean these large dinosaurs had high metabolism like mammals and birds . . . they could have been ‘gigantotherms’ and stayed warm because they were so large.”
A giant body mass is very good at keeping the temperature constant, explained co-author Thomas Tuetken of the University of Bonn in Germany.
Their research was on sauropods, the largest of dinosaurs, and the researchers explained that animals that large can retain body heat even with a relatively low metabolism, simply because they are so big. Brachiosaurus weighed in at 40 tons and camarasaurus was a 15-ton creature. Both lived about 150 million years ago.
The finding “confirms that dinosaurs were not sluggish, cold-blooded animals,” commented Roger Seymour of the University of Adelaide in Australia, who was not part of the research team.
But, he added, “the debate about dinosaur metabolic rate will go on, no doubt, because it can never be measured directly, and paleoscientists will often seek evidence to support a particular view and ignore contrary evidence.”
Geoffrey F. Birchard of George Mason University agreed that the debate is likely to continue.
The new paper helps confirm what the temperatures of these dinosaurs were, but knowing what the temperature was in something so big doesn’t necessarily confirm that it was warm-blooded, said Birchard, who was not part of the research team.
The researchers were able to determine the creatures’ temperatures because body temperature affects the amount of different types of carbon and oxygen that collect in the tooth enamel.
Now that they’ve looked at the biggest ones, they plan to turn their attention to smaller dinosaurs.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
MSU researchers say small Asian dinosaur actually a juvenile tyrannosaur, not separate species
Montana State University: MSU researchers say small Asian dinosaur actually a juvenile tyrannosaur, not separate species
BOZEMAN -- New research from Montana State University's Museum of the Rockies is helping unravel the evolutionary history of the iconic tyrannosaurid dinosaurs, according to MSU scientists who reviewed past findings about a small dinosaur from Asia.
The small-bodied tyrannosaur named Raptorex kriegsteini - about 10 feet long -- was named in 2009 by University of Chicago professor Paul Sereno and colleagues, and was described as having originated during the Lower Cretaceous of China, around 130 million years ago. The Raptorex was important because it seemed to show that characteristic features of tyrannosaurids, such as the short two-fingered arms, were acquired some 50 million years before previously thought. As a result, Tyrannosaurus was relegated to being just a particularly large, brutish version of a much older body plan.
However, Museum of the Rockies researcher Denver Fowler and colleagues showed in a paper published June 29 in the journal PLoS One that key supporting evidence was misinterpreted by the original Raptorex authors, and that the old ideas might not have been so wrong after all.
"No one knows precisely where the Raptorex skeleton was dug up, because it was collected illegally and smuggled out of Asia" Fowler said. "The age and location stated had to be inferred from fossils found with the skeleton.
"Basically, the entire age assessment boils down to a single fish vertebra, which was misidentified as belonging to Lycoptera: a species from 130 million years ago. However, the morphology is actually very different," Fowler said.
The MSU scientists said other essential details of the original description were also misinterpreted.
"Raptorex was justified as a new small-bodied species because thin sections of the limb bones were supposed to show that it was a small-bodied adult or subadult," Fowler continued, "But we looked at the images published by Sereno et al., and the story just didn't fit."
The researchers found that the Raptorex specimen was a juvenile, and still growing rapidly when it died, Fowler said.
"All these clues pointed to the fact that 'Raptorex' was actually a juvenile of a large-bodied Late Cretaceous species rather than an adult from the Early Cretaceous. It looks almost identical to a juvenile Tarbosaurus bataar recently described from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia, suggesting that it is either also a Tarbosaurus bataar, or another closely related species," Fowler said.
He added that a more serious side to the research is that the type specimen was due to be repatriated to China, from which it was assumed to have been stolen, but actually it is more likely the specimen was illegally removed from neighboring Mongolia.
"One of my coauthors spoke to the original seller of the specimen and he told us it was sold as a juvenile Tarbosaurus from Mongolia," Fowler said. "I do not know where the idea came from that it was Chinese."
"This highlights the problems of dealing with stolen specimens that have none of the essential data," Fowler said.
The MSU research used new "Unified Frames of Reference" analytical methods devised by Jack Horner, Regents Professor of Paleontology at the Museum of the Rockies and co-author on the paper. Fowler said this holistic approach is facilitating great leaps in paleontologists' ability to classify dinosaurs, and reveal evolution patterns.
"We're really only beginning to understand the severe changes that dinosaurs went through as they grew up, and this means that many skeletons of young or especially old animals are being described as new species, when they are actually just growth stages of already recognized species," Fowler said.
"It is important that we get the taxonomy of dinosaurs correct because all subsequent research is dependent on this," he continued. "What our research shows is that the old hypothesis about tyrannosaurs gradually acquiring their unique characteristics is correct or is yet to be falsified."
Other co-authors on the paper were Holly Woodward and Elizabeth Freedman of the Museum of the Rockies and MSU's Department of Earth Sciences, and Peter Larson from the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research, Inc., and the University of Manchester in Britain.
BOZEMAN -- New research from Montana State University's Museum of the Rockies is helping unravel the evolutionary history of the iconic tyrannosaurid dinosaurs, according to MSU scientists who reviewed past findings about a small dinosaur from Asia.
The small-bodied tyrannosaur named Raptorex kriegsteini - about 10 feet long -- was named in 2009 by University of Chicago professor Paul Sereno and colleagues, and was described as having originated during the Lower Cretaceous of China, around 130 million years ago. The Raptorex was important because it seemed to show that characteristic features of tyrannosaurids, such as the short two-fingered arms, were acquired some 50 million years before previously thought. As a result, Tyrannosaurus was relegated to being just a particularly large, brutish version of a much older body plan.
However, Museum of the Rockies researcher Denver Fowler and colleagues showed in a paper published June 29 in the journal PLoS One that key supporting evidence was misinterpreted by the original Raptorex authors, and that the old ideas might not have been so wrong after all.
"No one knows precisely where the Raptorex skeleton was dug up, because it was collected illegally and smuggled out of Asia" Fowler said. "The age and location stated had to be inferred from fossils found with the skeleton.
"Basically, the entire age assessment boils down to a single fish vertebra, which was misidentified as belonging to Lycoptera: a species from 130 million years ago. However, the morphology is actually very different," Fowler said.
The MSU scientists said other essential details of the original description were also misinterpreted.
"Raptorex was justified as a new small-bodied species because thin sections of the limb bones were supposed to show that it was a small-bodied adult or subadult," Fowler continued, "But we looked at the images published by Sereno et al., and the story just didn't fit."
The researchers found that the Raptorex specimen was a juvenile, and still growing rapidly when it died, Fowler said.
"All these clues pointed to the fact that 'Raptorex' was actually a juvenile of a large-bodied Late Cretaceous species rather than an adult from the Early Cretaceous. It looks almost identical to a juvenile Tarbosaurus bataar recently described from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia, suggesting that it is either also a Tarbosaurus bataar, or another closely related species," Fowler said.
He added that a more serious side to the research is that the type specimen was due to be repatriated to China, from which it was assumed to have been stolen, but actually it is more likely the specimen was illegally removed from neighboring Mongolia.
"One of my coauthors spoke to the original seller of the specimen and he told us it was sold as a juvenile Tarbosaurus from Mongolia," Fowler said. "I do not know where the idea came from that it was Chinese."
"This highlights the problems of dealing with stolen specimens that have none of the essential data," Fowler said.
The MSU research used new "Unified Frames of Reference" analytical methods devised by Jack Horner, Regents Professor of Paleontology at the Museum of the Rockies and co-author on the paper. Fowler said this holistic approach is facilitating great leaps in paleontologists' ability to classify dinosaurs, and reveal evolution patterns.
"We're really only beginning to understand the severe changes that dinosaurs went through as they grew up, and this means that many skeletons of young or especially old animals are being described as new species, when they are actually just growth stages of already recognized species," Fowler said.
"It is important that we get the taxonomy of dinosaurs correct because all subsequent research is dependent on this," he continued. "What our research shows is that the old hypothesis about tyrannosaurs gradually acquiring their unique characteristics is correct or is yet to be falsified."
Other co-authors on the paper were Holly Woodward and Elizabeth Freedman of the Museum of the Rockies and MSU's Department of Earth Sciences, and Peter Larson from the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research, Inc., and the University of Manchester in Britain.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Thick-Headed Dinosaur Was King of the Head Butt
FoxNews: Thick-Headed Dinosaur Was King of the Head Butt
A domed-head dinosaur may have been the king of the head butt, with a better skull than any modern noggin-knocker for protecting its brain during such attacks.
Scientists investigated a two-legged plant-eating dinosaur about the size of a German shepherd that lived some 72 million years ago, the pachycephalosaur Stegoceras validum. This herbivore possessed a bony dome on its skull, and there has been heated debate as to whether they used their heads to ram an opponent headlong, as bighorn sheep do, or to attack the opponent's flanks, as is the case with bison.
"Pachycephalosaur domes are weird structures not exactly like anything in modern animals," said researcher Eric Snively, a zoologist at Ohio University. "We wanted to test the controversial idea that the domes were good for head-butting."
To get inside the head of this ancient creature, Snively and his colleagues used CT scans and computer modeling. They analyzed the skulls of a large number of modern animals as well as a Stegoceras specimen from the University of Alberta in Canada. [25 Amazing Ancient Beasts]
Head-butting is typically a form of male-to-male competition for access to females, explained researcher Jessica Theodor at the University of Calgary in Canada. So the results would provide a look at the beasts' social lives.
"Were pachycephalosaurs more likely just showing off their domes, like peacocks with their tails? Or were they also cracking their heads together like musk oxen?" Snively asked.
The scientists found that the bony anatomy of the Stegoceras dome was better at protecting the brain than the skull of any modern head-butter.
"It's pretty clear that although the bones are arranged differently in the Stegoceras, it could easily withstand the kinds of forces that have been measured for the living animals that engage in head-butting," Theodor said.
Most head-butting animals have domes like sturdy motorcycle helmets. "They have a stiff rind on the outside with a sort of a spongy, energy-absorbing material just beneath it and then a stiff, really dense coat over the brain," Snively said. Stegoceras had an extra layer of dense bone in the middle.
In comparison, llamas would crack their skulls by head-butting, and giraffes also would fare poorly. "They swing their necks at each other and try to hit each other in the neck or the side," Snively said. If giraffes do manage to butt heads, they can knock each other out because "their anatomy isn't built to absorb the collision as well as something like musk ox or bighorn sheep."
A good modern parallel for pachycephalosaurs are duikers, "which are cute little African antelope that fight each other," Snively told LiveScience. "Duikers have pachycephalosaur-like domes, and our pachycephalosaur Stegoceras validum had a dome that would be even better for head-butting."
Past studies suggested that spongy bone in pachycephalosaur domes would be too brittle for use in head-butting. However, the new research suggests this spongy bone would actually "be great at absorbing energy of collisions," Snively said
This research could lead to improved helmet designs.
"Pachycephalosaurs had cool structures in their domes that channeled blood to a cushioning soft-tissue expansion of the dome, and the same structures may have had a dual role in structural reinforcement," Snively said. "Our particular pachycephalosaur's dome was like a double motorcycle helmet of alternating stiff and compliant layers."
Now he and his colleague John Cotton are looking into biology-inspired helmet designs, he said.
The scientists detailed their findings June 28 in the journal PLoS ONE.
A domed-head dinosaur may have been the king of the head butt, with a better skull than any modern noggin-knocker for protecting its brain during such attacks.
Scientists investigated a two-legged plant-eating dinosaur about the size of a German shepherd that lived some 72 million years ago, the pachycephalosaur Stegoceras validum. This herbivore possessed a bony dome on its skull, and there has been heated debate as to whether they used their heads to ram an opponent headlong, as bighorn sheep do, or to attack the opponent's flanks, as is the case with bison.
"Pachycephalosaur domes are weird structures not exactly like anything in modern animals," said researcher Eric Snively, a zoologist at Ohio University. "We wanted to test the controversial idea that the domes were good for head-butting."
To get inside the head of this ancient creature, Snively and his colleagues used CT scans and computer modeling. They analyzed the skulls of a large number of modern animals as well as a Stegoceras specimen from the University of Alberta in Canada. [25 Amazing Ancient Beasts]
Head-butting is typically a form of male-to-male competition for access to females, explained researcher Jessica Theodor at the University of Calgary in Canada. So the results would provide a look at the beasts' social lives.
"Were pachycephalosaurs more likely just showing off their domes, like peacocks with their tails? Or were they also cracking their heads together like musk oxen?" Snively asked.
The scientists found that the bony anatomy of the Stegoceras dome was better at protecting the brain than the skull of any modern head-butter.
"It's pretty clear that although the bones are arranged differently in the Stegoceras, it could easily withstand the kinds of forces that have been measured for the living animals that engage in head-butting," Theodor said.
Most head-butting animals have domes like sturdy motorcycle helmets. "They have a stiff rind on the outside with a sort of a spongy, energy-absorbing material just beneath it and then a stiff, really dense coat over the brain," Snively said. Stegoceras had an extra layer of dense bone in the middle.
In comparison, llamas would crack their skulls by head-butting, and giraffes also would fare poorly. "They swing their necks at each other and try to hit each other in the neck or the side," Snively said. If giraffes do manage to butt heads, they can knock each other out because "their anatomy isn't built to absorb the collision as well as something like musk ox or bighorn sheep."
A good modern parallel for pachycephalosaurs are duikers, "which are cute little African antelope that fight each other," Snively told LiveScience. "Duikers have pachycephalosaur-like domes, and our pachycephalosaur Stegoceras validum had a dome that would be even better for head-butting."
Past studies suggested that spongy bone in pachycephalosaur domes would be too brittle for use in head-butting. However, the new research suggests this spongy bone would actually "be great at absorbing energy of collisions," Snively said
This research could lead to improved helmet designs.
"Pachycephalosaurs had cool structures in their domes that channeled blood to a cushioning soft-tissue expansion of the dome, and the same structures may have had a dual role in structural reinforcement," Snively said. "Our particular pachycephalosaur's dome was like a double motorcycle helmet of alternating stiff and compliant layers."
Now he and his colleague John Cotton are looking into biology-inspired helmet designs, he said.
The scientists detailed their findings June 28 in the journal PLoS ONE.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Autopsy reveals life of Italian baby dinosaur
Xinhuan.com English news: Autopsy reveals life of Italian baby dinosaur
MILAN, Italy, June 23 (Xinhua) -- The best preserved fossilized dinosaur in the world, the Italian "Scipionyx samniticus," died only a few days or hours after it was born, according to research reported Thursday.
Thanks to a five-year autopsy, many details about the renowned 23-centimeter-long dinosaur nicknamed "Ciro" have been uncovered, Milan Museum of Natural History paleontolgist Cristiano del Sasso was quoted as saying by Italian newspaper "la Stampa."
"Ciro is the only dinosaur in the world with the internal organs fossilized. A full autopsy showed not only its bare bones, but also its whole life, trapped in stone for 110 million years," said the paleontologist, who has spent over 15 years studying the fossil.
Chemical tests showed Ciro's blood vessels include a branched capillary and its muscle fibers had a striated structure. The cellular structure of the bones, the articular cartilage, and vertebral ligaments were found intact as well.
According to researchers, Ciro is part of the theropods group, which is a type of omnivorous quadrupedal dinosaur that never exceeded 2-3 meters in length and had a hint of feathers.
Researchers say the cause of Ciro's death was impossible to confirm, but it was buried by muddy sea in a very short time, which allowed the compaction and crystallization of soft tissue structures. The rock also saved remnants of blood, containing a high concentration of iron.
The nearly complete and articulated skeleton of the dinosaur was found in 1980 in the Plattenkalk of Pietraroia, in southern Italy, but it was only handed over to paleontologists more than 10 years later. It only lacks parts of the tail and some bones of the hind legs.
MILAN, Italy, June 23 (Xinhua) -- The best preserved fossilized dinosaur in the world, the Italian "Scipionyx samniticus," died only a few days or hours after it was born, according to research reported Thursday.
Thanks to a five-year autopsy, many details about the renowned 23-centimeter-long dinosaur nicknamed "Ciro" have been uncovered, Milan Museum of Natural History paleontolgist Cristiano del Sasso was quoted as saying by Italian newspaper "la Stampa."
