USA Today Science Fair: T. Rex more like a hyena than a lion
The towering and terrifying Tyrannosaurus rex may have been less like a rampaging lion and more like a scavenging hyena, scientists conducting a census of dinosaurs say.
If T. rex were the apex predator of its day, it should have had been about one-third or one-fourth as abundant as its prey, because of the larger energy needs of carnivores. Instead, researchers doing a census of a major fossil site in Montana found as many T. rex fossils as herbivore fossils.
That makes the ferocious giant look a lot more like a hyena, an opportunistic hunter that eats already dead animals as well as fresh-killed prey. Hyenas are about twice as abundant as top predators in the African veld, said Mark Goodwin, a curator in UC Berkeley's Museum of Paleontology.
"In our census, T. rex came out very high, equivalent in numbers to Edmontosaurus, which many people had thought was its primary prey," John Horner, curator of paleontology at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Mont., and a professor at Montana State University, said in a release. "This says that T. rex is not a cheetah, it's not a lion. It's more like a hyena."
"If you count the lions and the leopards and the cheetahs in the Serengeti, the number still does not equal the number of hyenas, because hyenas have a much wider food source," Horner said. "Cheetahs, for example, only go after things that are really fast. They don't eat turtles. But a hyena will eat a turtle, or anything else that it can catch or is dead."
T. rex, he believes, was eating anything it could, he said. "There's no evidence that T. rex could run very fast, so it wasn't out there being a cheetah. If it could get a sick animal, it would."
The census was done of all dinosaur skeletons found over a large area of eastern Montana. Paleontologists began counting dinosaurs found in the Hell Creek Formation there, which dates from 65-95 million years ago, in 1999. The results are published in a paper in a February edition of open-access science journal PLos ONE.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
"Thunder thighs" dinosaur discovered
Science Fair: "Thunder thighs" dinosaur discovered
A international paleontology team reports the discovery of a "thunder thighs" dinosaur, a big, brawny, and four-legged sauropod, discovered in Utah quarry rocks dating to 110 million years ago.
At least two specimens, perhaps a mother and her offspring, have been uncovered of Brontomerus mcintoshi, or "thunder-thighs", the new species described in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonic a by the team led by Michael Taylor of University College London. Brontomerus was a sauropod, four-legged, long-necked and long-tailed, and the larger specimen would have weighed six tons while alive and measured more than 45 feet long.
"Brontomerus mcintoshi is a charismatic dinosaur and an exciting discovery for us," said Taylor, in a statement. "When we recognised the weird shape of the hip, we wondered what its significance might be, but we concluded that kicking was the most likely. The kick would probably have been used when two males fought over a female, but given that the mechanics were all in place it would be bizarre if it wasn't also used in predator defense."
Brontomerus is remarkable for its robust thighbones, the team notes in the study, also suggesting the dinosaur may have kicked at "raptor" dinosaurs that sought to prey on the species.
Compared to other North American sauropods, the discovery points to this type of vegetarian dinosaur shifting its population characteristics in the later stage of the Age of Dinosaurs, as the Jurassic gave way to to the Cretaceous era about 144 million years ago:
"The improving record of Early Cretaceous sauropods in North America is extended by the new genus, so that generic−level diversity of sauropods in this epoch now approaches that of the Late Jurassic. The most striking differ−ences between Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous sauropods in North America is that the former are abundant and dominated by diplodocids, whereas the latter are comparatively scarce and dominated by macronarians. It is currently impos− sible to determine whether this shift happened suddenly, or gradually over many millions of years in the earliest Creta ceous. It is natural to assume that if the shift was sudden, it happened at the end of the Jurassic, but that is not necessarily the case. The timing and tempo of this faunal shift remain un−certain; future inferences will have to be based on improved understanding of global changes in conditions in the earliest Cretaceous, and careful analysis of faunal changes on neighbouring continents, especially Europe," says the study.
A international paleontology team reports the discovery of a "thunder thighs" dinosaur, a big, brawny, and four-legged sauropod, discovered in Utah quarry rocks dating to 110 million years ago.
At least two specimens, perhaps a mother and her offspring, have been uncovered of Brontomerus mcintoshi, or "thunder-thighs", the new species described in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonic a by the team led by Michael Taylor of University College London. Brontomerus was a sauropod, four-legged, long-necked and long-tailed, and the larger specimen would have weighed six tons while alive and measured more than 45 feet long.
