NJ: Field Station Dinosaurs to bring a T-Rex to the Summit Library

From NJ.com:  Field Station Dinosaurs to bring a T-Rex to the Summit Library

A 15-foot T-Rex will interact with children outside the Summit Library, 75 Maple St., on Wednesday, June 27, at 1:30 p.m.

T-Rex is one of more than 30 interactive or animatronic dinosaurs featured at Field Station: Dinosaurs, an interactive outdoor Jurassic learning destination now open in Secaucus. Visitors will go back 90 million years with more than 30 full-sized animatronic dinosaurs, puppet shows staring the T-Rex, a dig site and interactive educational games and workshops along a .75 mile trail near the Snake Hill prehistoric rock formation adjacent to Laurel Hill Park

Field Station: Dinosaurs is a family attraction that combines cutting-edge science with the creative minds of great artists and teachers to create a one-of-kind experience that's thrilling, educational and fun.

Located in the New Jersey Meadowlands and nestled at the base of a 150 million year old rock formation, the Field Station is just nine minutes from New York City. Over thirty life-sized, realistic dinosaurs (including the ninety foot long Argentinosaurus, the largest animatronic dinosaur ever made) come to life thanks to the brilliant engineering of their roboticists and the imagination of our artists.

The story of the dinosaurs is vividly presented on 20 acres of wild, unpredictable woods, mysterious pathways, and mountain trails. Scientists from the New Jersey State Museum have worked to ensure that the exhibition encompasses the latest theories and discoveries in the fields of paleontology, geology, and environmental studies. Workshops, games and activities connect the story of the dinosaurs to our world today, giving new relevance to their lives and power to the tale of their extinction.

And at the center of it all is the fun, the joy and the wonder of dinosaurs. The expedition takes every family on a shared adventure - full of mystery, surprise and a sense of awe.

Field Station: Dinosaurs is open through mid-November. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekends only until June 20. Hours from June 21 to Sept. 4 are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.

Buy tickets in advance and save at fieldstationdinosaurs.com or 855.999.9010. Ticket prices online and by phone are $20 for adults and $17.50 for kids (12 & under) and seniors (must be bought at least one day in advance). Tickets at the box office are $25 for adults and $20 for kids (12 & under) and seniors. Children two & under are free.

 

 

Loch Ness Monster seen as real dinosaur in biology books taught in Louisiana school

From NY Daily News:  Loch Ness Monster seen as real dinosaur in biology books taught in Louisiana school

The Scottish legend of the Loch Ness Monster is suggested as truth in a biology book that a private Christian school in Louisiana is using in its curriculum.

But that’s only part of the outrage from critics: Students who are eligible for taxpayer-funded vouchers will be allowed to attend Eternity Christian Academy in Westlake for the 2012-13 school year, according to reports.
The startling claim about Nessie’s authenticity is made to bolster creationism within the textbook, the Scotsman newspaper reported Monday. The Loch Ness Monster is described as a type of dinosaur, and if dinosaurs and man co-exist, then presumably there would be holes in the scientific argument for evolution.
The textbook, produced by Accelerated Christian Education, features a passage about the Loch Ness Monster in the Biology 1099 edition, Scotland’s The Herald reported.

“Are dinosaurs alive today? Scientists are becoming more convinced of their existence,” the textbook reads, according to the newspaper.

“Have you heard of the ‘Loch Ness Monster’ in Scotland? ‘Nessie’ for short has been recorded on sonar from a small submarine, described by eyewitnesses, and photographed by others. Nessie appears to be a plesiosaur.”

Bruce Wilson, who blogs about religion and right-wing politics, estimates 200,000 students who receive publicly-funded vouchers are learning from such a curriculum. Louisiana’s voucher program will allow poor and middle-class children to attend private schools.

“I don’t believe they should be publicly funded, I don’t believe the schools who use these texts should be publicly funded,” Wilson told The Herald.

Marie Carrier, principal of Eternity Christian Academy, said her students are learning at their own pace. The school reportedly has 38 children in grades 1 to 8.

One of the beginning workbooks explains “what God made” on each day that the world was created, according to Reuters.

“We try to stay away from all those things that might confuse our children,” Carrier told Reuters.
She’s interested in gaining 135 voucher students for the next school year.

Some Christian schools eligible for vouchers are also reportedly teaching “Bible-based math,” which doesn’t include modern theories.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a Republican, advocated for the voucher plan, telling Reuters, “We are letting parents decide what’s best for their children, not government.”

But those who study Nessie aren’t convinced teaching about the animal as reality makes sense. Its strange tale became widely reported in 1933, when a man took a picture of a mysterious, thick-bodied creature rising from a lake in the Scottish Highlands.

“We do get regular sonar contacts which are pretty much unexplainable,” Tony Drummond, a Loch Ness tour guide, told The Herald about ongoing research. “More ... has to be done, but it’s not way along the realms of possibility.”

He added that passing on the folklore as real is “ridiculous propaganda.”