"Ciro is the only dinosaur in the world with the internal organs fossilized. A full autopsy showed not only its bare bones, but also its whole life, trapped in stone for 110 million years," said the paleontologist, who has spent over 15 years studying the fossil.
Chemical tests showed Ciro's blood vessels include a branched capillary and its muscle fibers had a striated structure. The cellular structure of the bones, the articular cartilage, and vertebral ligaments were found intact as well.
According to researchers, Ciro is part of the theropods group, which is a type of omnivorous quadrupedal dinosaur that never exceeded 2-3 meters in length and had a hint of feathers.
Researchers say the cause of Ciro's death was impossible to confirm, but it was buried by muddy sea in a very short time, which allowed the compaction and crystallization of soft tissue structures. The rock also saved remnants of blood, containing a high concentration of iron.
The nearly complete and articulated skeleton of the dinosaur was found in 1980 in the Plattenkalk of Pietraroia, in southern Italy, but it was only handed over to paleontologists more than 10 years later. It only lacks parts of the tail and some bones of the hind legs.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Live chat: Ask the dinosaur experts
Guardian.co.uk, Notes & Theories, Dispatches from the Science Desk: Live chat: Ask the dinosaur experts
The tyrannosaur family that preyed together, stayed together. That is the conclusion of University of Alberta paleontologist Philip Currie after examining the remains of numerous tyrant dinosaurs in Alberta and Mongolia over the past thirteen years. Instead of being solitary hunters, Currie proposes, fearsome predators such as Tyrannosaurus rex and its close relative Tarbosaurus bataar hunted in coordinated packs in which hunters both young and old had their own distinct roles to play.
The notion of pack-hunting dinosaurs is not new. In the 1970s Yale paleontologist John Ostrom hypothesised that Deinonychus – the sickle-clawed carnivores that were the model for Jurassic Park's Velociraptor gang – worked in co-operative packs on the basis of multiple individual specimens found in association with the prey species Tenontosaurus. Two decades later, Currie proposed that the large tyrannosaur Albertosaurus might have co-operatively run-down other dinosaurs on the basis of a huge Albertosaurus bonebed at Dry Island Buffalo Jump Provincial Park, Canada. In a 2000 paper titled "Possible evidence of gregarious behaviour in tyrannosaurids", Currie hypothesised that the Albertosaurus quarry preserved the remains of a family group in which the younger, faster animals drove terrified prey towards the waiting mouths of the more powerful adults. (In two subsequent papers, Currie also suggested family lifestyles for another tyrannosaur, Daspletosaurus, and a very distantly-related predatory dinosaur from South America named Mapusaurus.)
With the release of the book and documentary "Dino Gangs", though, Currie has forwarded Tarbosaurus skeletons from Mongolia as additional evidence for his ideas. The essential, precise details of the sites Currie investigated with the Korea-Mongolia International Dinosaur Project between 2006 and 2010 have not yet been released – no scientific paper has been published on the site in question – but Currie believes that he has found a bonebed containing several individuals of Tarbosaurus which echoes the story of the Canadian Albertosaurus quarry. These tyrannosaurs, in his view, represent a cooperative group. He also cites the lighter build of juvenile tyrannosaurs and the brain anatomy of these dinosaurs as being consistent with the idea that Tarbosaurus was a pack-hunter.
But there are many ways to make a bonebed. Determining whether all the animals in a bonebed died simultaneously or accumulated over a longer time period is a difficult task, and it is even more difficult to figure out whether animals buried together represent a social group or an aggregation brought together by other causes. Just because skeletons are found in close association does not mean that the animals were living together or were cooperating with each other before they died, especially since local catastrophes – such as drought or flooding – can bring animals into close quarters before killing them. For these reasons other paleontologists, such as Currie's colleague David Eberth at Alberta's Royal Tyrrell Museum, have raised serious doubts about whether the tyrannosaur bonebeds truly indicate gregarious behavior among the dinosaurs. In order to figure out how the dinosaurs lived, the intricate details of their deaths – how and when they perished – must first be ascertained. Perhaps Tarbosaurus, Albertosaurus, and their kin really did hunt together, but the conclusive evidence for "Dino Gangs" has not yet been found.
A team of dinosaur experts will take part in a live webchat at 1pm 22 June 2011. The panellists are:
Dr Philip Currie, a Canadian paleontologist and museum curator who helped found the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Drumheller, Alberta and is now a professor at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. In the 1980s he became the director of the Canada-China Dinosaur Project and helped describe some of the first feathered dinosaurs. He is one of the primary editors of the influential Encyclopaedia of Dinosaurs, and is an expert on theropods (especially Tyrannosauridae), the origin of birds, dinosaurian migration patterns and herding behaviour.
Brian Switek, author of Written in Stone: Evolution, the Fossil Record, and Our Place in Nature. Brian also writes for the WIRED science blog Laelaps and Smithsonian magazine's Dinosaur Tracking as well as The Guardian and The Times.
David Orr, editor of Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs, a blog dedicated to dinosaur science and pop culture.
The chat will be live on the Discovery Channel UK Facebook page 1pm today.
• A documentary on Dr Currie's research, Dino Gangs, will air on the Discovery channel on Sunday 26 June at 9.00pm
The tyrannosaur family that preyed together, stayed together. That is the conclusion of University of Alberta paleontologist Philip Currie after examining the remains of numerous tyrant dinosaurs in Alberta and Mongolia over the past thirteen years. Instead of being solitary hunters, Currie proposes, fearsome predators such as Tyrannosaurus rex and its close relative Tarbosaurus bataar hunted in coordinated packs in which hunters both young and old had their own distinct roles to play.
The notion of pack-hunting dinosaurs is not new. In the 1970s Yale paleontologist John Ostrom hypothesised that Deinonychus – the sickle-clawed carnivores that were the model for Jurassic Park's Velociraptor gang – worked in co-operative packs on the basis of multiple individual specimens found in association with the prey species Tenontosaurus. Two decades later, Currie proposed that the large tyrannosaur Albertosaurus might have co-operatively run-down other dinosaurs on the basis of a huge Albertosaurus bonebed at Dry Island Buffalo Jump Provincial Park, Canada. In a 2000 paper titled "Possible evidence of gregarious behaviour in tyrannosaurids", Currie hypothesised that the Albertosaurus quarry preserved the remains of a family group in which the younger, faster animals drove terrified prey towards the waiting mouths of the more powerful adults. (In two subsequent papers, Currie also suggested family lifestyles for another tyrannosaur, Daspletosaurus, and a very distantly-related predatory dinosaur from South America named Mapusaurus.)
With the release of the book and documentary "Dino Gangs", though, Currie has forwarded Tarbosaurus skeletons from Mongolia as additional evidence for his ideas. The essential, precise details of the sites Currie investigated with the Korea-Mongolia International Dinosaur Project between 2006 and 2010 have not yet been released – no scientific paper has been published on the site in question – but Currie believes that he has found a bonebed containing several individuals of Tarbosaurus which echoes the story of the Canadian Albertosaurus quarry. These tyrannosaurs, in his view, represent a cooperative group. He also cites the lighter build of juvenile tyrannosaurs and the brain anatomy of these dinosaurs as being consistent with the idea that Tarbosaurus was a pack-hunter.
But there are many ways to make a bonebed. Determining whether all the animals in a bonebed died simultaneously or accumulated over a longer time period is a difficult task, and it is even more difficult to figure out whether animals buried together represent a social group or an aggregation brought together by other causes. Just because skeletons are found in close association does not mean that the animals were living together or were cooperating with each other before they died, especially since local catastrophes – such as drought or flooding – can bring animals into close quarters before killing them. For these reasons other paleontologists, such as Currie's colleague David Eberth at Alberta's Royal Tyrrell Museum, have raised serious doubts about whether the tyrannosaur bonebeds truly indicate gregarious behavior among the dinosaurs. In order to figure out how the dinosaurs lived, the intricate details of their deaths – how and when they perished – must first be ascertained. Perhaps Tarbosaurus, Albertosaurus, and their kin really did hunt together, but the conclusive evidence for "Dino Gangs" has not yet been found.
A team of dinosaur experts will take part in a live webchat at 1pm 22 June 2011. The panellists are:
Dr Philip Currie, a Canadian paleontologist and museum curator who helped found the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Drumheller, Alberta and is now a professor at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. In the 1980s he became the director of the Canada-China Dinosaur Project and helped describe some of the first feathered dinosaurs. He is one of the primary editors of the influential Encyclopaedia of Dinosaurs, and is an expert on theropods (especially Tyrannosauridae), the origin of birds, dinosaurian migration patterns and herding behaviour.
Brian Switek, author of Written in Stone: Evolution, the Fossil Record, and Our Place in Nature. Brian also writes for the WIRED science blog Laelaps and Smithsonian magazine's Dinosaur Tracking as well as The Guardian and The Times.
David Orr, editor of Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs, a blog dedicated to dinosaur science and pop culture.
The chat will be live on the Discovery Channel UK Facebook page 1pm today.
• A documentary on Dr Currie's research, Dino Gangs, will air on the Discovery channel on Sunday 26 June at 9.00pm
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Dinosaurs are coming to the Granite Run Mall
Daily Times: Dinosaurs are coming to the Granite Run Mall
Published: Monday, June 20, 2011
MEDIA — After months of rumors and confusion, the Granite Run Mall looks poised to add something new to shopping trips: Dinosaurs.
The mall recently announced a dinosaur museum slated to open on the lower level in the fall.
“We definitely think that we’ll become a destination,” said the mall’s marketing director, Aubrey Proud.
The mall is partnering with Don Lessem, the owner of Exhibitsrex Inc. to bring what is being billed as a “one-of-a-kind … Dinosaur-ium.”
Also known as Dino Don, Lessem owns the largest private collection of dinosaur fossils.
He worked as a technical adviser for Steven Spielberg’s movie “Jurassic Park” in 1993 and owns some of the mechanical, foam-and-resin dinosaurs from the movie.
The Granite Run Mall hopes to make its Dinosaur-ium comparable, but also cheaper, than other dinosaur museums in the area, like Philadelphia’s Academy of Natural Sciences’ Natural History Museum.
Proud said the mall’s Dinosaur-ium would be superior in its ticket price, ease of access and “lack of hassle.”
“It’s just the fact that you can walk into the mall and go to a museum,” he said.
The Dinosaur-ium will feature “life-size dinosaurs,” videos, a dinosaur dig pit and educational exhibits. Exhibits are expected to rotate every three to four months.
“It’s going to be a very interactive experience for kids and adults,” said Proud. “The designs are being finalized right now; it’s a little bit of a fluid process.”
Proud and organizers expect the exhibit to attract 100,000 visitors within the first year of operation. Hopes are that this will stimulate other stores and attract new stores for leases in the future.
“We think all of the stores will benefit from this,” he said.
Published: Monday, June 20, 2011
MEDIA — After months of rumors and confusion, the Granite Run Mall looks poised to add something new to shopping trips: Dinosaurs.
The mall recently announced a dinosaur museum slated to open on the lower level in the fall.
“We definitely think that we’ll become a destination,” said the mall’s marketing director, Aubrey Proud.
The mall is partnering with Don Lessem, the owner of Exhibitsrex Inc. to bring what is being billed as a “one-of-a-kind … Dinosaur-ium.”
Also known as Dino Don, Lessem owns the largest private collection of dinosaur fossils.
He worked as a technical adviser for Steven Spielberg’s movie “Jurassic Park” in 1993 and owns some of the mechanical, foam-and-resin dinosaurs from the movie.
The Granite Run Mall hopes to make its Dinosaur-ium comparable, but also cheaper, than other dinosaur museums in the area, like Philadelphia’s Academy of Natural Sciences’ Natural History Museum.
Proud said the mall’s Dinosaur-ium would be superior in its ticket price, ease of access and “lack of hassle.”
“It’s just the fact that you can walk into the mall and go to a museum,” he said.
The Dinosaur-ium will feature “life-size dinosaurs,” videos, a dinosaur dig pit and educational exhibits. Exhibits are expected to rotate every three to four months.
“It’s going to be a very interactive experience for kids and adults,” said Proud. “The designs are being finalized right now; it’s a little bit of a fluid process.”
Proud and organizers expect the exhibit to attract 100,000 visitors within the first year of operation. Hopes are that this will stimulate other stores and attract new stores for leases in the future.
“We think all of the stores will benefit from this,” he said.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Ohio: Visit Mesozoic Era this summer at COSI dinosaur exhibit
Columbus Local News: Visit Mesozoic Era this summer at COSI dinosaur exhibit
Take a trip back in time to the Mesozoic Era this summer at the new COSI exhibit, "DINOSAURS: Explore. Escape. Survive."
This exhibit features giant, lifelike animatronic dinosaurs, a 3,000-square-foot maze, and interactive gaming pods to explore life in the prehistoric age.
"Dinosaurs are ageless -- there's something here for everyone," said Jaclyn Reynolds, public relations and social media manager for COSI.
Scientifically accurate animatronic dinosaurs can been seen towering over visitors throughout the exhibit. They move and make sounds and are placed in the environments where they would have been found while they inhabited the earth.
The journey through the maze is navigated by visitors answering questions at interactive stations, with "yes" or "no" deciding the path. Along the way explorers will find they can make their own dinosaur footprints, uncover fossils and learn to fly like a dinosaur. Once the maze is completed, visitors become official junior paleontologists.
"Every kid knows about dinosaurs, but here they can get a close personal view," said Breanne Heitkamp, a part-time associate faculty leader.
The gaming pods offer the chance for visitors to become different dinosaurs while interacting with up to 15 other users. Players learn what to eat and drink as a dinosaur while exploring an ecosystem from millions of years ago, all while trying not to get eaten by a T. Rex.
COSI also features Waking the T. Rex 3D: The Story of SUE in its new digital giant screen theatre.
"Seeing that lightbulb moment go off and seeing how excited they get is wonderful," Heitkamp said about working with the children in the exhibit.
"DINOSAURS: Explore. Escape. Survive." will be open until Sept. 5 at COSI, 333 W. Broad St. in downtown Columbus.
Take a trip back in time to the Mesozoic Era this summer at the new COSI exhibit, "DINOSAURS: Explore. Escape. Survive."
This exhibit features giant, lifelike animatronic dinosaurs, a 3,000-square-foot maze, and interactive gaming pods to explore life in the prehistoric age.
"Dinosaurs are ageless -- there's something here for everyone," said Jaclyn Reynolds, public relations and social media manager for COSI.
Scientifically accurate animatronic dinosaurs can been seen towering over visitors throughout the exhibit. They move and make sounds and are placed in the environments where they would have been found while they inhabited the earth.
The journey through the maze is navigated by visitors answering questions at interactive stations, with "yes" or "no" deciding the path. Along the way explorers will find they can make their own dinosaur footprints, uncover fossils and learn to fly like a dinosaur. Once the maze is completed, visitors become official junior paleontologists.
"Every kid knows about dinosaurs, but here they can get a close personal view," said Breanne Heitkamp, a part-time associate faculty leader.
The gaming pods offer the chance for visitors to become different dinosaurs while interacting with up to 15 other users. Players learn what to eat and drink as a dinosaur while exploring an ecosystem from millions of years ago, all while trying not to get eaten by a T. Rex.
COSI also features Waking the T. Rex 3D: The Story of SUE in its new digital giant screen theatre.
"Seeing that lightbulb moment go off and seeing how excited they get is wonderful," Heitkamp said about working with the children in the exhibit.
"DINOSAURS: Explore. Escape. Survive." will be open until Sept. 5 at COSI, 333 W. Broad St. in downtown Columbus.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Mysterious 'Crocosaurus' Discovered in Australia
FoxNews: Mysterious 'Crocosaurus' Discovered in Australia
A mysterious group of large, crocodile-snouted dinosaurs from the northern latitudes also inhabited the land that would become Australia, a newly found fossil reveals, indicating dinosaurs got around far more than is generally thought.
The fossil is of a single vertebra, which has been traced to a group of two-legged carnivores called spinatosaurids. Some of them could grow larger than a T. rex. They lived more than 140 million years ago, but until now, it was thought that they made their homes only in the north.
The newly analyzed fossil, found in Victoria, establishes that these dinosaurs ranged across much of the globe during the early Cretaceous period that spanned 146 million to 140 million years ago. Combined with other fossil evidence, the find suggests dinosaurs were a lot more mobile than researchers suspect, said study researcher Paul Barrett of the Natural History Museum in London.