"Brontomerus mcintoshi is a charismatic dinosaur and an exciting discovery for us," said Taylor, in a statement. "When we recognised the weird shape of the hip, we wondered what its significance might be, but we concluded that kicking was the most likely. The kick would probably have been used when two males fought over a female, but given that the mechanics were all in place it would be bizarre if it wasn't also used in predator defense."
Brontomerus is remarkable for its robust thighbones, the team notes in the study, also suggesting the dinosaur may have kicked at "raptor" dinosaurs that sought to prey on the species.
Compared to other North American sauropods, the discovery points to this type of vegetarian dinosaur shifting its population characteristics in the later stage of the Age of Dinosaurs, as the Jurassic gave way to to the Cretaceous era about 144 million years ago:
"The improving record of Early Cretaceous sauropods in North America is extended by the new genus, so that generic−level diversity of sauropods in this epoch now approaches that of the Late Jurassic. The most striking differ−ences between Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous sauropods in North America is that the former are abundant and dominated by diplodocids, whereas the latter are comparatively scarce and dominated by macronarians. It is currently impos− sible to determine whether this shift happened suddenly, or gradually over many millions of years in the earliest Creta ceous. It is natural to assume that if the shift was sudden, it happened at the end of the Jurassic, but that is not necessarily the case. The timing and tempo of this faunal shift remain un−certain; future inferences will have to be based on improved understanding of global changes in conditions in the earliest Cretaceous, and careful analysis of faunal changes on neighbouring continents, especially Europe," says the study.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Record-setting dinosaur exhibit coming to Detroit
DetroitNews.com: Record-setting dinosaur exhibit coming to Detroit
http://www.detroitsciencecenter.org/
The mammoth blockbuster exhibit "Dinosaurs Unearthed" will be unveiled in Detroit Saturday. The more than 10,000-square-foot exposition features two dozen animatronic dinosaurs, five full-sized skeletons and nearly 40 fossil replicas and eggs from the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods 65 million to 245 million years ago.
Todd Slisher, Science Center COO and vice president of visitor programs and service, says "Dinosaurs Unearthed" has been breaking attendance records around the country. The Science Center is the fourth venue to feature the exhibit, which was last in Kansas City.
While at Union Station in Kansas City, the exhibit tallied more than 149,000 visitors since opening in May.
The museum's average number of visitors annually had been 190,000. And the exhibit was the third most popular in the history of the Cincinnati Museum Center, drawing 170,000 visitors there and 105,000 visitors to the Saint Louis Science Center.
Now the Detroit Science Center, which boasts an annual attendance of 300,000, hopes to attract throngs to its show
. To date, the venue has held two exhibitions exceeding 100,000 visitors, says Science Center spokeswoman Kelly Fulford.
In 2003, "Titanic: The Artifact Exhibit" drew 192,000 visitors and generated $2 million in ticket sales over seven months. And the 2007 exhibit, "Our Body: The Universe Within" attracted 268,000 visitors, generating $5 million in ticket sales over 12 months.
Daoping Bao, exhibit president, CEO and creator of the animatronics dinosaurs, credits the success of "Dinosaurs Unearthed" with presenting the former giants in a fresh and innovative way. "Today there is the Internet, Game Boy, you have to entertain," Bao says. "You need action and excitement."
The animatronic creations were made to replicate nearly every feature of the dinosaurs. Each of the 24 animatronic dinosaurs has up to eight movements, is hand-carved and is covered with skin-like materials. They also roar, roll their eyes and clinch their menacing jaws in manners that will amuse children and adults alike.
But Bao quickly adds that while the exhibit is entertaining, it doesn't stray from educating audiences.
The show also explores the "softer" side of the dinosaurs, highlighting the relatively recent discovery of feathered dinosaurs and their connection to birds. Even the most ferocious of the dinosaurs, like the Tyrannosaurus Rex, was covered with a downy, featherlike coat that helped them maintain their body temperature prior to reaching adulthood. Feathered fossils were discovered in 1996, and are the strongest evidence to date that modern day birds are actually descendants of theropods.