APNewsBreak: Florida man defends dinosaur's import

From Wall Street Journal:  APNewsBreak: Florida man defends dinosaur's import

NEW YORK — A Florida dealer of fossils who acquired the remains of a dinosaur that the government plans to seize says he is "not some international bone smuggler" and that he risked his finances and reputation to put together the skeleton to promote a love of science in others.
Eric Prokopi, 37, struck back Thursday at the U.S. government's account of the Tyrannosaurus bataar fossil it seeks to hand over to Mongolia.
"I'm just a guy in Gainesville, Florida trying to support my family, not some international bone smuggler," he said in a statement obtained by The Associated Press.
He said transforming chunks of rocks and broken bones "into an impressive skeleton took thousands of hours and every penny my wife and I had, but it was fascinating.
"We were thrilled and couldn't wait to share him with the world, and hoped it would inspire others to see the magic of paleontology and develop a love of science and appreciation of nature," Prokopi said.
Prokopi contested government claims in papers it filed in federal court in Manhattan this week that the skeleton was brought from Great Britain to Gainesville in March 2010 with erroneous claims that it had originated in Great Britain and was worth only $15,000. It was sold at auction last month for more than $1 million, though the sale is contingent upon the outcome of litigation.
A judge earlier this week said the government could seize the 8-foot-tall, 24-foot-long skeleton from a Queens art storage facility because it appears the government will succeed in its claims. The skeleton was scheduled to be picked up Friday. Prokopi accused the government of caving to the will of Mongolia, saying he hoped "the American legal system will uphold the American laws and not sacrifice my rights and freedoms to please a foreign government out for a political trophy."
The commercial paleontologist said that the U.S. government wrongly claimed he misrepresented what was being imported and its value.
"I can wholeheartedly say the import documents are not fraudulent, a truth I am confident will be brought to light in the coming weeks," he said. "The value was declared much lower than the auction value because, quite simply, it was loose, mostly broken bones and rocks with embedded bones. It was not what you see today, a virtually complete, mounted skeleton."
Ellen Davis, a spokeswoman for government lawyers, declined to comment Thursday.
Prokopi said and his wife hoped the skeleton would be bought by a museum or collector who would put it in a public forum, but the controversy that erupted caused museums to back out of the sale.
Prokopi also challenged assertions by experts that the skeleton had to originate in Mongolia, saying it was true that they are mainly known to come from the Gobi desert of Mongolia, "but they've also been found elsewhere, and it's certainly possible a new locality with complete specimens was discovered in another country."
He said they were "stunned by some of the public's reaction to the sale because commercial paleontology and private collectors are a vital part of bringing some of nature's most precious treasures to museum's worldwide."
Prokopi also challenged claims by some experts that the skeleton was collected poorly.
"I believe this specimen was expertly excavated, and the only damage that was done was caused by the elements," he said. "The claws and some teeth had weathered away and some teeth had slipped out before burial. I believe this specimen was expertly excavated, and the only damage that was done was caused by the elements."
He said claims by experts that it had been unearthed in the last 17 years could not be trusted.
"Other than the diggers, there is no way for anyone to know for certain when or where the specimen was collected," Prokopi said.
He defended commercial paleontology, saying the business was "full of intelligent, passionate people who love paleontology, not bone smugglers just looking to steal from important scientific research."
He said he was "headed toward total financial ruin" because the lost sale of the dinosaur had "irreparably devastated my family financially, it has cost several people their jobs, taken an emotional toll on my life and two young children and damaged my reputation as a commercial paleontologist."
Prokopi added: "If it weren't for people like me, some of these bones would just turn to dust and none of us would ever get to see or study them."

US sues to force return of dinosaur to Mongolia

 From the Wall Street Journal: US sues to force return of dinosaur to Mongolia

NEW YORK — The fossil of a dinosaur that roamed the earth 70 million years ago should be turned over to the United States by an auction house so that it can be returned to its home in Mongolia, a lawsuit brought by the U.S. government demanded Monday.

The nearly complete Tyrannosaurus bataar skeleton was imported from Great Britain to Gainesville, Fla., in March 2010 with erroneous claims that it originated in Great Britain and was worth only $15,000, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

It sold at auction on May 20 for more than $1 million even though Mongolia's president had obtained a temporary restraining order from Texas State Civil District Judge Carlos R. Cortez prohibiting its auction, the suit said. The completion of the sale was made contingent upon the outcome of any court proceedings. The suit did not identify the buyer.

James T. Hayes Jr., head of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations in New York, said criminal smugglers misrepresented the fossil to customs officials when they illegally imported it into the United States.

Jim Halperin, cofounder of the The Heritage Auctions, a defendant in the lawsuit, said: "We auctioned the Tyrannosaurus bataar conditionally, subject to future court rulings, so this matter is now in the hands of lawyers and politicians."

He added: "We believe our consignor purchased fossils in good faith, then spent a year of his life and considerable expense identifying, restoring, mounting and preparing what had previously been a much less valuable matrix of unassembled, underlying bones. We sincerely hope there will be a just and fair outcome for all parties."

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a news release that the skeletal remains are "of tremendous cultural and historic significance to the people of Mongolia, and provide a connection to the country's prehistoric past. When the skeleton was allegedly looted, a piece of the country's natural history was stolen with it, and we look forward to returning it to its rightful place."

The release included a quote from Tsakhia Elbegdorj, Mongolia's president, saying he was thankful for the legal action to recover the skeleton, calling it "an important piece of the cultural heritage of the Mongolian people."

He added: "Cultural looting and profiteering cannot be tolerated anywhere and this cooperation between our governments is a large step forward to stopping it."

The lawsuit said the dinosaur's remains were believed to have been discovered in the Gobi Desert between 1995 and 2005. An auction house catalog listing of the skeleton said it measures 24-feet long and 8-feet tall, the suit said.

A June 5 examination by at least five experts specializing in bataars resulted in unanimous agreement that the skeleton was a Tyrannosaurus bataar and almost certainly originated in the Nemegt Basin in Mongolia.
One expert, Khishigjav Tsogtbaatar, head of Paleontological Laboratory and Museum in Mongolia, said in a document filed with the lawsuit that it appeared some part of the skeleton's skull and postcranium were destroyed by poachers who lacked professional knowledge about proper excavation techniques.