In Australia's case, the dinosaurs made the trip before the land broke off into its own island continent.
"Instead of being limited to various parts of the world, it looks like dinosaurs were able to disperse over very large distances," Barrett told LiveScience.
New to Australia
Australian researchers unearthed the vertebra during the 1990s. Since that time, the bone has been at Museum Victoria in Melbourne, awaiting analysis. Barrett came to look at the museum's backlog of bones at the behest of some Australian colleagues, he said, and the vertebra stood out.
"There aren't many sites in Australia that give us dinosaur fossils," Barrett said. "So almost anything we find from Australia has the potential to be quite interesting."
The vertebra did not disappoint.
Just an inch and a half (42 millimeters) long and not yet entirely fused when the dinosaur died, it probably belonged to a juvenile. The vertebra appeared identical to that of Baryonyx walkeri, a spinatosaurid with foot-long claws that was found in Europe, suggesting the Australian spinatosaurid belonged to the same family though they aren't certain of its genus and species.
Dinosaur breakup
The discovery of a spinatosaurus in Australia made Barrett and his colleagues curious. During the early Cretaceous, the supercontinent Pangea was fragmenting, creating a northern supercontinent called Laurasia and a southern supercontinent called Gondwana. The latter land mass included what is now Australia. Scientists had thought that the dinosaurs likewise broke into two categories, northern and southern, with little overlap. But if spinatosaurids were running around Australia, might other dinosaurs have ranged across the globe as well?
Sure enough, when they began to look, the team found numerous reports of species spanning both Laurasia and Gondwana during this time period. In other words, dinosaurs seem to have mixed and mingled for much longer than anyone realized.
"It seems like the early-middle Cretaceous world still had a cosmopolitan flavor; the same groups of dinosaurs continued to range across the globe, even though the continents were becoming physically separated," said Stephen Brusatte, a doctoral candidate in paleontology at Columbia University and the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
Brusatte, who was not involved in the research, told LiveScience that by the late Cretaceous, the continents had separated into a configuration that would look familiar today. At that time, dinosaur species did stay true to their hemispheres: In the north, you might be pursued by a Tyrannosaurus rex, while southern animals had to be on the lookout for giant predators like the bull-horned Carnotaurus.
"The fact that we find these dinosaurs and others spread around the entire world at this time suggests they got there just before the split started to happen," Barrett said.
The research team is continuing to dig through their fossil collection, looking for more evidence of Australia's ancient beasts.
A mysterious group of large, crocodile-snouted dinosaurs from the northern latitudes also inhabited the land that would become Australia, a newly found fossil reveals, indicating dinosaurs got around far more than is generally thought.
The fossil is of a single vertebra, which has been traced to a group of two-legged carnivores called spinatosaurids. Some of them could grow larger than a T. rex. They lived more than 140 million years ago, but until now, it was thought that they made their homes only in the north.
The newly analyzed fossil, found in Victoria, establishes that these dinosaurs ranged across much of the globe during the early Cretaceous period that spanned 146 million to 140 million years ago. Combined with other fossil evidence, the find suggests dinosaurs were a lot more mobile than researchers suspect, said study researcher Paul Barrett of the Natural History Museum in London.
In Australia's case, the dinosaurs made the trip before the land broke off into its own island continent.
"Instead of being limited to various parts of the world, it looks like dinosaurs were able to disperse over very large distances," Barrett told LiveScience.
New to Australia
Australian researchers unearthed the vertebra during the 1990s. Since that time, the bone has been at Museum Victoria in Melbourne, awaiting analysis. Barrett came to look at the museum's backlog of bones at the behest of some Australian colleagues, he said, and the vertebra stood out.
"There aren't many sites in Australia that give us dinosaur fossils," Barrett said. "So almost anything we find from Australia has the potential to be quite interesting."
The vertebra did not disappoint.
Just an inch and a half (42 millimeters) long and not yet entirely fused when the dinosaur died, it probably belonged to a juvenile. The vertebra appeared identical to that of Baryonyx walkeri, a spinatosaurid with foot-long claws that was found in Europe, suggesting the Australian spinatosaurid belonged to the same family though they aren't certain of its genus and species.
Dinosaur breakup
The discovery of a spinatosaurus in Australia made Barrett and his colleagues curious. During the early Cretaceous, the supercontinent Pangea was fragmenting, creating a northern supercontinent called Laurasia and a southern supercontinent called Gondwana. The latter land mass included what is now Australia. Scientists had thought that the dinosaurs likewise broke into two categories, northern and southern, with little overlap. But if spinatosaurids were running around Australia, might other dinosaurs have ranged across the globe as well?
Sure enough, when they began to look, the team found numerous reports of species spanning both Laurasia and Gondwana during this time period. In other words, dinosaurs seem to have mixed and mingled for much longer than anyone realized.
"It seems like the early-middle Cretaceous world still had a cosmopolitan flavor; the same groups of dinosaurs continued to range across the globe, even though the continents were becoming physically separated," said Stephen Brusatte, a doctoral candidate in paleontology at Columbia University and the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
Brusatte, who was not involved in the research, told LiveScience that by the late Cretaceous, the continents had separated into a configuration that would look familiar today. At that time, dinosaur species did stay true to their hemispheres: In the north, you might be pursued by a Tyrannosaurus rex, while southern animals had to be on the lookout for giant predators like the bull-horned Carnotaurus.
"The fact that we find these dinosaurs and others spread around the entire world at this time suggests they got there just before the split started to happen," Barrett said.
The research team is continuing to dig through their fossil collection, looking for more evidence of Australia's ancient beasts.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Tiny Fossil May Be World's Smallest Dinosaur
FoxNews: Tiny Fossil May Be World's Smallest Dinosaur
A new fossil discovery could be the world's smallest known dinosaur — a feathered, birdlike creature that lived more than 100 million years ago and grew no more than 15.7 inches (40 centimeters) long.
The fossil, a tiny neck bone found in the southern U.K., is a mere quarter-inch (7.1 millimeters) in length. It belongs to an adult dinosaur that lived in the Cretaceous period 145 million to 100 million years ago, reported University of Portsmouth paleozoologist Darren Naish in the August issue of the journal Cretaceous Research.
That would put the animal in the running for world's tiniest dino, a title currently held by Anchiornis, another birdlike dinosaur that lived in what is now China 160 million to 155 million years ago.
Mini-dino
The new bone belongs to a maniraptoran, a group of theropod dinosaurs believed to be the line that eventually led to modern-day birds. With only one vertebra to go on, it's difficult to say what the tiny dino ate, or even how long it really was.
All That Remains: Fossil Finds
Fossilized remains are all that's left of the once mighty dinosaurs that dominated our planet. Here, the neatest recent finds.
The vertebra lacks a neurocentral suture, a rough, open line of bone that doesn't close until a dinosaur is an adult, Naish and his University of Portsmouth colleague Steven Sweetmen reported. That means the dinosaur was grown when it died.
But figuring out the length of the dinosaur from one bone was trickier. The researchers used two techniques to estimate how big the maniraptoran might have been. The first method involved building a digital model of the dinosaur's neck and then fitting that neck into a silhouette of a generic maniraptoran.
That technique is more art than science, Naish wrote on his blog, Tetrapod Zoology, predicting it would make some dinosaur researchers "vomit with rage." A slightly more mathematical approach used neck-to-body ratios of other related dinosaurs to calculate the new maniraptoran's length. Both methods led to a "ballpark" of about 13 to 15.7 inches (33 to 50 centimeters), Naish wrote.
Smallest American dinosaur
The new dinosaur does not have an official name, and is going by the moniker of the Ashdown maniraptorian after the spot where it was found. If the Ashdown dino is found to be the smallest on record, it will beat out North America's smallest known dinosaur by about 6 inches (15 cm). That dinosaur, Hesperonychus elizabethae, was a velociraptor-like predator with a nasty curved claw on its toe. It stood about a foot and a half (50 cm) tall and weighed 4 pounds (2 kilograms).
Monday, June 13, 2011
Fighting pair of dino skeletons goes for $2.75 million
MSNBCScience: Fighting pair of dino skeletons goes for $2.75 million
DALLAS — Natural history buffs with Tyrannosaurus-sized bank accounts got a chance to ante up on Sunday when an unusually large collection of fully assembled, museum-quality dinosaur skeletons was put up for auction.
The featured stars of the Heritage Auctions bidding were a "fighting pair" of dinosaur skeletons that sold to a museum for $2.75 million, and an enormous, 19-foot-long triceratops that fetched $657,250 from a private collector.
The Dallas auction included more than 200 items, including meteorites, minerals and other fossils.
The fighting dinosaurs — an allosaurus and a stegosaurus — were offered together because of their discovery in a Wyoming quarry with the jaw of the allosaurus wrapped around the leg of the stegosaurus, leading to speculation that the two were engaged in a predator-prey battle.
Heritage Auctions declined to disclose which museum picked up the pair, though the organization did say the museum was outside the United States.
"I'm ecstatic that 'the fighting pair' found such a great home," David Herskowitz, director of natural history at Heritage Auctions, said in a statement. "These are important and iconic Jurassic-era specimens, which science did not even know existed together at the same time, and now they will be going to a final destination where the public will get to enjoy them and where they will be of maximum benefit to science."
Collectors and museum benefactors were able to bid in person and online.
Hundreds of people showed up at Dallas' Fair Park to catch a glimpse of the rare and unusually large collection of dinosaur skeletons and other artifacts.
Paul Garner of Dallas came on Sunday with an entourage of family and friends.
"We heard about it from a friend, so we came to look," the day before the auction, he said. "We came back for a second look and with better cameras."
While some specimens were being offered for re-sale, the allosaurus and stegosaurus were on the market for the first time.
Paleontologist Henry Galiano, whose company unearthed the allosaurus and stegosaurus in Wyoming's Dana Quarry in 2007, said the pair was put up for auction to raise money to continue research and the search for new specimens.
Dinosaur skeletons have held the public's fascination since they were first put on display over 150 years ago. Searching for and excavating such fossils is still a tedious, labor-intensive process that has seen little technological advancement since the 19th century, Galiano said.
Yet, interest in the "bones business" is increasing, and there are more expeditions worldwide than ever before.
"I think it was probably the film 'Jurassic Park' that got the public really interested in dinosaurs," Galiano said. Interest was further spurred by the discovery of a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton, now named Sue, in 1990, he said.
Sue was sold at auction in 1997 for $8.3 million to Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History, Herskowitz said.
Dinosaur skeletons rarely fetch that much and are considered a relative bargain in the world of collectibles, he said. On Sunday, he said, the triceratops skeleton was offered at an opening bid of $500,000.
"Fossils are cheap compared to fine art," he told Reuters. "It's amazing the millions people will spend on fine art."
DALLAS — Natural history buffs with Tyrannosaurus-sized bank accounts got a chance to ante up on Sunday when an unusually large collection of fully assembled, museum-quality dinosaur skeletons was put up for auction.
The featured stars of the Heritage Auctions bidding were a "fighting pair" of dinosaur skeletons that sold to a museum for $2.75 million, and an enormous, 19-foot-long triceratops that fetched $657,250 from a private collector.
The Dallas auction included more than 200 items, including meteorites, minerals and other fossils.
The fighting dinosaurs — an allosaurus and a stegosaurus — were offered together because of their discovery in a Wyoming quarry with the jaw of the allosaurus wrapped around the leg of the stegosaurus, leading to speculation that the two were engaged in a predator-prey battle.
Heritage Auctions declined to disclose which museum picked up the pair, though the organization did say the museum was outside the United States.
"I'm ecstatic that 'the fighting pair' found such a great home," David Herskowitz, director of natural history at Heritage Auctions, said in a statement. "These are important and iconic Jurassic-era specimens, which science did not even know existed together at the same time, and now they will be going to a final destination where the public will get to enjoy them and where they will be of maximum benefit to science."
Collectors and museum benefactors were able to bid in person and online.
Hundreds of people showed up at Dallas' Fair Park to catch a glimpse of the rare and unusually large collection of dinosaur skeletons and other artifacts.
Paul Garner of Dallas came on Sunday with an entourage of family and friends.
"We heard about it from a friend, so we came to look," the day before the auction, he said. "We came back for a second look and with better cameras."
While some specimens were being offered for re-sale, the allosaurus and stegosaurus were on the market for the first time.
Paleontologist Henry Galiano, whose company unearthed the allosaurus and stegosaurus in Wyoming's Dana Quarry in 2007, said the pair was put up for auction to raise money to continue research and the search for new specimens.
Dinosaur skeletons have held the public's fascination since they were first put on display over 150 years ago. Searching for and excavating such fossils is still a tedious, labor-intensive process that has seen little technological advancement since the 19th century, Galiano said.
Yet, interest in the "bones business" is increasing, and there are more expeditions worldwide than ever before.
"I think it was probably the film 'Jurassic Park' that got the public really interested in dinosaurs," Galiano said. Interest was further spurred by the discovery of a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton, now named Sue, in 1990, he said.
Sue was sold at auction in 1997 for $8.3 million to Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History, Herskowitz said.
Dinosaur skeletons rarely fetch that much and are considered a relative bargain in the world of collectibles, he said. On Sunday, he said, the triceratops skeleton was offered at an opening bid of $500,000.
"Fossils are cheap compared to fine art," he told Reuters. "It's amazing the millions people will spend on fine art."
Why we're creating a 'chickenosaurus'
CNN: Why we're creating a 'chickenosaurus'
By Jack Horner, Special to CNN
By Jack Horner, Special to CNN
Editor's note: Jack Horner is Regents' professor of paleontology at Montana State University and the curator of paleontology at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana. Horner, who discovered the first dinosaur eggs in the Western Hemisphere, was the technical adviser to Steven Spielberg for the movie "Jurassic Park" and its sequel. TED is a nonprofit organization dedicated to "Ideas worth spreading," which it distributes on its website.
(CNN) -- When I was a young boy, I dreamed of two things: one, to become a paleontologist, and another, to have a pet dinosaur. I have become a paleontologist, and now I strive to figure out a way to bring back or create my living dinosaur.
I was very fortunate during my early years as a paleontologist, in that my field crews and I made some remarkable discoveries indicating dinosaurs to have been extremely social. We found a dinosaur nesting ground with clutches of eggs and nests containing the skeletons of babies, and massive accumulations of juvenile and adult skeletons. These discoveries led to our current understanding of dinosaurs as colonial nesters and good parents, and animals that traveled in gigantic herds.
These social behaviors were depicted in Michael Crichton's novel and Steven Spielberg's movie "Jurassic Park." But it was the book and movie's premise that dinosaurs could be brought back to life -- from DNA found in insects that bit the dinosaurs -- that interested me the most.
Some scientists had attempted to retrieve DNA from insects in amber, and unfortunately, they had not found it possible. In 1993, when the movie was released, my graduate student Mary Schweitzer and I got a National Science Foundation grant to attempt to extract DNA from a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton.
TED.com: Is anatomy destiny?
Alas, we didn't find DNA in the dinosaur either, but Mary went on to discover soft tissues and even proteins in another T-rex we excavated in 2001.
But even though we didn't find DNA in an extinct dinosaur, I decided to see if we could retro-engineer a living dinosaur -- all birds are living dinosaurs -- and make it look like an extinct dinosaur.
My colleague Hans Larsson, using developmental biology techniques at McGill University, was studying the transition between extinct dinosaurs and birds, trying to understand how birds came to lose their tails and transform hands to wings. I figured if he could figure this out, we could reverse the methods and make a bird with hands and a tail. It was the beginning of the "Build a Dinosaur Project."
The Build a Dinosaur Project continues as researchers attempt to identify two atavistic genes proposed to control the appearance of the three-fingered hand and the primitive tail. This search involves the knocking out of target genes in early developing chicken embryos.
TED.com: Making a car for blind drivers
This is a long process that can take years -- so as we wait, the prospect of a chicken-dinosaur is being used as a medium to explain developmental biology and evolutionary biology to the general public.
It is a simple way to demonstrate how evolution works, by showing that the genes for these primitive characteristics continue to reside in DNA -- even when they are of no particular use at the present, but when they might be useful in the animal's evolutionary future. The chicken-dinosaur is also an icon for genetic engineering in animals, providing a focus for discussions concerning ethics.
It is interesting, for example, that some people consider simple genetic engineering, such as the dino-chicken, to be unethical, while they find selective breeding -- potentially producing the same results over time -- to be an ethical endeavor.
I think of the dino-chicken as a tool to educate people about the extraordinary characteristics of evolution and give them the primer knowledge to make future decisions about these types of biological research. You can read more about this stuff in my book entitled "How To Build a Dinosaur."
As I stated in my TED talk, this is all about attempting to satisfy the aspirations of sixth-graders (and children of all ages) and bring back dinosaurs or at least something that looks more like a dinosaur than a bird. Unfortunately, our first steps in this process will likely produce an animal that looks like the image above, but it will be a start, and by the time the sixth graders are our research scientists, maybe they will be able to create animals more to their liking.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Jack Horner.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Foot long, 7-ounce heavy 'world's smallest dinosaur' unearthed
DailyNewsandAnalysis: Foot long, 7-ounce heavy 'world's smallest dinosaur' unearthed
British palaeontologists have unearthed the world's smallest non-avian dinosaur, measuring about a foot in length and weighing just seven ounces.
The tiny dinosaur has been nicknamed Ashdown maniraptoran and is believed to have lived during the Lower Cretaceous, a period lasting from 145 to 100 million years ago.
"It perhaps weighed as little as 200 grams (seven ounces)," Discovery News quoted co-author Darren Naish as saying.
"Like other maniraptoran theropods, this would have been a small, feathered, bird-like bipedal dinosaur with a fairly short tail, long neck, long slim hind legs, and feathered clawed forelimbs," he added.
Naish and his colleague unearthed the remains of the dinosaur in the Pivensey Pit at Ashdown Brickworks, a site located northwest of Bexhill, East Sussex.
The researchers explained that since they had not unearthed the dinosaur’s skull yet, they could not make a firm statement about its diet.
"Based on other oviraptorosaurs and other small maniraptorans, it was perhaps an omnivore, eating small animals, including insects, as well as leaves and fruit," said Naish.
The research appears in the latest issue of Cretaceous Research
British palaeontologists have unearthed the world's smallest non-avian dinosaur, measuring about a foot in length and weighing just seven ounces.
The tiny dinosaur has been nicknamed Ashdown maniraptoran and is believed to have lived during the Lower Cretaceous, a period lasting from 145 to 100 million years ago.
"It perhaps weighed as little as 200 grams (seven ounces)," Discovery News quoted co-author Darren Naish as saying.
"Like other maniraptoran theropods, this would have been a small, feathered, bird-like bipedal dinosaur with a fairly short tail, long neck, long slim hind legs, and feathered clawed forelimbs," he added.
Naish and his colleague unearthed the remains of the dinosaur in the Pivensey Pit at Ashdown Brickworks, a site located northwest of Bexhill, East Sussex.
The researchers explained that since they had not unearthed the dinosaur’s skull yet, they could not make a firm statement about its diet.
"Based on other oviraptorosaurs and other small maniraptorans, it was perhaps an omnivore, eating small animals, including insects, as well as leaves and fruit," said Naish.
The research appears in the latest issue of Cretaceous Research
Dinosaur exhibit brings new life to old bones
MilfordDailyNews: Dinosaur exhibit brings new life to old bones
Make no bones about it, pint-sized paleontologists are going to dig the new dinosaurs exhibit at the Museum of Science – and they just may learn something, too. The traveling exhibition, “Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries,” combines fossils, casts, mechanical models, computer simulations and dioramas to explore how dinosaurs behaved, moved, looked, and the theories of why they became extinct (volcano? meteor?). Offering 35 species of dinosaurs, reptiles, early birds and mammals, the fun and informative exhibit brings prehistory alive.
Despite being wiped out about 65 million years ago, dinosaurs still have enduring appeal, to both children and grownups.“There is nothing like them alive today. Dragons and unicorns are cool, but those are mythical. We have proof that dinosaurs were alive and real,” said Dr. Susan Heilman, an education associate at the museum. “They are mysterious and people love a good mystery.”
And so, the exhibition aims to shed some light on these prehistoric puzzles. One of the many “aha” moments is a robotic six-foot-long Tyrannosaurus rex that shows how the primeval beast would have moved. Next to the model is an interactive touch-screen to explain the biomechanics.
Visitors can also see where a dinosaur stepped in the re-creation of the famous Davenport Ranch Trackway, a collection of sauropod and theropod dinosaur prints unearthed in Texas. Display text reveals new ideas on dinosaur herding behavior.
To get their hands on stuff such as a real Triceratops horn or an Apatosaurus foreleg, visitors can look for easy-to-spot signs that simply say “Touch This.” My 4-year-old’s favorite was a sauropod’s hind end (aka its butt.) Boys will be boys. But with every laugh, it’s easy to sneak in some learning – that dino’s tail, it’s as long as a school bus and weighs as much as three grand pianos.
Setting up a course for prehistoric adventure, a jaw-dropping giant T-rex bats leadoff. The undisputed king of the dinosaurs, the T-rex looks ready to devour anything in its path, including little children.
“This is definitely a wow. The open mouth is pretty cool,” Heilman said.
Another cool dino is the giant 60-foot-long fiberglass and steel replica of an Apatosaurus. The showstopper, however, is a 700-square-foot full-immersion diorama of a Mesozoic forest as it might have looked 130 million years ago. The recreation of the eco-system is comprised of dinosaurs, flying dinosaurs, birds, mammals, amphibians, insects and plants. It’s an eco-system with the living creatures in action poses and it looks a lot like it would today, minus the dinosaurs.
“To see that diorama at the end brings the exhibit all together,” Heilman said. That recreation proposes an evolutionary link between dinosaurs and birds, “Birds are living dinosaurs – survivors of the turmoil that wiped out their relatives like T-rex,” reads the display text.
“It shows a relationship between birds and dinosaurs, being similar and just living in different times,” Heilman said.
Behind the scenes, a lot of sweat went into installing the exhibit. “It took a month to physically put it all together,” said Shana Hawrylchak, senior temporary exhibit coordinator. “The diorama was about a six-day project for two people.”
The exhibit, “Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries,” debuted in 2005 at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. This is its first time visiting Boston, and it will be up until Aug. 21 before it moves on to the Lafayette Science Museum in Louisiana.
Note to parents: The exhibit is dark and small children could get spooked. Also, a satellite gift shop selling dino books, puzzles, games, figurines, T-shirts, and so on, is set up next to the exit. Be prepared to diffuse a meltdown or shell out $20 for a stuffed T-Rex that sounds like Godzilla.
Make no bones about it, pint-sized paleontologists are going to dig the new dinosaurs exhibit at the Museum of Science – and they just may learn something, too. The traveling exhibition, “Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries,” combines fossils, casts, mechanical models, computer simulations and dioramas to explore how dinosaurs behaved, moved, looked, and the theories of why they became extinct (volcano? meteor?). Offering 35 species of dinosaurs, reptiles, early birds and mammals, the fun and informative exhibit brings prehistory alive.
Despite being wiped out about 65 million years ago, dinosaurs still have enduring appeal, to both children and grownups.“There is nothing like them alive today. Dragons and unicorns are cool, but those are mythical. We have proof that dinosaurs were alive and real,” said Dr. Susan Heilman, an education associate at the museum. “They are mysterious and people love a good mystery.”
And so, the exhibition aims to shed some light on these prehistoric puzzles. One of the many “aha” moments is a robotic six-foot-long Tyrannosaurus rex that shows how the primeval beast would have moved. Next to the model is an interactive touch-screen to explain the biomechanics.
Visitors can also see where a dinosaur stepped in the re-creation of the famous Davenport Ranch Trackway, a collection of sauropod and theropod dinosaur prints unearthed in Texas. Display text reveals new ideas on dinosaur herding behavior.
To get their hands on stuff such as a real Triceratops horn or an Apatosaurus foreleg, visitors can look for easy-to-spot signs that simply say “Touch This.” My 4-year-old’s favorite was a sauropod’s hind end (aka its butt.) Boys will be boys. But with every laugh, it’s easy to sneak in some learning – that dino’s tail, it’s as long as a school bus and weighs as much as three grand pianos.
Setting up a course for prehistoric adventure, a jaw-dropping giant T-rex bats leadoff. The undisputed king of the dinosaurs, the T-rex looks ready to devour anything in its path, including little children.
“This is definitely a wow. The open mouth is pretty cool,” Heilman said.
Another cool dino is the giant 60-foot-long fiberglass and steel replica of an Apatosaurus. The showstopper, however, is a 700-square-foot full-immersion diorama of a Mesozoic forest as it might have looked 130 million years ago. The recreation of the eco-system is comprised of dinosaurs, flying dinosaurs, birds, mammals, amphibians, insects and plants. It’s an eco-system with the living creatures in action poses and it looks a lot like it would today, minus the dinosaurs.
“To see that diorama at the end brings the exhibit all together,” Heilman said. That recreation proposes an evolutionary link between dinosaurs and birds, “Birds are living dinosaurs – survivors of the turmoil that wiped out their relatives like T-rex,” reads the display text.
“It shows a relationship between birds and dinosaurs, being similar and just living in different times,” Heilman said.
Behind the scenes, a lot of sweat went into installing the exhibit. “It took a month to physically put it all together,” said Shana Hawrylchak, senior temporary exhibit coordinator. “The diorama was about a six-day project for two people.”
The exhibit, “Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries,” debuted in 2005 at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. This is its first time visiting Boston, and it will be up until Aug. 21 before it moves on to the Lafayette Science Museum in Louisiana.
Note to parents: The exhibit is dark and small children could get spooked. Also, a satellite gift shop selling dino books, puzzles, games, figurines, T-shirts, and so on, is set up next to the exit. Be prepared to diffuse a meltdown or shell out $20 for a stuffed T-Rex that sounds like Godzilla.
Albertosaurus (al-BUR-tuh-SAW-rus)
Since the first discovery in 1884, fossils of more than thirty individuals have been recovered, providing scientists with a more detailed knowledge of Albertosaurus anatomy than is available for most other tyrannosaurids.
Albertosaurus (al-BUR-tuh-SAW-rus)
Albertosaurus (meaning "Alberta lizard") is a genus of tyrannosaurid theropod dinosaur that lived in western North America during the Late Cretaceous Period, more than 70 million years ago. The type species, A. sarcophagus, was apparently restricted in range to the modern-day Canadian province of Alberta, after which the genus is named. Scientists disagree on the content of the genus, with some recognizing Gorgosaurus libratus as a second species.
As a tyrannosaurid, Albertosaurus was a bipedal predator with tiny, two-fingered hands and a massive head with dozens of large, sharp teeth. It may have been at the top of the food chain in its local ecosystem. Although relatively large for a theropod, Albertosaurus was much smaller than its more famous relative Tyrannosaurus, probably weighing less than 2 metric tons.
Since the first discovery in 1884, fossils of more than thirty individuals have been recovered, providing scientists with a more detailed knowledge of Albertosaurus anatomy than is available for most other tyrannosaurids. The discovery of 22 individuals at one site provides evidence of pack behaviour and allows studies of ontogeny and population biology which are impossible with lesser-known dinosaurs.
Description
Albertosaurus was smaller than some other tyrannosaurids, such as Tarbosaurus and Tyrannosaurus. Typical adults of Albertosaurus measured up to 9 metres (30 ft) long, while rare individuals of great age could grow to over 10 metres (33 ft) in length. Several independent mass estimates, obtained by different methods, suggest that an adult Albertosaurus weighed between 1.3 tonnes (1.4 short tons) and 1.7 tonnes (1.9 tons).
All tyrannosaurids, including Albertosaurus, shared a similar body appearance. Typically for a theropod, Albertosaurus was bipedal and balanced the heavy head and torso with a long tail. However, tyrannosaurid forelimbs were extremely small for their body size and retained only two digits. The hind limbs were long and ended in a four-toed foot. The first digit, called the hallux, was short and only the other three contacted the ground, with the third (middle) digit longer than the rest. Albertosaurus may have been able to reach speeds of 14−21 kilometres per hour (8−13 miles per hour).
Discovery and naming
Naming
Albertosaurus was named by Henry Fairfield Osborn in a one-page note at the end of his 1905 description of Tyrannosaurus rex.:265 The name honours Alberta, the present-day Canadian province in which the first remains were found. The generic name also incorporates the Greek term σαυρος/sauros ("lizard"), the most common suffix in dinosaur names. The type species is A. sarcophagus, which means "flesh-eater" and has the same etymology as the funeral container with which it shares its name: a combination of the Ancient Greek words σαρξ/sarx ("flesh") and Φαγειν/phagein ("to eat"). More than thirty specimens of all ages are known to science.
Early discoveries
Almost three-quarters of all Albertosaurus remains have been discovered alongside the river, in outcrops like the ones on either side of this picture.The type specimen is a partial skull, collected in 1884 from an outcrop of the Horseshoe Canyon Formation alongside the Red Deer River, in present-day Alberta. This specimen and a smaller skull associated with some skeletal material were recovered by expeditions of the Geological Survey of Canada, led by the famous geologist Joseph B. Tyrrell. The two skulls were assigned to the preexisting species Laelaps incrassatus by Edward Drinker Cope in 1892, despite the fact that the name Laelaps was preoccupied by a genus of mite and had been changed to Dryptosaurus in 1877 by Othniel Charles Marsh. Cope refused to recognize the new name created by his archrival Marsh, so it fell to Lawrence Lambe to change Laelaps incrassatus to Dryptosaurus incrassatus when he described the remains in detail in 1904.
Shortly later, Osborn pointed out that D. incrassatus was based on generic tyrannosaurid teeth, so the two Horseshoe Canyon skulls could not be confidently referred to that species. The Horseshoe Canyon skulls also differed markedly from the remains of D. aquilunguis, type species of Dryptosaurus, so Osborn created the new name Albertosaurus sarcophagus for them in 1905. He did not describe the remains in any great detail, citing Lambe's complete description the year before.
Both specimens (CMN 5600 and 5601) are stored in the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa.
Dry Island bonebed
In 1910, American paleontologist Barnum Brown uncovered the remains of a large group of Albertosaurus at another quarry alongside the Red Deer River. Because of the large number of bones and the limited time available, Brown's party did not collect every specimen, but made sure to collect remains from all of the individuals they could identify in the bonebed. Among the bones deposited in the American Museum of Natural History collections in New York City are seven sets of right metatarsals, along with two isolated toe bones that did not match any of the metatarsals in size. This indicated the presence of at least nine individuals in the quarry.
The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology rediscovered the bonebed in 1997 and resumed fieldwork at the site, which is now located inside Dry Island Buffalo Jump Provincial Park. Further excavation from 1997 to 2005 turned up the remains of 13 more individuals of various ages, including a diminutive two-year-old and a very old individual estimated at over 10 metres (33 ft) in length. None of these individuals are known from complete skeletons, and most are represented by remains in both museums.
Gorgosaurus libratus
In 1913, paleontologist Charles H. Sternberg recovered another tyrannosaurid skeleton from the slightly older Dinosaur Park Formation in Alberta. Lawrence Lambe named this dinosaur Gorgosaurus libratus in 1914.
Other specimens were later found in Alberta and the US state of Montana. Finding few differences to separate the two genera, Dale Russell declared the name Gorgosaurus a junior synonym of Albertosaurus, which had been named first, and G. libratus was renamed Albertosaurus libratus in 1970. This addition extended the temporal range of the genus Albertosaurus backwards by several million years and its geographic range southwards by hundreds of kilometres.
In 2003, Philip J. Currie compared several tyrannosaurid skulls and came to the conclusion that the two species are more distinct than previously thought. The decision to use one or two genera is rather arbitrary, as the two species are sister taxa, more closely related to each other than to any other species. Recognizing this, Currie nevertheless recommended that Albertosaurus and Gorgosaurus be retained as separate genera, as they are no more similar than Daspletosaurus and Tyrannosaurus, which are almost always separated. In addition, several albertosaurine specimens have been recovered from Alaska and New Mexico, and Currie suggested that the Albertosaurus-Gorgosaurus situation may be clarified once these are described fully. Most authors have followed Currie's recommendation, but some have not.
Other discoveries
William Parks described a new species, Albertosaurus arctunguis, based on a partial skeleton excavated near the Red Deer River in 1928, but this species has been considered identical to A. sarcophagus since 1970. Parks' specimen (ROM 807) is housed in the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. Six more skulls and skeletons have since been discovered in Alberta and are housed in various Canadian museums. Fossils have also been reported from the American states of Montana, New Mexico, and Wyoming, but these probably do not represent A. sarcophagus and may not even belong to the genus Albertosaurus.