U.S. authorities said Tyrannosaurus bataars were first discovered in 1946 during a joint Soviet-Mongolian expedition to the Gobi Desert in the Mongolian Omnogovi Province. Since 1924, Mongolia has enacted laws declaring fossils to be the property of the government of Mongolia and criminalizing their export from the country.

Author and dinosaur expert — all at seven

From Kaleej Times: Author and dinosaur expert — all at seven
Pritvik Sinhadc picks up his book and begins talking confidently about his specialist subject: dinosaurs.

He describes the periods of the prehistoric world, explains the differences between a Suchomimus and a Spinosaurus, and sets out his plan to write two more books about dinosaurs. All very impressive for a seven-year-old.

Pritvik has astounded his parents, peers and teachers with his incredible knowledge about palaeontology. His debut as a published author with his book When Dinosaurs Roamed The Earth takes his academic achievements to a new level.

“My book is about the different periods and the dinosaurs that lived in them. The periods in my book are Triassic, early-Jurassic, Jurassic, early-Cretaceous and Cretaceous, so five different periods,” said the Year 3 student at Dubai British School.

Despite the complexity of palaeontology, Pritvik grasped the subject at an early age. He was less than one-year-old when he first started quizzing his parents on matters of the universe.

“I was nine months old when I first got interested in dinosaurs. I was interested in dinosaurs because they are very fascinating and they are one of the oldest things on the whole planet,” said Pritvik. Pritvik’s mother Indira was shocked at her son’s early passion for the prehistoric. She’s also unsure as to how Pritvik picked up the interest.

“None of us in the family are into any kind of prehistoric creature or animal! It’s completely down to Pritvik,” she said.

“He’s been into this, actually, since he was very, very small – from about nine months. He was a very good speaker and developed it very fast. He questioned things which were very out-of-the-box like gravitational pull, how the earth is pulling everything without a string.”

Pritvik’s teachers were also taken aback by the young boy’s fascination and knowledge of the prehistoric world. But after talking with Pritvik and discussing his interests, the school was able to nurture his talent.

Indira said: “In fact, the teachers in the school were also as perplexed as I was. Fortunately they took the trouble of assessing him, finding out what his interests were, and they realised that he is gifted.”

Not only did the teachers assess Pritvik, they also found the perfect outlet for his enthusiasm. With a resident dinosaur expert on site, it made perfect sense to let Pritvik teach his fellow students. Hannah Turner, a teacher at the Dubai British School, said: “I have never encountered such enthusiasm for such a complex area of study from a child so young. Pritvik’s interest and understanding of pre-historic creatures is quite staggering... I feel very fortunate to have had the school palaeontologist in class who can pronounce dinosaurs’ names correctly, comment on their eating and behavioural patterns, body systems and periods of existence without the aid of the internet or information book.”

It was Pritvik’s foray into teaching that ultimately inspired him to write the book.

“I also teach Year 5 and 6 students about dinosaurs and they can’t really understand what I say so I thought I can put it in the format of a book so they can understand it better.”

Pritvik’s colourful book with dramatic illustrations of dinosaurs explains in clear, concise language the different creatures of the prehistoric world. Already written, his second book will be about Suchomimus and other fish-eating dinosaurs, while he is also planning another book about animal mutations.

Despite only being seven years old, it’s clear to see that Pritvik has a bright future ahead in palaeontology.

Ky. Biblical Museum Ad Campaign Features Dinosaurs

From ABCNews: Ky. Biblical Museum Ad Campaign Features Dinosaurs

A Kentucky museum where dinosaurs roam the biblical Garden of Eden is unveiling a national billboard campaign featuring the popular prehistoric reptiles.

The cartoon billboards for the Creation Museum are appearing in several cities including Chicago, San Francisco and Houston and feature colorful dinosaurs drawn in a vintage comic book style.

The popular attraction in northern Kentucky that opened in 2007 has drawn controversy and thousands of visitors with exhibits that challenge evolution and present the Old Testament's creation story.

Dinosaurs are at the center of campaign because they get the public's attention, said Ken Ham, founder of the Christian ministry Answers in Genesis.

"People love dinosaurs," Ham said. "Whenever a dinosaur exhibit comes to town, people are fascinated by that."

Ham said there are 20 different billboard styles, though some feature other prehistoric animals like mastodons. A billboard near Interstate 64 in Louisville features a flying pterodactyl and says the museum is "101 miles ahead." So far the signs have appeared in 25 states.

The high-tech museum near Cincinnati has animatronic dinosaurs, models and fossils, and teaches that the giant reptiles were created by God in a matter of days along with all other living things a few thousand years ago. Paleontologists say fossil evidence shows dinosaurs were present on the earth tens of millions of years ago, well before humans arrived.

Science educators that have long criticized the museum and said the Creation Museum's campaign is meant to attract young people interested in dinosaurs to a place that delivers a religious message and a version of history that conflicts with scientific findings.

"It's a hook, it's a bait to get people to say, 'Hey let's go to that museum' — and then the other message is brought out," said Steven Newton, a program director at the National Center for Science Education in Oakland, Calif.

Dinosaurs have been a draw to other museums and destinations for years. Perhaps the most notable is the Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil known as "Sue" at Chicago's Field Museum. In Kentucky, the Louisville Zoo is running a temporary exhibit this year with 12 dinosaur models and a fossil dig for children.