Albertosaurus megagracilis was based on a small tyrannosaurid skeleton from the Hell Creek Formation of Montana. It was renamed Dinotyrannus in 1995, but is now thought to represent a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex.
Albertosaurus (al-BUR-tuh-SAW-rus)
Albertosaurus (meaning "Alberta lizard") is a genus of tyrannosaurid theropod dinosaur that lived in western North America during the Late Cretaceous Period, more than 70 million years ago. The type species, A. sarcophagus, was apparently restricted in range to the modern-day Canadian province of Alberta, after which the genus is named. Scientists disagree on the content of the genus, with some recognizing Gorgosaurus libratus as a second species.
As a tyrannosaurid, Albertosaurus was a bipedal predator with tiny, two-fingered hands and a massive head with dozens of large, sharp teeth. It may have been at the top of the food chain in its local ecosystem. Although relatively large for a theropod, Albertosaurus was much smaller than its more famous relative Tyrannosaurus, probably weighing less than 2 metric tons.
Since the first discovery in 1884, fossils of more than thirty individuals have been recovered, providing scientists with a more detailed knowledge of Albertosaurus anatomy than is available for most other tyrannosaurids. The discovery of 22 individuals at one site provides evidence of pack behaviour and allows studies of ontogeny and population biology which are impossible with lesser-known dinosaurs.
Description
Albertosaurus was smaller than some other tyrannosaurids, such as Tarbosaurus and Tyrannosaurus. Typical adults of Albertosaurus measured up to 9 metres (30 ft) long, while rare individuals of great age could grow to over 10 metres (33 ft) in length. Several independent mass estimates, obtained by different methods, suggest that an adult Albertosaurus weighed between 1.3 tonnes (1.4 short tons) and 1.7 tonnes (1.9 tons).
All tyrannosaurids, including Albertosaurus, shared a similar body appearance. Typically for a theropod, Albertosaurus was bipedal and balanced the heavy head and torso with a long tail. However, tyrannosaurid forelimbs were extremely small for their body size and retained only two digits. The hind limbs were long and ended in a four-toed foot. The first digit, called the hallux, was short and only the other three contacted the ground, with the third (middle) digit longer than the rest. Albertosaurus may have been able to reach speeds of 14−21 kilometres per hour (8−13 miles per hour).
Discovery and naming
Naming
Albertosaurus was named by Henry Fairfield Osborn in a one-page note at the end of his 1905 description of Tyrannosaurus rex.:265 The name honours Alberta, the present-day Canadian province in which the first remains were found. The generic name also incorporates the Greek term σαυρος/sauros ("lizard"), the most common suffix in dinosaur names. The type species is A. sarcophagus, which means "flesh-eater" and has the same etymology as the funeral container with which it shares its name: a combination of the Ancient Greek words σαρξ/sarx ("flesh") and Φαγειν/phagein ("to eat"). More than thirty specimens of all ages are known to science.
Early discoveries
Almost three-quarters of all Albertosaurus remains have been discovered alongside the river, in outcrops like the ones on either side of this picture.The type specimen is a partial skull, collected in 1884 from an outcrop of the Horseshoe Canyon Formation alongside the Red Deer River, in present-day Alberta. This specimen and a smaller skull associated with some skeletal material were recovered by expeditions of the Geological Survey of Canada, led by the famous geologist Joseph B. Tyrrell. The two skulls were assigned to the preexisting species Laelaps incrassatus by Edward Drinker Cope in 1892, despite the fact that the name Laelaps was preoccupied by a genus of mite and had been changed to Dryptosaurus in 1877 by Othniel Charles Marsh. Cope refused to recognize the new name created by his archrival Marsh, so it fell to Lawrence Lambe to change Laelaps incrassatus to Dryptosaurus incrassatus when he described the remains in detail in 1904.
Shortly later, Osborn pointed out that D. incrassatus was based on generic tyrannosaurid teeth, so the two Horseshoe Canyon skulls could not be confidently referred to that species. The Horseshoe Canyon skulls also differed markedly from the remains of D. aquilunguis, type species of Dryptosaurus, so Osborn created the new name Albertosaurus sarcophagus for them in 1905. He did not describe the remains in any great detail, citing Lambe's complete description the year before.
Both specimens (CMN 5600 and 5601) are stored in the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa.
Dry Island bonebed
In 1910, American paleontologist Barnum Brown uncovered the remains of a large group of Albertosaurus at another quarry alongside the Red Deer River. Because of the large number of bones and the limited time available, Brown's party did not collect every specimen, but made sure to collect remains from all of the individuals they could identify in the bonebed. Among the bones deposited in the American Museum of Natural History collections in New York City are seven sets of right metatarsals, along with two isolated toe bones that did not match any of the metatarsals in size. This indicated the presence of at least nine individuals in the quarry.
The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology rediscovered the bonebed in 1997 and resumed fieldwork at the site, which is now located inside Dry Island Buffalo Jump Provincial Park. Further excavation from 1997 to 2005 turned up the remains of 13 more individuals of various ages, including a diminutive two-year-old and a very old individual estimated at over 10 metres (33 ft) in length. None of these individuals are known from complete skeletons, and most are represented by remains in both museums.
Gorgosaurus libratus
In 1913, paleontologist Charles H. Sternberg recovered another tyrannosaurid skeleton from the slightly older Dinosaur Park Formation in Alberta. Lawrence Lambe named this dinosaur Gorgosaurus libratus in 1914.
Other specimens were later found in Alberta and the US state of Montana. Finding few differences to separate the two genera, Dale Russell declared the name Gorgosaurus a junior synonym of Albertosaurus, which had been named first, and G. libratus was renamed Albertosaurus libratus in 1970. This addition extended the temporal range of the genus Albertosaurus backwards by several million years and its geographic range southwards by hundreds of kilometres.
In 2003, Philip J. Currie compared several tyrannosaurid skulls and came to the conclusion that the two species are more distinct than previously thought. The decision to use one or two genera is rather arbitrary, as the two species are sister taxa, more closely related to each other than to any other species. Recognizing this, Currie nevertheless recommended that Albertosaurus and Gorgosaurus be retained as separate genera, as they are no more similar than Daspletosaurus and Tyrannosaurus, which are almost always separated. In addition, several albertosaurine specimens have been recovered from Alaska and New Mexico, and Currie suggested that the Albertosaurus-Gorgosaurus situation may be clarified once these are described fully. Most authors have followed Currie's recommendation, but some have not.
Other discoveries
William Parks described a new species, Albertosaurus arctunguis, based on a partial skeleton excavated near the Red Deer River in 1928, but this species has been considered identical to A. sarcophagus since 1970. Parks' specimen (ROM 807) is housed in the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. Six more skulls and skeletons have since been discovered in Alberta and are housed in various Canadian museums. Fossils have also been reported from the American states of Montana, New Mexico, and Wyoming, but these probably do not represent A. sarcophagus and may not even belong to the genus Albertosaurus.
Albertosaurus megagracilis was based on a small tyrannosaurid skeleton from the Hell Creek Formation of Montana. It was renamed Dinotyrannus in 1995, but is now thought to represent a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex.
Friday, June 10, 2011
Australia: Walking in their footsteps on Victoria's dinosaur trail
theage.com.au: Walking in their footsteps on Victoria's dinosaur trail
THE most significant cluster of dinosaur footprints in Victoria has been discovered about 100 kilometres from Melbourne. Dating back about 105 million years to the early Cretaceous period, they represent up to 90 per cent of the known dinosaur footprints in the state, according to Museum Victoria senior curator Tom Rich.
A palaeontologist, Dr Rich discovered the footprints with US colleague Anthony Martin at Melanesia Beach, near Cape Otway, in June last year.
''Tony and I did what he'd dubbed 'the great cretaceous walk','' Dr Rich said. ''We started at Inverloch and walked the coastline to San Remo. And then we started again at Apollo Bay and walked west to Moonlight Head.''
Advertisement: Story continues below The two adopted a strategic approach to their month-long coastline search for trace fossils, which can come in the form of footprints, scratch marks or burrows, and are evidence of activity by living organisms.
The pair located at least 24 prints on the windswept shoreline. Before this, only four confirmed dinosaur tracks had been found in Victoria.
While recognisable only to the trained eye - as faint depressions in the sandstone - the prints have excited researchers who spent many months puzzling over how to extract them without damaging them. Left as they were, the footprints would have eroded within a decade, Dr Rich said, due to the harsh conditions.
Working with Parks Victoria and local landowner Greg Denney, Dr Rich co-ordinated the removal of two blocks - the heaviest weighing 700 kilograms - which were transported to Museum Victoria last week. Scientists at the museum will make silicone surface moulds of the footprints for study and possible display.
''Bones tell us how animals were buried,'' Dr Rich said. ''But trace fossils of any kind are interesting; they tell us how they were living. It's the difference between a living scene and a cemetery, essentially.''
Dr Martin, from Emory University's environmental studies department in Atlanta, Georgia, is studying the prints to establish their age, the type of dinosaur that made them and whether they were made by more than one animal. His findings will be published next month in the journal Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology.
''This dinosaur track assemblage is the best in terms of numbers and quality found thus far in formerly polar environments of the southern hemisphere,'' Dr Martin said.
The prints vary in size, suggesting they were made by a variety of dinosaurs. He said the prints included what appeared to be a dinosaur trackway - three consecutive tracks in sequence made by the same dinosaur. If this proves correct, it would be the first known dinosaur trackway from the Cretaceous period in Victoria.
Much of what is known about the local fauna of the Cretaceous period comes from fossil beds in Victoria's two premier dinosaur sites: Dinosaur Cove - 10 kilometres from Melanesia Beach - and Flat Rocks, near Inverloch.
The Earth during this period was warmer than it is now, making the polar regions more habitable, with forests extending to the South Pole.
THE most significant cluster of dinosaur footprints in Victoria has been discovered about 100 kilometres from Melbourne. Dating back about 105 million years to the early Cretaceous period, they represent up to 90 per cent of the known dinosaur footprints in the state, according to Museum Victoria senior curator Tom Rich.
A palaeontologist, Dr Rich discovered the footprints with US colleague Anthony Martin at Melanesia Beach, near Cape Otway, in June last year.
''Tony and I did what he'd dubbed 'the great cretaceous walk','' Dr Rich said. ''We started at Inverloch and walked the coastline to San Remo. And then we started again at Apollo Bay and walked west to Moonlight Head.''
Advertisement: Story continues below The two adopted a strategic approach to their month-long coastline search for trace fossils, which can come in the form of footprints, scratch marks or burrows, and are evidence of activity by living organisms.
The pair located at least 24 prints on the windswept shoreline. Before this, only four confirmed dinosaur tracks had been found in Victoria.
While recognisable only to the trained eye - as faint depressions in the sandstone - the prints have excited researchers who spent many months puzzling over how to extract them without damaging them. Left as they were, the footprints would have eroded within a decade, Dr Rich said, due to the harsh conditions.
Working with Parks Victoria and local landowner Greg Denney, Dr Rich co-ordinated the removal of two blocks - the heaviest weighing 700 kilograms - which were transported to Museum Victoria last week. Scientists at the museum will make silicone surface moulds of the footprints for study and possible display.
''Bones tell us how animals were buried,'' Dr Rich said. ''But trace fossils of any kind are interesting; they tell us how they were living. It's the difference between a living scene and a cemetery, essentially.''
Dr Martin, from Emory University's environmental studies department in Atlanta, Georgia, is studying the prints to establish their age, the type of dinosaur that made them and whether they were made by more than one animal. His findings will be published next month in the journal Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology.
''This dinosaur track assemblage is the best in terms of numbers and quality found thus far in formerly polar environments of the southern hemisphere,'' Dr Martin said.
The prints vary in size, suggesting they were made by a variety of dinosaurs. He said the prints included what appeared to be a dinosaur trackway - three consecutive tracks in sequence made by the same dinosaur. If this proves correct, it would be the first known dinosaur trackway from the Cretaceous period in Victoria.
Much of what is known about the local fauna of the Cretaceous period comes from fossil beds in Victoria's two premier dinosaur sites: Dinosaur Cove - 10 kilometres from Melanesia Beach - and Flat Rocks, near Inverloch.
The Earth during this period was warmer than it is now, making the polar regions more habitable, with forests extending to the South Pole.
App of the Day: Dinosaur Zoo for iPad
Gizmodo: Dinosaur Zoo for iPad
Casey Chan
Dinosaurs in any shape, size or form are freaking magical. I don't care if you're talking about T-Rex or the little critters, I love them all. Dinosaur Zoo is an interactive encyclopedia-type app that lets you see dinos in their natural habitat—attacking, eating and dumping on your command.
What is it?
Dinosaur Zoo, $4, iPad. Think of it as an encyclopedia for dinosaurs but instead of giving you monotonous info that bores you, it places you in an interactive Dinosaur Zoo (hence the name). You can slide through various dinosaurs and have them attack your finger tap, get fed, or drop a deuce. It's like having a Jurassic Park on your iPad!
But Dinosaur Zoo isn't all play, there's basic information on the dinos and a slick map interface that shows you where they roamed (and additionally, what the Earth looked like in that era). The app also let you know what type of fossils have been found of particular dinosaurs and what the bone structure was like.
It's an app that lets you play with dinosaurs man, who's not going to love that?
Who's it good for?
People who like dinosaurs. People who like interactive encyclopedias. People who like learning new things. Who doesn't like dinosaurs!?
Why's it better than the alternatives?
The dinosaurs are interactive, the environment is vividly delicious and it's fun as hell. Some apps about dinosaurs are much more informative, that's for sure, but it's super cool to pretend that you're visiting an actual Dinosaur Zoo like Jurassic Park. I've been making that Argentinosaurus take a dump for like half an hour now. I especially love the 'map view' of the app, as I can see how our world once looked and where particular dinos lived.
How could it be even better?
More dinos! A lot of the big time dinos are 'coming soon' so that'll help flesh out the app. When you click on a particular dinosaur from the zoo map, it'll cycle through all the other dinosaurs to get there—it'd be better if it was instant. Also, I'd love if it was possible to cycle through 'Dangerous, Feeding, etc' for each dinosaur so I can see how all of them react. It'd be super cool if I could pan around the environment too. There's a decent amount of information here but more wouldn't hurt it (or a link to Wikipedia or something).
Alamosaurus (AL-uh-moh-SAW-rus)
Both genus and species were named by Smithsonian paleontologist Charles W. Gilmore in 1922.
Alamosaurus (AL-uh-moh-SAW-rus)
Alamosaurus, (meaning "Ojo Alamo lizard"), is a genus of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period of what is now North America. It was a large quadrupedal herbivore. Isolated vertebrae and limb bones indicate that it reached sizes comparable to Argentinosaurus and Puertasaurus, which would make it the largest dinosaur known from North America. Alamosaurus, like other sauropods, had a long neck and a long tail.
Naming
Contrary to popular assumption, this dinosaur is not named after the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, or the battle that was fought there.
The holotype, or original specimen, was discovered in New Mexico and, at the time of its naming, Alamosaurus had not yet been found in Texas. Instead, the name Alamosaurus comes from Ojo Alamo, the geologic formation in which it was found and which was, in turn, named after the nearby Ojo Alamo trading post (since this time there has been some debate as to whether to reclassify the Alamosaurus-bearing rocks as belonging to the Kirtland Formation or whether they should remain in the Ojo Alamo Formation).
The term alamo itself is a Spanish word meaning "poplar" and is used for the local subspecies of cottonwood tree. The term saurus is derived from saura (σαυρα), Greek for "lizard" and is the most common suffix used in dinosaur names. There is one species (A. sanjuanensis), which is named after San Juan County, New Mexico, where the first remains were found. Both genus and species were named by Smithsonian paleontologist Charles W. Gilmore in 1922.
History of Discovery
Alamosaurus remains have been discovered throughout the southwestern United States. The holotype was discovered in the Naashoibito Member of the Ojo Alamo Formation (or Kirtland Formation under a different definition) of New Mexico which was deposited during the Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous Period.