Newton said science centers should be employing powerful marketing strategies like the Creation Museum's campaign.

"I think it's a real shame that there aren't science museums that are competing in the same way, with the same sort of advertising with the same sort of budgets," he said.

Ham said Answers in Genesis spent about a half-million dollars on the campaign, but is asking museum members to chip in and sponsor more billboards to get them up in other sites.

Mary Allen, who lives near the Louisville billboard, said her 3-year-old grandson first noticed the pterodactyl sign, calling it "the big bird."

Allen said the sign is eye-catching, but said she hasn't visited the Creation Museum because "I just don't think that's how the world was created."

Choteau: Don't miss the dinosaur lore

From the Choteau Acantha: Don't miss the dinosaur lore
Since the late 1970s, the Rocky Mountain Front has been a mecca for dinosaur sleuths and researchers who have made significant discoveries about the region’s prehistoric past.

Local dinosaur resources include the Old Trail Museum in Choteau, the Two Medicine Dinosaur Center in Bynum and the Rock Shop in Bynum.

Visitors may wonder how a quiet agricultural town such as Choteau has come to be associated with one of the great dinosaur finds in the world. Well, 30 years ago a Montana geologist named Jack Horner walked into John and Marion Brandvold’s Trex Agate Shop — located in a former church in Bynum — and identified a bit of fossilized bone that has since changed the way paleontologists think of dinosaurs.

In 1978, now renowned paleontologist John R. “Jack” Horner was a “preparator” at Princeton University who had come back to Montana to do research with an old friend and Hi-Line high school teacher, Bob Makela. The two were searching for baby dinosaur bones — a rarity at that time.

John and Marion Brandvold, long-time Bynum residents, have always been amateur history buffs and, by 1978, had become pretty fair fossil sleuths on their own.

Marion Brandvold invited Horner to identify a cache of small fossilized bones she and her family had collected earlier that year in a badlands area on private property west of Choteau. Brandvold believed the fossils were those of infant dinosaurs and Horner and Makela confirmed her thoughts and found the very breakthrough they had been seeking all summer.

Marion agreed to loan them the bones for research, and they were off on the trail of the baby dinosaur.

Horner and his researchers, Marion and John Brandvold, and David and Laurie Trexler, also of Bynum, continued to dig at the site.

Eventually, the fossil hunters discovered and named Egg Mountain in the Willow Creek anticline — a series of small badlands hills that yielded the first known nests of baby dinosaurs in the Western Hemisphere, eggshell fragments and whole, fossilized eggs.

The Brandvolds and Trexlers unearthed the battered skull of an adult duck-billed dinosaur that was identified as a new species.

Horner and Makela named that adult the Maiasaura peeblesorum — the first name coming from Greek and meaning “Good mother lizard” and the second acknowledgment of the Peebles family, the local ranchers who owned the badlands up until 1987, when they sold that portion of their ranch to The Nature Conservancy. The badlands then became a part of the Conservancy’s Pine Butte Swamp Preserve. In late 2004, the Conservancy sold the property to the Bozeman-based Museum of the Rockies, which has renamed Egg Mountain as the Beatrice R. Taylor Paleontology Research Site.

The fossils were located in a portion of a rock record called the Two Medicine formation, which was created about 75 million years ago during the Cretaceous period, a span that began about 140 million years ago and ended 65 million years ago.

The formation, which covers about 3,600 square miles, is a 2,000-foot deep layer upon layer of sandstone, mudstone and shale, that contains fossils from a period of about 12 million years. The formation runs along the Rocky Mountain Front from Canada in the north, south to Augusta.

Although the Rocky Mountains were just beginning to form at the end of the Cretaceous period, the mountain front would have been located farther west than it is today, and some volcanoes may have dotted the area. Rivers flowed east from the ancestral Rocky Mountains into a vast inland seaway that stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean, cutting North America in half.

In the Willow Creek anticline, there are four stories that can be told. The first and oldest story is that of Marion Brandvold’s discovery: nests and babies identified by Horner as belonging to Maiasaura peeblesorum.

The second story is that of a catastrophic debris flow that transported thousands of Maiasaura adult, sub-adult and juvenile bones along with many rocks, some plant material, occasional teeth, and bones from other dinosaurs.

The third story in the Willow Creek anticline is Egg Mountain, a nesting ground for the small, meat-eating dinosaur, Troodon formosus. Also found at Egg Mountain are: remains of a small plant-eater called Orodromeus makeli, complete skeletons of shrew-like mammals and varanid lizards, and an unidentified type of egg.

The fourth story is another layer of Maiasaura nests, similar to the first story mentioned above.

The Willow Creek anticline is of international significance because it is the first place in North America where baby dinosaurs were found in a nest structure, and the first place in the world where dinosaur embryos in eggs were discovered.

Horner and his research crew, along with the Brandvolds and Trexlers, made these discoveries. Horner established the existence of two new dinosaur species: Maiasaura peeblesorum and Orodromeus makeli. Research in the Willow Creek anticline continues to greatly expand scientists’ understanding of dinosaur habitat, behavior and physiology.

Horner has led the way in redrawing the perception of dinosaurs as large, sluggish reptiles with few nurturing instincts. His research supports the theory that dinosaurs were more akin to modern-day, warm-blooded, social birds. Marion Brandvold’s finds in the lower part of the Willow Creek anticline indicate that mother dinosaurs cared for their young and may have nested in colonies.

The Old Trail Museum offers exhibits and the Two Medicine Dinosaur Center (founded by the Trexlers and Brandvolds) offer individual and family paleontology experiences that can greatly enrich your vacation.

For more information on the area fossil fields, contact OTM at 406-466-5332 or the Two Medicine Dinosaur Center at 800-238-6873 or 406-469-2211.

A good resource on the discovery and development of the research is “Dinosaurs Under the Big Sky,” a book by Horner, available at OTM and other outlets in the area. This book highlights all the dinosaurs that have been discovered in Montana.

Choteau: Two Medicine Dinosaur Center under goes renovations

From the Choteau Acanthus, Montana: Two Medicine Dinosaur Center under goes renovations

BYNUM — The Two Medicine Dinosaur Center, a paleontology research facility and gift shop, underwent a huge renovation in the winter of 2011 and now offers even more display space, classroom space and opportunities to learn more about the area’s prehistoric and historic past.

Through the winter and this past spring, the dinosaur center has been under construction as builders added a second floor to the facility, providing more program, event and exhibit space.

The partial second floor provides 2,000 new square feet of space, that is being used for offices, a library, a public meeting/classroom, wash room facilities, storage and a new display on memorabilia from the historic Bynum town site and families.

The upper floor classroom looks out on the museum’s hallmark display of a gigantic Seismosaurus replica. On the main floor, the gift shop and bathrooms have been renovate, more space has been opened up for displays and the fossil preservation and preparation area has been expanded.

The center is invited community members and visitors to come and see the major improvements during a grand opening on May 19. Staff paleontologist Dave Trexler will also give a reading from and sign copies of his new book, “Becoming Dinosaurs,” a thoughtful look at global climate change from a paleontologist’s perspective.

The center offers a variety of hands-on programs including paleontology field research and collection of fossils. These programs are conducted on active research sites and the specimens and information collected are used for scientific, educational and museum display purposes.

The facility is a member of the Montana Dinosaur Trail (Web site: www.mtdinotrail.org), a network of 13 museums, interpretive centers and field stations located in 10 communities of eastern and central Montana.

Program offerings at the Bynum facility range from three-hour introductory seminars to a 10-day course for which college credits may be obtained. Field activities are available from May through September, weather permitting. In-center lab activities are offered year round.

The dinosaur center features the “baby dinosaur” fossils that Marion Brandvold of Bynum discovered in the badlands west of Choteau in 1978. Her discovery launched the career of Princeton dinosaur researcher Jack Horner and helped change the way the scientific world viewed the mothering skills of dinosaurs.

Other exhibits at the dinosaur center include several one-of-a-kind exhibits, including new dinosaur species and the world’s largest life-size mounted dinosaur skeleton model, Seismosaurus halli, the “earth shaker.” In 1979, hikers discovered Seismosaurus, but excavation on the fossilized remains did not begin until 1985, according to information in a dinosaur center brochure. Dinosaur center staff members and others built the life-size model so that people could see how large these animals really were. The scientifically accurate model is 137 feet long and almost 23 feet high at the hips.

Staff members have been conducting public field programs in this area since 1968.

Two Medicine Dinosaur Center’s primary staff includes:

•Paleontologist David Trexler, who has more than 20 years experience and is a professionally educated paleontologist. He is a member of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontologists, the Dinosaur Society, and the Geological Society of America. Trexler, along with his mother, Marion Brandvold, discovered the first nest of baby dinosaurs recognized in the world.

•Laurie Trexler, who has been involved in the field of paleontology for more than 15 years and has more than five years experience as a professional fossil preparer. Laurie has served as instructor of fossil preparation classes for both the general public and professional preparer. In addition, Laurie was the discoverer of the holotype of Maiasaura peeblesorum.

•Cory Coverdell, center director, a Montana State University graduate in geology who has several years of field experience in the area of paleontology. Coverdell handles day-to-day operations at the center, teaches paleontology courses and leads field expeditions.

If you are looking for a high quality paleontology experience in which your time and attendance may contribute to both the scientific knowledge base and the education of future generations, contact Two Medicine Dinosaur Center, P.O. Box 786, Bynum, MT 59419, telephone 1-800-238-6873 or 406-469-2211, e-mail: info@tmdinosaur.org or visit the organization’s Web site at www.tmdinosaur.org.

Florida: Dinosaurs return to the Imaginarium

From Wink News: Dinosaurs return to the Imaginarium
FORT MYERS, Fla. - Dinosaurs are back from extinction through a virtual exhibit at the Imaginarium Science Center in Fort Myers. You can roam the prehistoric world through the eyes of a dinosaur for the summer. The "Be the Dinosaur" exhibit engages kids in the life of a Tyrannosaurus rex or a Triceratops through a video game simulator.

First, the exhibit contains displays to educate you on the background of the two dinosaurs. You'll learn about their habitats, diets, predators, and how they interact with other dinosaurs. Then, armed with that knowledge, you climb into the various simulators and explore the world of the Cretaceous, 65 million years ago.

You'll hunt for food and water, seek safety from predators, and try to survive. Each simulator runs about seven minutes. At the end, it will let you know some things to go back and learn to make your next experience even better. If you want to just sit back and see the dinosaurs and not worry about survival, you can hop in the Dinosaur Safari Jeep for a journey through the wild.

The "Be the Dinosaur" exhibit is on display now through September 3rd and is included with admission to the Imaginarium Science Center and its permanent exhibits.

For more on "Be the Dinosaur," the Imaginarium, prices and hours, go to www.i-sci.org

Dinosaurs come to life as Houston museum unveils new paleontology hall

From Xinhua: Dinosaurs come to life as Houston museum unveils new paleontology hall

HOUSTON, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Dinosaurs and other mysterious prehistoric beasts came to life Saturday as the Houston Museum of Natural Science opened its new world-class paleontology hall to the public in the fourth largest U.S. city.