Bones have also been recovered from other Maastrichtian formations, like the North Horn Formation of Utah and the Black Peaks, El Picacho and Javelina Formations of Texas. It used to be thought that these formations were deposited immediately prior to the end of the Cretaceous, 65 million years ago. However, recent research has revised this view: there is no evidence that the K-T boundary is present in any of them, and they are more likely to be early Maastrictian in age (~69 million years old;
Gilmore originally described a scapula (shoulder bone) and ischium (pelvic bone) in 1922. In 1946, he found a more complete specimen in Utah, consisting of a complete tail, a right forelimb complete except for the tips of the toes, and both ischia. Since then, many other bits and pieces from Texas, New Mexico, and Utah have been referred to Alamosaurus, often without much description. The most completely known specimen is a recently-discovered juvenile skeleton from Texas, which allowed educated estimates of length and mass.
No skull material is known, except for a few slender teeth, and no armor scutes have been reported, such as those found in other advanced titanosaurians like Saltasaurus.
Skeletal elements of Alamosaurus are among the most common Late Cretaceous dinosaur fossils found in the United States Southwest and are now used to define the fauna of that time and place. Other contemporaneous dinosaurs from that part of the world include tyrannosaurs, smaller theropods, the hadrosaur Edmontosaurus sp., the ankylosaur Glyptodontopelta, and the ceratopsids Torosaurus utahensis and Ojoceratops fowleri. Tyrannosaurs probably preyed on Alamosaurus. Smaller theropods, such as Troodon, also lived in the same time and place as Alamosaurus. They could have preyed on young Alamosaurus.
The vertebrae from the middle part of its tail had elongated centra.[6] Alamosaurus had vertebral lateral fossae that resembled shallow depressions.[7] Fossae that similarly resemble shallow depressions are known from Saltasaurus, Malawisaurus, Aeolosaurus, and Gondwanatitan. Venenosaurus also had depression-like fossae, but its "depressions" penetrated deeper into the vertebrae, were divided into two chambers, and extend farther into the vertebral columns.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Agrosaurus (AG-roh-SAW-rus) [nomium dubium]
Members of an expedition from the British sloop HMS Fly supposedly collected a tibia, a claw and some other fragments in 1844 from Cape York, Queensland. The original block was purchased by the British Museum of Natural History in 1879, but the remains were not studied until 1891.
Agrosaurus (AG-roh-SAW-rus)
Agrosaurus (Seeley, 1891; (meaning 'field lizard', referring to the place where it was supposedly discovered, (Greek agros meaning 'field' and sauros meaning 'lizard') is the name given to the remains of what was originally believed to be a Triassic prosauropod from Australia. Agrosaurus would thus be the oldest dinosaur from that country. However, this appears to have been an error, and the material actually appears to come from Thecodontosaurus or a Thecodontosaurus-like animal from Bristol, England. The type species is Agrosaurus macgillivrayi.
Members of an expedition from the British sloop HMS Fly supposedly collected a tibia, a claw and some other fragments in 1844 from Cape York, Queensland. The original block was purchased by the British Museum of Natural History in 1879, but the remains were not studied until 1891. Harry Govier Seeley in that year named it Agrosaurus macgillivrayi. The block was prepared in the late 1980s. Following the preparation, Ralph Molnar (1991) noticed similarities to the prosauropod Massospondylus. Galton and Cluver (1976) saw Agrosaurus as close to Anchisaurus. Vickers-Rich, Rich, McNamara and Milner (1999) equated Agrosaurus and Thecodontosaurus antiquus, claiming that the British Museum remains were mislabelled. The difficulty in correctly identifying the source of the fossil lies in the fact that the log of the Fly does not record it.
The matrix in which the prosauropod bones were preserved was tested with rocks of similar age in Cape York and Durdham Downs, the latter being beds where Thecodontosaurus remains have been found in the Bristol area of England. The English beds compared most favourably. In fact, as early as 1906 Friedrich von Huene had described the rock matrix as 'extremely reminiscent of the bone breccia at Durdham Downs near Bristol' and had renamed the species Thecodontosaurus macgillivrayi. Remains of the jaw of a sphenodont identical to Diphyodontosaurus avonis, a lizard-like reptile common to the Bristol Triassic beds have been extracted. This reinterpretation of Agrosaurus as a misidentified British specimen has been accepted in later works.
From the scant remains the living animal would appear to have been about three metres long (10 ft), with a typically prosauropodan appearance: bulky body, long neck, small head and clawed feet. Like other prosauropods, it was probably equally comfortable on all fours as well as on its elongated hind legs. It was herbivorous or may have been an omnivore.
The name Agrosaurus is now generally considered to be a nomen dubium or a junior synonym of Thecodontosaurus. If Agrosaurus is not from Australia, which seems most probable, Rhoetosaurus and Ozraptor, both from the Bajocian (Middle Jurassic) would be the oldest known Australian dinosaurs. Fortunately they are well documented.
Agrosaurus (AG-roh-SAW-rus)
Agrosaurus (Seeley, 1891; (meaning 'field lizard', referring to the place where it was supposedly discovered, (Greek agros meaning 'field' and sauros meaning 'lizard') is the name given to the remains of what was originally believed to be a Triassic prosauropod from Australia. Agrosaurus would thus be the oldest dinosaur from that country. However, this appears to have been an error, and the material actually appears to come from Thecodontosaurus or a Thecodontosaurus-like animal from Bristol, England. The type species is Agrosaurus macgillivrayi.
Members of an expedition from the British sloop HMS Fly supposedly collected a tibia, a claw and some other fragments in 1844 from Cape York, Queensland. The original block was purchased by the British Museum of Natural History in 1879, but the remains were not studied until 1891. Harry Govier Seeley in that year named it Agrosaurus macgillivrayi. The block was prepared in the late 1980s. Following the preparation, Ralph Molnar (1991) noticed similarities to the prosauropod Massospondylus. Galton and Cluver (1976) saw Agrosaurus as close to Anchisaurus. Vickers-Rich, Rich, McNamara and Milner (1999) equated Agrosaurus and Thecodontosaurus antiquus, claiming that the British Museum remains were mislabelled. The difficulty in correctly identifying the source of the fossil lies in the fact that the log of the Fly does not record it.
The matrix in which the prosauropod bones were preserved was tested with rocks of similar age in Cape York and Durdham Downs, the latter being beds where Thecodontosaurus remains have been found in the Bristol area of England. The English beds compared most favourably. In fact, as early as 1906 Friedrich von Huene had described the rock matrix as 'extremely reminiscent of the bone breccia at Durdham Downs near Bristol' and had renamed the species Thecodontosaurus macgillivrayi. Remains of the jaw of a sphenodont identical to Diphyodontosaurus avonis, a lizard-like reptile common to the Bristol Triassic beds have been extracted. This reinterpretation of Agrosaurus as a misidentified British specimen has been accepted in later works.
From the scant remains the living animal would appear to have been about three metres long (10 ft), with a typically prosauropodan appearance: bulky body, long neck, small head and clawed feet. Like other prosauropods, it was probably equally comfortable on all fours as well as on its elongated hind legs. It was herbivorous or may have been an omnivore.
The name Agrosaurus is now generally considered to be a nomen dubium or a junior synonym of Thecodontosaurus. If Agrosaurus is not from Australia, which seems most probable, Rhoetosaurus and Ozraptor, both from the Bajocian (Middle Jurassic) would be the oldest known Australian dinosaurs. Fortunately they are well documented.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Agilisaurus (AJ-i-li-SAW-rus)
Both genus and type species were named by Chinese paleontologist Peng Guangzhou in very brief fashion in 1990, then described in further detail by Peng in 1992.
Agilisaurus (AJ-i-li-SAW-rus)
Agilisaurus ('agile lizard') is a genus of ornithischian dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic Period of what is now eastern Asia. The name is derived from the Latin agilis meaning 'agile' and the Greek sauros meaning 'lizard', and refers to the agility suggested by its lightweight skeleton and long legs. Its tibia (lower leg bone) was longer than its femur (upper leg bone), which indicates that it was an extremely fast bipedal runner, using its long tail for balance, although it may have walked on all fours when browsing for food. It was a small herbivore, about 1.2 meters (4 feet) in length, and like all ornithischians, it had a beak-like structure on the ends of both upper and lower jaws to help it crop plant material.
Discovery and history
There is one named species (A. louderbacki), named after Dr. George Louderback, an American geologist and the first to recognize dinosaur fossils from the Sichuan Province of China in 1915. Both genus and type species were named by Chinese paleontologist Peng Guangzhou in very brief fashion in 1990, then described in further detail by Peng in 1992.
A single complete skeleton of A. louderbacki is known to science, one of the most complete small ornithischian skeletons ever found. Only a few parts of its left fore limb and hind limb are missing, and those can be reconstructed from their counterparts on the right side.
This skeleton was actually discovered during the construction of the Zigong Dinosaur Museum, in which it is now housed. This museum features many dinosaurs recovered from the famous Dashanpu Quarry outside the city of Zigong, in the Chinese province of Sichuan, including Agilisaurus, as well as Xuanhanosaurus, Shunosaurus, and Huayangosaurus. This quarry preserves sediment from the Lower Shaximiao Formation (sometimes called "Xiashaximiao") which ranges from the Bathonian through Callovian stages of the Middle Jurassic Period, or from about 168 to 161 million years ago.
Agilisaurus (AJ-i-li-SAW-rus)
Agilisaurus ('agile lizard') is a genus of ornithischian dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic Period of what is now eastern Asia. The name is derived from the Latin agilis meaning 'agile' and the Greek sauros meaning 'lizard', and refers to the agility suggested by its lightweight skeleton and long legs. Its tibia (lower leg bone) was longer than its femur (upper leg bone), which indicates that it was an extremely fast bipedal runner, using its long tail for balance, although it may have walked on all fours when browsing for food. It was a small herbivore, about 1.2 meters (4 feet) in length, and like all ornithischians, it had a beak-like structure on the ends of both upper and lower jaws to help it crop plant material.
Discovery and history
There is one named species (A. louderbacki), named after Dr. George Louderback, an American geologist and the first to recognize dinosaur fossils from the Sichuan Province of China in 1915. Both genus and type species were named by Chinese paleontologist Peng Guangzhou in very brief fashion in 1990, then described in further detail by Peng in 1992.
A single complete skeleton of A. louderbacki is known to science, one of the most complete small ornithischian skeletons ever found. Only a few parts of its left fore limb and hind limb are missing, and those can be reconstructed from their counterparts on the right side.
This skeleton was actually discovered during the construction of the Zigong Dinosaur Museum, in which it is now housed. This museum features many dinosaurs recovered from the famous Dashanpu Quarry outside the city of Zigong, in the Chinese province of Sichuan, including Agilisaurus, as well as Xuanhanosaurus, Shunosaurus, and Huayangosaurus. This quarry preserves sediment from the Lower Shaximiao Formation (sometimes called "Xiashaximiao") which ranges from the Bathonian through Callovian stages of the Middle Jurassic Period, or from about 168 to 161 million years ago.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Aepisaurus (EE—pi-SAW-rus)
The description of this dinosaur, extrapolated from its humerus, was in either 1852 or 1853.
Aepisaurus (EE—pi-SAW-rus)
Aepisaurus (derived from the Greek: 'lofty/high' and - 'lizard', i.e. "lofty lizard") was a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Albian-age Lower Cretaceous Grès vert of Départment du Vaucluse, France, around 100 million years ago. It is an obscure genus from an unknown family, represented by a single humerus, now lost. Despite its lack of popularity, or perhaps because of it, it has been misspelled several ways in the scientific literature, with multiple dates given to the year of description as well.
History
French paleontologist Paul Gervais described the new genus based on MNHN 1868-242, a humerus found at Mont Ventoux, near Bédoin. The bone was 90 cm (35.43 in) long, 33 cm (13 in) wide at the proximal end, 15 cm (5.91 in) wide in the middle, and 25 cm (9.84 cm) wide at the distal end. From the same locality, he referred a conical tooth he thought could belong to a larger second species, and from elsewhere added to A. sp. (a practice used to denote that the remains belong to a certain genus, but the species is not known) a partial humerus and ulna.
Since the appearance of Titanosauridae, it has typically been referred to that family because the slender humerus resembles that of Laplatasaurus. However, as noted by McIntosh (1990), the bone is also like that of Camarasaurus and some brachiosaurids.
Misspellings and other errata
The date of description is given as 1853 by Glut (1997) and some online sources, although the Paleobiology Database and both editions of The Dinosauria use 1852
Le Loeuff (1993), in his review of European titanosaurs, could not locate the type specimen, and found that the illustration of it did not allow it to be placed with any sauropod group. Based on proportions, it could not be placed with camarasaurids or titanosaurids. The additional remains referred to it by Gervais were removed, and in the case of the tooth, probably belonged to a crocodilian. Although McIntosh considered the genus to be Sauropoda incertae sedis (uncertain placement), the latest review agreed with Le Loeuff and listed the genus as a dubious sauropod
Aepisaurus (EE—pi-SAW-rus)
Aepisaurus (derived from the Greek: 'lofty/high' and - 'lizard', i.e. "lofty lizard") was a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Albian-age Lower Cretaceous Grès vert of Départment du Vaucluse, France, around 100 million years ago. It is an obscure genus from an unknown family, represented by a single humerus, now lost. Despite its lack of popularity, or perhaps because of it, it has been misspelled several ways in the scientific literature, with multiple dates given to the year of description as well.
History
French paleontologist Paul Gervais described the new genus based on MNHN 1868-242, a humerus found at Mont Ventoux, near Bédoin. The bone was 90 cm (35.43 in) long, 33 cm (13 in) wide at the proximal end, 15 cm (5.91 in) wide in the middle, and 25 cm (9.84 cm) wide at the distal end. From the same locality, he referred a conical tooth he thought could belong to a larger second species, and from elsewhere added to A. sp. (a practice used to denote that the remains belong to a certain genus, but the species is not known) a partial humerus and ulna.
Since the appearance of Titanosauridae, it has typically been referred to that family because the slender humerus resembles that of Laplatasaurus. However, as noted by McIntosh (1990), the bone is also like that of Camarasaurus and some brachiosaurids.
Misspellings and other errata
The date of description is given as 1853 by Glut (1997) and some online sources, although the Paleobiology Database and both editions of The Dinosauria use 1852
Le Loeuff (1993), in his review of European titanosaurs, could not locate the type specimen, and found that the illustration of it did not allow it to be placed with any sauropod group. Based on proportions, it could not be placed with camarasaurids or titanosaurids. The additional remains referred to it by Gervais were removed, and in the case of the tooth, probably belonged to a crocodilian. Although McIntosh considered the genus to be Sauropoda incertae sedis (uncertain placement), the latest review agreed with Le Loeuff and listed the genus as a dubious sauropod
Monday, June 6, 2011
Alectrosaurus (uh-LECK-truh-SAW-rus)
George Olsen, discovered the first specimens in 1923 on the third American Museum of Natural History expedition to Mongolia. Both genus and species were named by American paleontologist Charles Gilmore in 1933.
Alectrosaurus (uh-LECK-truh-SAW-rus)
Alectrosaurus (meaning "unmarried lizard") is a genus of tyrannosauroid theropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period of Inner Mongolia. It was a bipedal carnivore with a body shape similar to its much larger relative, Tyrannosaurus rex. Alectrosaurus was much smaller though, most likely less than five meters (17 ft) long.
The generic name Alectrosaurus can also be translated as "alone lizard," and is derived from the Greek words alektros ("unmarried") and sauros ("lizard"). At the time of its discovery, it was unlike any other Asian carnivore known. There is one named species (A. olseni), which is named in honor of George Olsen, who discovered the first specimens in 1923 on the third American Museum of Natural History expedition to Mongolia. Both genus and species were named by American paleontologist Charles Gilmore in 1933.
History of discovery
Right hind foot of Alectrosaurus olseni. No. 6368, A.M.N.H.The holotype (AMNH 6554), or original specimen, of Alectrosaurus was a hind limb discovered in the Iren Dabasu Formation of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (Nei Mongol Zizhiqu) of the People's Republic of China. Forelimb material in the type specimen was later found to be misidentified therizinosauroid remains. The age of this geologic formation is not clear, but is commonly cited as the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous Period, about 83 to 74 million years ago.
More material, including comparable hind limb material as well as skull and shoulder elements, has been referred to Alectrosaurus. These fossils were found in the Bayan Shireh Formation of Outer Mongolia, a formation which is also of uncertain age. It may possibly extend into the early Campanian, but recent estimates suggest it was deposited from Cenomanian through Santonian times.