The length of a football field, the hall is one of the most dynamic paleo halls in the world, and boasts one of the top three dinosaur exhibits in the United States, the museum said.

Houston Mayor Annise Parker joined a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the opening of the hall, as hundreds of eager students and local visitors swarmed the hall for the palaeontological wonder.

About 500 pieces are on display at the hall, said David Temple, associate curator of paleontology at the museum.

The innovative hall is packed with prehistoric beasts, and doesn't have the same stagnant displays of ancient skeletons standing in a row that many visitors are accustomed to seeing.

Rather, the predators and prey in the new paleontology hall will be in action - chasing, eating and escaping as they struggle for life.

Visitors will see more than 60 new, major mounts, featuring more than 30 dinosaurs as well as large mammals - all "in action" poses.

There is the museum's skeleton of a real bone T. rex featuring the best preserved and most complete hands and feet of any T. rex ever found, as well as patches of original skin - the likes of which have never before been seen.

Touchable specimens, including real and fossilized dinosaur skin, allow people to pet a dinosaur

Also on display is a nesting site for a Quetzalcoatlus family, ancient pterosaurs with 30-foot wingspans, bigger than a modern jet fighter.

A 12-foot wide, reconstructed jaw of a Megalodon, a marine monster that was the largest shark that ever lived, is poised in the act of ambushing a swimming, extinct elephant.

With the opening of the dinosaur hall, "we hope a lot of kids will get excited about science, about nature, about chemistry, about art, about biology, about geology, about all different things," said Temple.

Profile: Dr Scott Hocknull

From Queensland Museum website: Dr Scott Hocknull
Scott's career path is a story of childhood dreams come true-his passion for studying dinosaurs and palaeontology as a boy was realised when he was appointed as a curator of Geosciences at the Queensland Museum at the age of just 22 years. This made him the youngest curator of any Australian museum, and his achievements earned him the 2002 Young Australian of the Year Award.

Scott developed a passion for dinosaurs when he was a child. He officially began his professional career in palaeontology in 1994, at the age of 16, when he published his first scientific paper on a new species of fossil freshwater bivalve. Through his early work he discovered and scientifically described and published numerous new genera and species of extinct prehistoric animal. He became at that time Australia's youngest scientific author! Since then, he has worked on a range of extinct animals from freshwater mollusks and marine worms to extinct giant frogs and gigantic dinosaurs.

Scott volunteered at the Queensland Museum for 10 years during his school holidays and whilst attending university, focusing for a full 12 months in 1995 on his own research before beginning university studies at the University of Queensland (UQ). During these voluntary years Scott collected numerous new fossil sites for the museum, some of which are hailed as the most significant of their type in Australian palaeontological history.

He graduated from UQ in 2000 with first class honours in the areas of Geology and Zoology.

The 2002 Young Australian of the Year Award came in recognition of Scott's outstanding work. A particularly fruitful year for Scott, in 2002 he was also awarded the Young Australian of the Year for Queensland, Queensland Career Achiever, Queensland Science and Technology Achiever, and National Career Achiever!

These awards have given him the opportunity to travel across Australia where he inspires young people, motivates young managers and promotes his science as a youth ambassador for events such as National Youth Week, National Science Week, Australia Day and Palaeoweek.

In 2009 Scott completed his Doctorate focusing on the evolution of Australia and Papua New Guinea's fauna, flora and climate over the last 15 million years.

His current research encompass the study of climatic, environmental and faunal change in Australia over the past 110 million years with the aim of aiding in the conservation management of Australia's living species. “The past is the key to understanding our present, and predicting our future” is a phrase Scott works by as part of his lifetime goals in Australian palaeontology.

Amongst numerous field-based research programs associated with universities and community groups across the country, Scott is the lead researcher on Australian dinosaur discoveries near the townships of Winton and Eromanga. In 2009 he and his colleagues from the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum discovered and named three new species of dinosaur, including Australia’s most complete theropod (carnivorous dinosaur) skeleton, scientifically named Australovenator wintonensis. Along with these discoveries, Scott works closely with the Outback Gondwana Foundation, based in Eromanga, surrounding the discovery of 'Cooper' Australia's Largest dinosaur.

Scott knows there are lifetimes worth of work for future palaeontologists studying in Australia and his goal is to make palaeontology a more accessible and better funded science. As Scott has proven, you can start practicing science at a very young age.

Projects
Outback giants
Amazing new discoveries in outback Queensland herald a new age for Australian dinosaur hunters, a so-called dinosaur 'rush'. Australia's dinosaur fossil record is poorly known and is considered by overseas palaeontologists to be devoid of new discoveries.

India: Dinosaurs Live! opening hours extended

From the Sun Daily: Dinosaurs Live! opening hours extended

DUE TO the overwhelming response to the on-going Dinosaurs-Live! Exhibition taking place at National Science Centre (Pusat Sains Negara), the Centre wishes to inform members of the public that it has it will extend its operation hours during the school holidays and on every weekend.

The National Science Centre will now be opened daily, including during this school holidays, from 9am to 7pm so that more people are able to visit the exhibition which was opened to the public on May 1.

Dinosaurs Live! is one of the biggest interactive dinosaur shows held in the country, featuring about 30 life-sized animatronic dinosaurs each detailed from expert researched notes in regards to species, period of existence and other exciting facts.

These include a terrifyingly life-like 5 metre tall and 13 metres length animatronic T-Rex, and the Stegosaurus, Triceratops, Velociraptors and many others.

The exhibition, which ends July 31, provides a truly realistic experience of being transported back in time to when dinosaurs roam the earth.

Visitors will be able to learn scientific facts and see these extinct creatures in real life through professionally crafted exhibits animated using mechatronics, bringing realistic movements and sounds to the extent of body, tongue and eye movement.

Not just an ordinary exhibition; this is a fun yet educational show for both adults and kids will also feature related activities and shows such as dinosaur riding, fossil finding, augmented reality, 3D video shows and dinosaur duels.

Entry fees are RM15 for adults, and RM12 for students and children aged 7 to 12 years.

Austraia: Dinosaur museum loses funding bid

From ABC: Dinosaur museum loses funding bid

The Quilpie Mayor says he is disappointed a multi-million dollar dinosaur museum in south-west Queensland has missed out on federal funding.

The Regional Australia Minister, Simon Crean, has named eight Queensland projects to get funding under round two of the Regional Development Australia fund, including projects for the Mackay, Central Highlands, Toowoomba and Ipswich councils.

Quilpie Mayor Stuart McKenzie says council asked for $1 million to showcase the nation's biggest dinosaur fossils but remote regions are finding it extremely difficult to win funding under the program.

"Last time, the first round, not one project got [funded] from across the range," he said.

"Well this time they've got to the top of the range - Toowoomba and Emerald is over the range, they are two fairly major population centres.

"So it is a slight improvement but look if you are in true regional Queensland, I don't know, I think it is an uphill battle."

Mr Crean says the successful projects will create an estimated 180 jobs during construction and more than 400 after.

The Moreton Bay Regional Council will get almost $8 million for its planned 'Corso' community facilities at North Lakes.

Funding has also been promised to rebuild seawalls in the Torres Strait, the Emerald Airport apron extension and the Mackay Regional Events Centre.

Mr Crean says they have been selected because they have demonstrated clear long-term benefits and will boost regional economic development.

"A significant commitment to Queensland. Close to $35 million of the 200 from Commonwealth money but interestingly it has leveraged almost four times that amount from other partners. It shows the real benefit of partnership," he said.

In Skull Analysis, Charting the Path From T. Rex to Falcon

From New York Times: In Skull Analysis, Charting the Path From T. Rex to Falcon
It is well accepted that birds evolved from dinosaurs, but the extent of the transformation still inspires wonder and awe. And new research.

One part of that transformation has just been traced in detail, showing that one of the things that happened in bird evolution was that their skulls pulled a Peter Pan and stopped growing up.

Some subtle genetic change slowed or stopped the development of the skull as a bird embryo grew in the shell and after hatching. The body kept on growing and changing proportions, but the skull changed only in size. It did not change in shape.

As a result, the skulls of birds look like those of baby dinosaurs. This kind of change is at the heart of the current understanding of how evolution proceeds, and although scientists are familiar with it from work on salamanders, fruit flies and other creatures, this new research shows how it occurred in two kinds of animals the public loves — dinosaurs and birds — bringing a complicated scientific idea home to the bird feeder and the museum exhibit hall.

The change from dinosaur to bird is one of those grand evolutionary shifts. The smart, quick theropod dinosaurs that gave rise to birds may have had feathers, but they did not fly and they certainly didn’t resemble birds today. Just think of a pigeon’s acrobatics. Or the legendary dive of the peregrine falcon, which can spot that pigeon from 3,000 feet and drop to earth in a 200-mile-an-hour swoop to strike it.

That’s a long way from running on land, a change in speed and agility requiring not only wings and flight feathers but sharp senses and sophisticated brains for long-distance vision and high-speed action. Sure enough, birds’ skulls have room for relatively huge eyes and for a brain that has expanded in the part devoted to the visual sense. And they are the same shape as the skulls of juvenile dinosaurs, not those of adults.

That similarity is what prompted the research by a group of investigators including Bhart-Anjan S. Bhullar, a graduate student at Harvard; Arkhat Abzhanov, Mr. Bhullar’s adviser; and Mark Norell at the American Museum of Natural History. They trained their attention on the evolution of skull shape in dinosaurs and birds, with the working hypothesis that as birds evolved, their growth patterns changed so they kept a juvenile skull shape their whole life.

“A number of us have speculated on this,” Dr. Norell said, referring to the idea that adult birds resembled young dinosaurs in some ways. “It’s a common thing to argue it, but it’s a difficult thing to show.”

To test the idea, the group used CT scan information on all the known fossils of theropod dinosaurs that show skull growth, as well as skulls of birds and crocodilians. They identified 45 points called landmarks on the skulls, and used a computer analysis to see how the areas defined by those points changed both during an individual life and over evolutionary time.

The analysis showed that in dinosaurs like Coelophysis and in crocodilians, the shape of the skulls changed significantly during an individual animal’s growth. The juveniles had short faces, and large brains and eyes. The adults had a longer snout and less room, relative to skull size, for eyes and brain. In primitive birds, however, there was very little change in skull shape during growth, so the skull retained its juvenile form. The modern birds continued the trend. The research was published online in the journal Nature on Sunday.

David B. Weishampel, a paleontologist at Johns Hopkins who was not part of the study, said it was thorough and convincing, “a nice piece of work.”

Dr. Abzhanov said the skull evolution was apparently a result of a change in the relative pace of two processes, body growth and sexual maturation. Crocodilians and dinosaurs, he said, may reach sexual maturity in 7 to 10 years. But modern birds become sexually mature 15 to 20 times as fast, and their body growth stops when their skulls are still like those of juvenile dinosaurs — and when they are ready, some of them, to drop from the sky at 200 miles an hour.