Iren Dabasu and Bayan Shireh dinosaur faunas are similar, but van Itterbeecka et al. claimed that the Iren Dabasu is probably Campanian-Maastrichtian in age and possibly correlated with the Nemegt Formation, so it is not surprising that a species of Alectrosaurus would be found there.
Furthermore, several more partial skeletons may have been found in both Inner and Outer Mongolia. These remain undescribed as of early 2007.
Alectrosaurus (uh-LECK-truh-SAW-rus)
Alectrosaurus (meaning "unmarried lizard") is a genus of tyrannosauroid theropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period of Inner Mongolia. It was a bipedal carnivore with a body shape similar to its much larger relative, Tyrannosaurus rex. Alectrosaurus was much smaller though, most likely less than five meters (17 ft) long.
The generic name Alectrosaurus can also be translated as "alone lizard," and is derived from the Greek words alektros ("unmarried") and sauros ("lizard"). At the time of its discovery, it was unlike any other Asian carnivore known. There is one named species (A. olseni), which is named in honor of George Olsen, who discovered the first specimens in 1923 on the third American Museum of Natural History expedition to Mongolia. Both genus and species were named by American paleontologist Charles Gilmore in 1933.
History of discovery
Right hind foot of Alectrosaurus olseni. No. 6368, A.M.N.H.The holotype (AMNH 6554), or original specimen, of Alectrosaurus was a hind limb discovered in the Iren Dabasu Formation of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (Nei Mongol Zizhiqu) of the People's Republic of China. Forelimb material in the type specimen was later found to be misidentified therizinosauroid remains. The age of this geologic formation is not clear, but is commonly cited as the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous Period, about 83 to 74 million years ago.
More material, including comparable hind limb material as well as skull and shoulder elements, has been referred to Alectrosaurus. These fossils were found in the Bayan Shireh Formation of Outer Mongolia, a formation which is also of uncertain age. It may possibly extend into the early Campanian, but recent estimates suggest it was deposited from Cenomanian through Santonian times.
Iren Dabasu and Bayan Shireh dinosaur faunas are similar, but van Itterbeecka et al. claimed that the Iren Dabasu is probably Campanian-Maastrichtian in age and possibly correlated with the Nemegt Formation, so it is not surprising that a species of Alectrosaurus would be found there.
Furthermore, several more partial skeletons may have been found in both Inner and Outer Mongolia. These remain undescribed as of early 2007.
Young paleontologists ready to dig into Dinosaur Club
WiltonBulletin.com: Young paleontologists ready to dig into Dinosaur Club
Quick, name the two Connecticut dinosaurs known from skeletons that were discovered in a Manchester sandstone quarry in the late 1800s.
Answer: Anchisaurus and Ammosaurus.
These are the type of questions students in grades 4-6 are asked in the annual Paleo-Knowledge Bowl held at Yale’s Peabody Museum in November.
Wilton students are gearing up to “defend Wilton’s history of paleontological prowess” in the bowl, with the launch of the second annual Dinosaur Club, according to coach Darrell Fennell. Meetings will take place in the Wilton Library beginning June 6, from 4 to 5.
Mr. Fennell said the sessions are “rigorous and challenging, and will involve experiments, model-building, multi-media presentations, and research in geology, paleontology, paleobiology and evolution. The ultimate goal will be to field a team to enter the 14th annual Paleo-Knowledge Bowl.”
The Peabody Museum is known for its “Great Hall,” which houses the massive, life-sized skeletons of a Stegosaurus and an Archelon, an extinct turtle species around the size of an SUV, and is surrounded by a 100-foot long “Age of Reptiles” mural.
Mr. Fennell said the competition consists of “a battle of knowledge among teams of young paleontology buffs done in rounds in a ‘College Bowl’ format. The questions are tough and largely center on dinosaurs, but may involve all aspects of the study of ancient life including the identities of the discoverers, theories of the behavior of ancient animals, early hominids and continental drift.”
In 2007, a Wilton team finished second, then followed with first, second and third place awards. Mr. Fennell, a retired lawyer, said approximately 20 teams from across the state usually compete.
For the youthful paleontology experts, the Peabody Museum “provides fossils and books to the winning teams; and for the top two teams a family membership for each teammate and a behind-the-scenes tour of the museum,” Mr. Fennell said. “The tours allow the students to see some of the collections not on display to the public, and also to meet some of the world famous scientists working at Yale.”
Mr. Fennell said the Wilton tradition started with Emmy Miller, a young dinosaur buff, and her mother, Michelle. The family was from Utah, where Emmy had gone on a dinosaur dig. When they came to Wilton, they learned of the Paleo Knowledge Bowl, and went to see it.
Ms. Miller said she was “blown away” by how technical the questions were and the competitive level of the participants.
The next year, Ms. Miller coached a team that included her daughter that took second place. The following year, Emmy and Katherine Fennell, Mr. Fennell’s daughter, won the competition.
“They were able to beat a team from Hamden by correctly identifying a fossil skull as belonging to a whale rather than a reptile,” Mr. Fennell said.
So how could they tell?
“The key lies in how a whale’s skull is hinged onto its jaw,” he said.
Last year, the Wilton Library sponsored the team from Wilton, and hosted a summer Dinosaur Club. Under the direction of Children’s Librarian Lesley Keogh and with assistance from Mr. Fennell, “students spent the summer learning about dinosaurs and other early life forms with hands-on examinations of fossils and vertebrate skeletons, experiments, modeling and slide presentations in various aspects of earth sciences and the history of life on earth. It will show the interrelatedness of life, and the preciousness of life,” he said.
Kids are fascinated with dinosaurs, according to Mr. Fennell, and the club and competition is a “good way of getting them into a high level science enrichment program ... Dinosaurs are the most successful form of life ever created on Earth. They dominated the planet for 140 million years, until an asteroid ended their reign.”
The first session at the library will involve “fossilization and the nature of the fossil record over deep time,” Mr. Fennell said.
To register, visit the Wilton Library’s Web site and click on the entry for the Dinosaur Club in the events section of the home page. Information: dkfennell@yahoo.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or Andrea McElroy at amcelroy2@optimum.net This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
Dinosaurs return to Berkeley, this time with new roars
Berkelyside, CA: Dinosaurs return to Berkeley, this time with new roars
Dinosaurs rule at UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science. And the roaring, slashing, chomping monsters of the “Dinosaurs Unearthed” exhibit have undergone major renovation.
In addition to sensor-activated roars, the animatronic models received some cosmetic makeovers.
Designers developed the new models based on recent discoveries by paleontologists, said Lawrence Hall Communications Director Janet Noe.
“There are a few that have feathers and fur which is sort of a recent finding – that not all dinosaurs were necessarily cold-blooded,” Noe said. “They didn’t all just have scales.”
One dinosaur — Deinonychus or ‘Terrible Claw’ — boasts five-inch talons, feathered elbows and a bear-like fur. A juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex is covered in a thick, downy coat. New skin tones come complete with new roars.
“These dinosaurs all have sounds that are based on what scientists think they might have actually sounded like,” Noe said. “Some of them sound cat-like, some of them are bird-like, and then some are your more classic dinosaur sound.”
The adult Tyrannosaurus rex’s immense size and booming sounds make it a crowd pleaser among visiting youth. “It’s massive,” Noe said. “It’s so big, we had to put it outside. The kids will go out and, when it roars, you get these amazing reactions.”
According to six-year-old Edward Agnew, the giant dinosaur is as massive as it is cool. His friend, Zayden Greene, also six, agreed. “They’re awesome,” he said. “Kids should come see them because they’re cool. There’s a lot you can learn about them.”
“Dinosaurs Unearthed” is at the Lawrence Hall of Science on Centennial Drive through January 1.
Dinosaurs rule at UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science. And the roaring, slashing, chomping monsters of the “Dinosaurs Unearthed” exhibit have undergone major renovation.
In addition to sensor-activated roars, the animatronic models received some cosmetic makeovers.
Designers developed the new models based on recent discoveries by paleontologists, said Lawrence Hall Communications Director Janet Noe.
“There are a few that have feathers and fur which is sort of a recent finding – that not all dinosaurs were necessarily cold-blooded,” Noe said. “They didn’t all just have scales.”
One dinosaur — Deinonychus or ‘Terrible Claw’ — boasts five-inch talons, feathered elbows and a bear-like fur. A juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex is covered in a thick, downy coat. New skin tones come complete with new roars.
“These dinosaurs all have sounds that are based on what scientists think they might have actually sounded like,” Noe said. “Some of them sound cat-like, some of them are bird-like, and then some are your more classic dinosaur sound.”
The adult Tyrannosaurus rex’s immense size and booming sounds make it a crowd pleaser among visiting youth. “It’s massive,” Noe said. “It’s so big, we had to put it outside. The kids will go out and, when it roars, you get these amazing reactions.”
According to six-year-old Edward Agnew, the giant dinosaur is as massive as it is cool. His friend, Zayden Greene, also six, agreed. “They’re awesome,” he said. “Kids should come see them because they’re cool. There’s a lot you can learn about them.”
“Dinosaurs Unearthed” is at the Lawrence Hall of Science on Centennial Drive through January 1.
Was Spinosaurus a Bison-Backed Dinosaur?
Smithsonian.com-DinosaurTracking: Was Spinosaurus a Bison-Backed Dinosaur?
Spinosaurus and Ouranosaurus were among the most prominently ornamented of all dinosaurs. Both dinosaurs—a carnivore and herbivore, respectively—had elongated neural spines sticking out of many vertebrate along their backbones, which created prominent skeletal sails. In life, these structures are thought to have been covered by a thin layer of flesh, but in 1997 paleontologist Jack Bowman Bailey proposed an alternative idea. These dinosaurs were not sail-backed, Bowman hypothesized. They were hump-backed.
Superficially, the high-spined dinosaurs appeared to be analogues of two other strange prehistoric creatures. The carnivorous Dimetrodon and the herbivorous Edaphosaurus were synapsids, our own distant cousins, that lived between approximately 280 million and 265 million years ago. Both had the skeletal rigging for prominent sails on their backs and lived in a dry, arid landscape roughly similar to the kind of habitat Spinosaurus and Ouranosaurus inhabited much later. But Bailey argued that paleontologists had selected the wrong set of analogues. Bison were a better choice.
Bailey used basic anatomical comparison to set the stage for his idea. Illustrating the skeletons of Ouranosaurus, Dimetrodon and a bison side by side, Bailey noted that the back spines of the dinosaur were most similar to the thick, flattened spines near the shoulder region of the bison and were generally unlike the spindly backbone spires of Dimetrodon. (The elongated neural spines of the bison were so high, in fact, that Bailey wondered, “If bison had become extinct prior to the emergence of our own species, would they be interpreted today as sailbacked mammals?”) The resemblance led Baily to propose that the sails were sites for the attachments of powerful ligaments and large muscles.
Bison-backed dinosaurs would have been obligated to take up a different posture to handle all that extra bulk. If Spinosaurus had a thick hump, Bailey hypothesized, then it probably walked on all fours instead of balancing on two legs like other large theropods. “Thus, it seems unlikely that Spinosaurus was an agile cat-like sprinter like many short-spined theropods (e.g., Allosaurus),” he wrote, “but perhaps used the huge mass of its bear-like body to overpower young or weak prey, or perhaps to steal the kills of smaller more agile predators.” Restored by R. E. Johnson in one of the paper’s illustrations, Bailey’s vision of Spinosaurus looks like an enormous, hunch-backed crocodile.
Spinosaurus and Ouranosaurus were not the only dinosaurs Bailey thought might have humps. Bailey also viewed the elongated neural spines of dinosaurs such as the large theropod Acrocanthosaurus, the ceratopsian Protoceratops, the plate-backed Stegosaurus and others to infer the presence of large and small humps among many dinosaurs. These structures might have allowed dinosaurs to store up large amounts of energy in harsh environments, or maybe they allowed dinosaurs to maintain high, constant body temperatures (something that Bailey did not think dinosaurs were capable of without some specialized anatomical equipment, like a hump). The idea seemed plausible to some. A few months later, in a news report printed in Science, paleontologist Paul Barrett was cited as being in favor of Bailey’s notion. More recently, a 2007 National Geographic feature on “Extreme Dinosaurs” also counted Hans-Dieter Sues as supporting the idea, and a sketch by paleontologist Jason Poole showed a typical, sail-backed Spinosaurus standing next to a hump-backed one.
Beyond these notes, however, the idea that dinosaurs were bison-backed has not caught on. Spinosaurus, Ouranosaurus, and other dinosaurs Bailey cited are most often depicted with sails or other relatively thin structures, such as the fin-like projection at the hips of the recently-described predator Concavenator. There are a few reasons for this.
At the time Bailey wrote his paper, Ouranosaurus and Spinosaurus were thought to have lived in hot, dry, arid habitats where big sails would have caused them to overheat in the hot sun. A hump, in Bailey’s alternative view, would have acted as a “heat shield” in the Cretaceous environments. But paleontologists now know that these dinosaurs lived in lush, swampy environments and probably did not require protection from the desert-like environment Bailey based his ideas on. This also means that the dinosaurs would not have needed humps to store extra energy to make it through harsh dry seasons, thereby undermining the idea that Spinosaurus and Ouranosaurus were like desert lizards that store resources for tough times. (Additionally, if Spinosaurus and Ouranosaurus really did have heat-shield humps, then it is strange that other dinosaurs from the same ancient environments did not share the same adaptation.)
The dinosaurs were also relatively unique in the shape of their elongated spine rows. In terms of maximum spine height compared to the rest of the body, the dinosaurs considered in the study had sail or hump heights intermediate between those of Dimetrodon and bison, and the long spines of Spinosaurus and Ouranosaurus jutted up over a greater length of the back than in the mammals. Whereas the elongated spines of bison typically peaked between the shoulderblades and quickly became reduced in size, the highest points of the dinosaur backs were set further back along the spine and had a more gradual slope to them. This is probably because the elongated spines of bison are sites for muscle and ligament attachments that connect to the neck and head, whereas there is no indication that Ouranosaurus, Spinosaurus, or the other sail-backs needed extra support and power in the neck region. (If this were the case, and dinosaur humps contained muscles to support the head and give the neck more power, then it is odd that huge-headed dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus did not have a similar adaptation.) Nor is there any indication that Spinosaurus had a body adapted to walking on all fours, although Ouranosaurus likely shared the ability of its hadrosauroid relatives in being able to switch between two- and four-legged locomotion.
Why Spinosaurus and Ouranosaurus had long rows of elongated spines is unknown. The structures supported fleshy banners that almost certainly played roles in display and species recognition—these dinosaurs practically carried billboards on their backs—but beyond that, it is difficult to say. Reconstructing soft tissues on extinct animals is very difficult, and doubly so when there are no solid modern analogues for the structures in question. Though Bailey pointed to the humps of mammals, for example, the elongated spines of bison, mammoths, prehistoric deer and other creatures were related to providing support for the head and strength to the neck, which was apparently not the case with Spinosaurus and Ouranosaurus. Desert lizards with fat tails don’t appear to be good analogues, either. Spinosaurus and Ouranosaurus were fundamentally different, and they remain among the most bizarre dinosaurs yet discovered.
References:
Anonymous (1998). Dino Fins More Like Humps? Science, 279 (5354), 1139-1139 DOI: 10.1126/science.279.5354.1139d
Bailey, J.B. (1997). Neural Spine Elongation in Dinosaurs: Sailbacks or Buffalo-Backs? Journal of Paleontology, 71 (6), 1124-1146
Spinosaurus and Ouranosaurus were among the most prominently ornamented of all dinosaurs. Both dinosaurs—a carnivore and herbivore, respectively—had elongated neural spines sticking out of many vertebrate along their backbones, which created prominent skeletal sails. In life, these structures are thought to have been covered by a thin layer of flesh, but in 1997 paleontologist Jack Bowman Bailey proposed an alternative idea. These dinosaurs were not sail-backed, Bowman hypothesized. They were hump-backed.
Superficially, the high-spined dinosaurs appeared to be analogues of two other strange prehistoric creatures. The carnivorous Dimetrodon and the herbivorous Edaphosaurus were synapsids, our own distant cousins, that lived between approximately 280 million and 265 million years ago. Both had the skeletal rigging for prominent sails on their backs and lived in a dry, arid landscape roughly similar to the kind of habitat Spinosaurus and Ouranosaurus inhabited much later. But Bailey argued that paleontologists had selected the wrong set of analogues. Bison were a better choice.