Investigation launched into origins of disputed dinosaur skeleton

From FoxDFW: Investigation launched into origins of disputed dinosaur skeleton

NEW YORK -- The Mongolian government and a Texas-based auction house are embroiled in an ownership fight over a fearsome dinosaur fossil, but the two parties said Wednesday they are cooperating in an investigation that seeks to settle the dispute.

Heritage Auctions sold the near-complete Tyrannosaurus skeleton for $1.05 million last week in New York City.

But before the eight-foot-tall, 24-foot-long beast could get to its new owner, the Mongolian government stepped in and laid claim to the remains.

A temporary restraining order filed in the name of the Mongolian President Tsakhia Elbegdorj sought to prevent Heritage Auctions from selling the Tyrannosaurus bataar, a cousin of T. rex that roamed Asia 70 million years ago.

Elbegdorj contends that the specimen likely came from Mongolia, where fossils are considered national property and are illegal to export. His government is sending a delegation of Mongolian and international experts to New York next week to evaluate the dinosaur bones.

The goal of the inspection -- at which the skeleton's consignor and a Heritage Auctions representative will be present -- is to verify whether or not the specimen was dug up from Mongolian soil, the president's Texas-based attorney, Robert Painter, told NewsCore in an email.

"Of course, if the T. bataar is verified to be from Mongolia, our goal is to repatriate it as soon as possible," he said.

In that case, Mongolia will try to reach an "amicable settlement" with the auction house and the unidentified consignor, Painter said. But if the parties cannot hammer out an agreement, the court case will continue.

Heritage Auctions has maintained that the skeleton was legally obtained.

"At this point we don't know for certain when or from where the dinosaur was first exported, what the applicable laws were and are, or whether the court case will be settled or adjudicated," Jim Halperin, co-chairman of Heritage Auctions, told NewsCore through a spokesman.

"Fortunately the goal of Heritage Auctions, of our consignor and of the President of Mongolia would seem to be the same: a fair and just resolution based upon cooperation and shared knowledge of as many of the facts as possible," he added.

Painter said Heritage Auctions told him the specimen, which is believed to be from the Gobi desert, has no documented provenance before 2005, when it was purchased in Japan. Since then, he said, it was purchased by a collector in England and then exported to the US, where it was prepared to be sold at auction.

For now, the dinosaur bones are resting in crates at a secure facility in the New York area.

Birds Evolved From Dinosaurs By Remaining ‘Juveniles’

From PlanetSave: Birds Evolved From Dinosaurs By Remaining ‘Juveniles’
New evidence is suggesting that the emergence of birds was from a drastic change in how dinosaurs developed. Rather than spending years to reach sexual maturity, they drastically shortened their development, essentially remaining juvenile dinosaurs their whole lifespan.

Some species of birds take as little as 12 weeks to reach maturity, as opposed to the very long development of some species of dinosaurs.

“What is interesting about this research is the way it illustrates evolution as a developmental phenomenon,” said Arkhat Abzhanov, associate professor at Harvard and study co-author. “By changing the developmental biology in early species, nature has produced the modern bird — an entirely new creature — and one that, with approximately 10,000 species, is today the most successful group of land vertebrates on the planet.”

There are some clear differences between birds and dinosaurs; birds have shorter snouts, less/no teeth, and they have proportionally larger eyes and brains. But those differences are all from the sexual characteristics of grown dinosaurs — the skulls of juvenile dinosaurs and birds are virtually identical.

“No one had told the big story of the evolution of the bird head before,” said Bhart-Anjan Bhullar, a Harvard PhD student and first author of the study. “There had been a number of smaller studies that focused on particular points of the anatomy, but no one had looked at the entire picture. What’s interesting is that when you do that, you see the origins of the features that make the bird head special lie deep in the history of the evolution of Archosaurs, a group of animals that were the dominant, meat-eating animals for millions of years.”

To perform the study, the researchers used CT scanners; scanning dozens of skulls from birds, theropods (the dinosaurs most closely related to birds), and from other early dinosaur species.

By keeping track of the different “landmarks” on the skull, such as the orbits, cranial cavity, and other bones; the researchers were able to track how the skull changed over millions of years.

“We examined skulls from the entire lineage that gave rise to modern birds,” Abzhanov said. “We looked back approximately 250 million years, to the Archosaurs, the group which gave rise to crocodiles and alligators as well as modern birds. Our goal was to look at these skulls to see how they changed, and try to understand what actually happened during the evolution of the bird skull.”

What the researchers found is that while early dinosaurs undergo large morphological changes in their skull as they mature, the skulls of of adult and juvenile birds are nearly the same.

The process of a species changing to reach sexual maturity earlier is called progenesis. Different from their dinosaur ancestors, birds reach sexual maturity rapidly, as quickly as in 12 weeks.

The researchers of this study comment that this highlights the diversity of different evolutionary strategies that species use.

“That you can have such dramatic success simply by changing the relative timing of events in a creature’s development is remarkable,” he said. “We now understand the relationship between birds and dinosaurs that much better, and we can say that, when we look at birds, we are actually looking at juvenile dinosaurs.”

“It shows that there’s so much for evolution to act upon,” Bhullar agreed. “When we think of an organism, especially a complex organism, we often think of it as a static entity, but to really study something you have to look at its whole existence, and understand that one portion of its life can be parceled out and made into the entire lifespan of a new, and in this case, radically successful organism.”