Bailey used basic anatomical comparison to set the stage for his idea. Illustrating the skeletons of Ouranosaurus, Dimetrodon and a bison side by side, Bailey noted that the back spines of the dinosaur were most similar to the thick, flattened spines near the shoulder region of the bison and were generally unlike the spindly backbone spires of Dimetrodon. (The elongated neural spines of the bison were so high, in fact, that Bailey wondered, “If bison had become extinct prior to the emergence of our own species, would they be interpreted today as sailbacked mammals?”) The resemblance led Baily to propose that the sails were sites for the attachments of powerful ligaments and large muscles.
Bison-backed dinosaurs would have been obligated to take up a different posture to handle all that extra bulk. If Spinosaurus had a thick hump, Bailey hypothesized, then it probably walked on all fours instead of balancing on two legs like other large theropods. “Thus, it seems unlikely that Spinosaurus was an agile cat-like sprinter like many short-spined theropods (e.g., Allosaurus),” he wrote, “but perhaps used the huge mass of its bear-like body to overpower young or weak prey, or perhaps to steal the kills of smaller more agile predators.” Restored by R. E. Johnson in one of the paper’s illustrations, Bailey’s vision of Spinosaurus looks like an enormous, hunch-backed crocodile.
Spinosaurus and Ouranosaurus were not the only dinosaurs Bailey thought might have humps. Bailey also viewed the elongated neural spines of dinosaurs such as the large theropod Acrocanthosaurus, the ceratopsian Protoceratops, the plate-backed Stegosaurus and others to infer the presence of large and small humps among many dinosaurs. These structures might have allowed dinosaurs to store up large amounts of energy in harsh environments, or maybe they allowed dinosaurs to maintain high, constant body temperatures (something that Bailey did not think dinosaurs were capable of without some specialized anatomical equipment, like a hump). The idea seemed plausible to some. A few months later, in a news report printed in Science, paleontologist Paul Barrett was cited as being in favor of Bailey’s notion. More recently, a 2007 National Geographic feature on “Extreme Dinosaurs” also counted Hans-Dieter Sues as supporting the idea, and a sketch by paleontologist Jason Poole showed a typical, sail-backed Spinosaurus standing next to a hump-backed one.
Beyond these notes, however, the idea that dinosaurs were bison-backed has not caught on. Spinosaurus, Ouranosaurus, and other dinosaurs Bailey cited are most often depicted with sails or other relatively thin structures, such as the fin-like projection at the hips of the recently-described predator Concavenator. There are a few reasons for this.
At the time Bailey wrote his paper, Ouranosaurus and Spinosaurus were thought to have lived in hot, dry, arid habitats where big sails would have caused them to overheat in the hot sun. A hump, in Bailey’s alternative view, would have acted as a “heat shield” in the Cretaceous environments. But paleontologists now know that these dinosaurs lived in lush, swampy environments and probably did not require protection from the desert-like environment Bailey based his ideas on. This also means that the dinosaurs would not have needed humps to store extra energy to make it through harsh dry seasons, thereby undermining the idea that Spinosaurus and Ouranosaurus were like desert lizards that store resources for tough times. (Additionally, if Spinosaurus and Ouranosaurus really did have heat-shield humps, then it is strange that other dinosaurs from the same ancient environments did not share the same adaptation.)
The dinosaurs were also relatively unique in the shape of their elongated spine rows. In terms of maximum spine height compared to the rest of the body, the dinosaurs considered in the study had sail or hump heights intermediate between those of Dimetrodon and bison, and the long spines of Spinosaurus and Ouranosaurus jutted up over a greater length of the back than in the mammals. Whereas the elongated spines of bison typically peaked between the shoulderblades and quickly became reduced in size, the highest points of the dinosaur backs were set further back along the spine and had a more gradual slope to them. This is probably because the elongated spines of bison are sites for muscle and ligament attachments that connect to the neck and head, whereas there is no indication that Ouranosaurus, Spinosaurus, or the other sail-backs needed extra support and power in the neck region. (If this were the case, and dinosaur humps contained muscles to support the head and give the neck more power, then it is odd that huge-headed dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus did not have a similar adaptation.) Nor is there any indication that Spinosaurus had a body adapted to walking on all fours, although Ouranosaurus likely shared the ability of its hadrosauroid relatives in being able to switch between two- and four-legged locomotion.
Why Spinosaurus and Ouranosaurus had long rows of elongated spines is unknown. The structures supported fleshy banners that almost certainly played roles in display and species recognition—these dinosaurs practically carried billboards on their backs—but beyond that, it is difficult to say. Reconstructing soft tissues on extinct animals is very difficult, and doubly so when there are no solid modern analogues for the structures in question. Though Bailey pointed to the humps of mammals, for example, the elongated spines of bison, mammoths, prehistoric deer and other creatures were related to providing support for the head and strength to the neck, which was apparently not the case with Spinosaurus and Ouranosaurus. Desert lizards with fat tails don’t appear to be good analogues, either. Spinosaurus and Ouranosaurus were fundamentally different, and they remain among the most bizarre dinosaurs yet discovered.
References:
Anonymous (1998). Dino Fins More Like Humps? Science, 279 (5354), 1139-1139 DOI: 10.1126/science.279.5354.1139d
Bailey, J.B. (1997). Neural Spine Elongation in Dinosaurs: Sailbacks or Buffalo-Backs? Journal of Paleontology, 71 (6), 1124-1146
Aeolosaurus (ee-OH-luh-SAW-rus )
The holotype of Aeolosaurus rionegrinus consists of a series of seven tail vertebrae, as well as parts of both forelimbs and the right hindlimb. It was discovered in the Angostura Colorada Formation in Argentina and described in 1987.
Aeolosaurus (ee-OH-luh-SAW-rus) ("Aeolus' lizard") is a genus of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period of what is now South America. Like most sauropods, it would have been a quadrupedal herbivore with a long neck and tail. The remains of this dinosaur are incomplete, so size can only be estimated but Aeolosaurus was probably at least 45 feet (14 m) in length.
This dinosaur is named after the Greek mythological figure Aeolus, Keeper of the Winds in Homer's Odyssey, because of the frequent winds that blow across Patagonia, where the remains were found. The generic name also includes the Greek sauros ('lizard'), the traditional suffix used in dinosaur names. The specific name (A. rionegrinus), refers to its location, in the Rio Negro Province of Argentina. Both genus and species were named and described by Argentine paleontologist Jaime Powell in 1987.
The holotype of Aeolosaurus rionegrinus consists of a series of seven tail vertebrae, as well as parts of both forelimbs and the right hindlimb. It was discovered in the Angostura Colorada Formation in Argentina, which dates from the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous, about 83 to 74 million years ago.
Relationships among the many titanosaurian sauropods are hazy at best, but Aeolosaurus has been tentatively linked to a few other genera, based on features of the tail vertebrae, including Rinconsaurus and Adamantisaurus. Gondwanatitan and Aeolosaurus both exhibit neural spines on the tail vertebrae that point forwards, a feature not seen in any other known titanosaurians
The vertebrae from the middle part of its tail had elongated centra. Aeolosaurus had vertebral lateral fossae that resembled shallow depressions. Fossae that similarly resemble shallow depressions are known from Saltasaurus, Alamosaurus, Malawisaurus, and Gondwanatitan. Venenosaurus also had depression-like fossae, but its "depressions" penetrated deeper into the vertebrae, were divided into two chambers, and extend farther into the vertebral columns.
Its middle tail vertebrae's neural spines angled anteriorly when the vertebrae are aligned. These vertebrae resemble those of Cedarosaurus, Venenosaurus, and Gondwanatitan
Friday, June 3, 2011
Fancy being a dinosaur keeper? Chester Zoo tells you how
Asylum.com.uk: Fancy being a dinosaur keeper? Chester Zoo tells you how
Dear Chester Zoo,
We saw the vacancy for three dinosaur keepers on your website and, frankly, it's our dream job. We have a long history of knowing things about dinosaurs and reckon we would be perfect for the position.
In accordance with your job description we have a vast shared knowledge of prehistoric beasts and great communication skills (as evidenced by our desire to share said knowledge with anyone and everyone at a moment's notice).
We've also seen Jurassic Park more times than is healthy or rational, had extensive discussions regarding ways to make raptors more deadly, and contemplated building a dino-inspired craft for our upcoming Flugtag escapade.
Please find enclosed... Wait - what? 65 million years too late, you say? Robotic dinosaurs instead?
No - we don't know anything about those.
Well, given that the Asylum team will no longer be applying for said role, that leave you lot free to give it your best shot.
Word to the wise, though - the advert makes mention of two-tonne piles of T-rex dung... Good luck!
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Aegyptosaurus (ee-JIP-tuh-SAW-rus)
Aegyptosaurus was described by German paleontologist Ernst Stromer in 1932
Aegyptosaurus (ee-JIP-tuh-SAW-rus)
Aegyptosaurus (meaning 'Egypt’s lizard', for the country in which it was discovered (Greek sauros meaning 'lizard') is a genus of sauropod dinosaur believed to have lived in what is now Africa, around 95 million years ago, during the mid- and late-Cretaceous Period (Albian to Cenomanian stages). Like most sauropods, it had a long neck and a small skull. The animal's long tail probably acted as a counterweight to its body mass. Aegyptosaurus was a close relative of Argentinosaurus, a much larger dinosaur found in South America.
Aegyptosaurus was described by German paleontologist Ernst Stromer in 1932. Its fossils have been found in Egypt, Niger and in several different locations in the Sahara Desert. All known examples were discovered before 1939. The fossils were stored together in Munich, but were obliterated when an Allied bombing raid destroyed the museum where they were kept in 1944, during World War II.
Aegyptosaurus (ee-JIP-tuh-SAW-rus)
Aegyptosaurus (meaning 'Egypt’s lizard', for the country in which it was discovered (Greek sauros meaning 'lizard') is a genus of sauropod dinosaur believed to have lived in what is now Africa, around 95 million years ago, during the mid- and late-Cretaceous Period (Albian to Cenomanian stages). Like most sauropods, it had a long neck and a small skull. The animal's long tail probably acted as a counterweight to its body mass. Aegyptosaurus was a close relative of Argentinosaurus, a much larger dinosaur found in South America.
Aegyptosaurus was described by German paleontologist Ernst Stromer in 1932. Its fossils have been found in Egypt, Niger and in several different locations in the Sahara Desert. All known examples were discovered before 1939. The fossils were stored together in Munich, but were obliterated when an Allied bombing raid destroyed the museum where they were kept in 1944, during World War II.
How to Tell Male, Female Dinosaurs Apart
DiscoveryNews: How to Tell Male, Female Dinosaurs Apart
Paleontologists have devised a new method to distinguish male from female dinosaurs, according to a paper in the latest issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
The technique, which involves analyzing upper-hind limb bones, may help to solve this long-standing male or female anatomical mystery, since the remains of dinosaurs today are not fleshed out with soft-tissue genitals.
"Bones are shaped by the muscles that attach to them, so difference in the shape or size of muscle attachments on the leg bones suggests differences in the muscle mass of the animal that the leg belonged to," co-author Susannah Maidment explained to Discovery News. Maidment is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Paleontology at the Natural History Museum in London.
For the study, she and colleague Holly Barden focused on stegosaur remains found in the Tendaguru Formation of Tanzania. Paleontologists may often just be able to unearth the fossils for a single dinosaur, making comparisons with other members of its species impossible.
In this case, however, numerous scattered bones all belonging to the armored stegosaurian dinosaur Kentrosaurus aethiopicus were found. These included 50 preserved femora (upper hind limb bones) dating to about 150 million years ago.
We used a method that examines shape differences in the leg bones, and we were able to show that at the top end of the bone, where some of the hip muscles attach, there are shape differences," Maidment said. "We were able to group the adult bones into two statistically significant groups: that is all adult bones had one morphology or the other morphology."
Fossils for juvenile dinosaurs did not fall into the groups, indicating that the bone shape differences didn't occur until adulthood when the young dinosaurs likely evolved their secondary sexual characteristics.
Although the researchers now have the fossil groups separated by sex, they cannot be sure which group belonged to females and which belonged to males.
"We’ll probably never know that unless a complete, spectacularly well preserved specimen of Kentrosaurus is found with an egg in its oviduct," Maidment said.
Nevertheless, the fossil analysis technique provides researchers with a new tool that can be combined with other observed differences among members of the same dinosaur species.
"It is generally true in the natural world today that bizarre body parts or decorations are associated with some form of display, usually sexual," Barden, who conducted the study while at the University of Sheffield, told Discovery News. She is now a PhD student at the University of Manchester.
The scientists therefore now suspect that the unusual spikes and armored plates found on stegosaurs may have been had unique particular shapes, depending on whether the individual was a male or female. Since there are only two specimens of Stegosaurus with complete rows of armor, the researchers cannot yet assess those probable sexual differences.
Paleontologist Ralph Chapman, an owner/partner at New Mexico Virtualization, has also studied dinosaur fossils with sexual dimorphism in mind.
Chapman told Discovery News that the new study "pretty much achieves what they say it does and I think it is a good paper." He pointed out that the ends of femora fossils might be particularly revealing, in terms of identifying differences among dinosaurs.
Answers to present questions remaining about sex identification in dinosaurs require more fossils, Maidment said.
"The only way we will ever be able to definitively answer questions about sexual dimorphism and other behaviors in dinosaurs is through exceptionally preserved specimens," she concluded.
Paleontologists have devised a new method to distinguish male from female dinosaurs, according to a paper in the latest issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
The technique, which involves analyzing upper-hind limb bones, may help to solve this long-standing male or female anatomical mystery, since the remains of dinosaurs today are not fleshed out with soft-tissue genitals.
"Bones are shaped by the muscles that attach to them, so difference in the shape or size of muscle attachments on the leg bones suggests differences in the muscle mass of the animal that the leg belonged to," co-author Susannah Maidment explained to Discovery News. Maidment is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Paleontology at the Natural History Museum in London.
For the study, she and colleague Holly Barden focused on stegosaur remains found in the Tendaguru Formation of Tanzania. Paleontologists may often just be able to unearth the fossils for a single dinosaur, making comparisons with other members of its species impossible.
In this case, however, numerous scattered bones all belonging to the armored stegosaurian dinosaur Kentrosaurus aethiopicus were found. These included 50 preserved femora (upper hind limb bones) dating to about 150 million years ago.
We used a method that examines shape differences in the leg bones, and we were able to show that at the top end of the bone, where some of the hip muscles attach, there are shape differences," Maidment said. "We were able to group the adult bones into two statistically significant groups: that is all adult bones had one morphology or the other morphology."
Fossils for juvenile dinosaurs did not fall into the groups, indicating that the bone shape differences didn't occur until adulthood when the young dinosaurs likely evolved their secondary sexual characteristics.
Although the researchers now have the fossil groups separated by sex, they cannot be sure which group belonged to females and which belonged to males.
"We’ll probably never know that unless a complete, spectacularly well preserved specimen of Kentrosaurus is found with an egg in its oviduct," Maidment said.
Nevertheless, the fossil analysis technique provides researchers with a new tool that can be combined with other observed differences among members of the same dinosaur species.
"It is generally true in the natural world today that bizarre body parts or decorations are associated with some form of display, usually sexual," Barden, who conducted the study while at the University of Sheffield, told Discovery News. She is now a PhD student at the University of Manchester.
The scientists therefore now suspect that the unusual spikes and armored plates found on stegosaurs may have been had unique particular shapes, depending on whether the individual was a male or female. Since there are only two specimens of Stegosaurus with complete rows of armor, the researchers cannot yet assess those probable sexual differences.
Paleontologist Ralph Chapman, an owner/partner at New Mexico Virtualization, has also studied dinosaur fossils with sexual dimorphism in mind.
Chapman told Discovery News that the new study "pretty much achieves what they say it does and I think it is a good paper." He pointed out that the ends of femora fossils might be particularly revealing, in terms of identifying differences among dinosaurs.
Answers to present questions remaining about sex identification in dinosaurs require more fossils, Maidment said.
"The only way we will ever be able to definitively answer questions about sexual dimorphism and other behaviors in dinosaurs is through exceptionally preserved specimens," she concluded.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)