"Usually what happens for most people visiting a museum for example is they see dinosaur fossils or skeletons, a name, and a year. But they don't really understand," Bao says. "Everything we do is very detailed and based on science, complete with experts checking out terms and the language we use."
Paleontologist Glenn Storrs agrees.
"The exhibit highlights this new understanding in an attractive and exciting way that all ages can appreciate," says Storrs, assistant vice president of natural history and science and the Withrow Farny curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Cincinnati Museum Center. "For me, the representations of newly discovered Chinese fossils are the most notable part of the presentation."
The Detroit Science Center will give visitors an extra helping of dinosaur fun with "Dinosaurs Alive!" in the Chrysler IMAX Dome Theatre and "Dinosaur Planet" in the Dassault Systèmes Planetarium.
http://www.detroitsciencecenter.org/
The mammoth blockbuster exhibit "Dinosaurs Unearthed" will be unveiled in Detroit Saturday. The more than 10,000-square-foot exposition features two dozen animatronic dinosaurs, five full-sized skeletons and nearly 40 fossil replicas and eggs from the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods 65 million to 245 million years ago.
Todd Slisher, Science Center COO and vice president of visitor programs and service, says "Dinosaurs Unearthed" has been breaking attendance records around the country. The Science Center is the fourth venue to feature the exhibit, which was last in Kansas City.
While at Union Station in Kansas City, the exhibit tallied more than 149,000 visitors since opening in May.
The museum's average number of visitors annually had been 190,000. And the exhibit was the third most popular in the history of the Cincinnati Museum Center, drawing 170,000 visitors there and 105,000 visitors to the Saint Louis Science Center.
Now the Detroit Science Center, which boasts an annual attendance of 300,000, hopes to attract throngs to its show
. To date, the venue has held two exhibitions exceeding 100,000 visitors, says Science Center spokeswoman Kelly Fulford.
In 2003, "Titanic: The Artifact Exhibit" drew 192,000 visitors and generated $2 million in ticket sales over seven months. And the 2007 exhibit, "Our Body: The Universe Within" attracted 268,000 visitors, generating $5 million in ticket sales over 12 months.
Daoping Bao, exhibit president, CEO and creator of the animatronics dinosaurs, credits the success of "Dinosaurs Unearthed" with presenting the former giants in a fresh and innovative way. "Today there is the Internet, Game Boy, you have to entertain," Bao says. "You need action and excitement."
The animatronic creations were made to replicate nearly every feature of the dinosaurs. Each of the 24 animatronic dinosaurs has up to eight movements, is hand-carved and is covered with skin-like materials. They also roar, roll their eyes and clinch their menacing jaws in manners that will amuse children and adults alike.
But Bao quickly adds that while the exhibit is entertaining, it doesn't stray from educating audiences.
The show also explores the "softer" side of the dinosaurs, highlighting the relatively recent discovery of feathered dinosaurs and their connection to birds. Even the most ferocious of the dinosaurs, like the Tyrannosaurus Rex, was covered with a downy, featherlike coat that helped them maintain their body temperature prior to reaching adulthood. Feathered fossils were discovered in 1996, and are the strongest evidence to date that modern day birds are actually descendants of theropods.
"Usually what happens for most people visiting a museum for example is they see dinosaur fossils or skeletons, a name, and a year. But they don't really understand," Bao says. "Everything we do is very detailed and based on science, complete with experts checking out terms and the language we use."
Paleontologist Glenn Storrs agrees.
"The exhibit highlights this new understanding in an attractive and exciting way that all ages can appreciate," says Storrs, assistant vice president of natural history and science and the Withrow Farny curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Cincinnati Museum Center. "For me, the representations of newly discovered Chinese fossils are the most notable part of the presentation."
The Detroit Science Center will give visitors an extra helping of dinosaur fun with "Dinosaurs Alive!" in the Chrysler IMAX Dome Theatre and "Dinosaur Planet" in the Dassault Systèmes Planetarium.
Bristol dinosaur find marked at Arnos Vale Cemetery
BBC: Bristol dinosaur find marked at Arnos Vale Cemetery
A unique dinosaur skeleton unearthed in Bristol more than 175 years ago is being celebrated in the city.
In 1834 fossilised remains initially thought to be a reptile, were found on Durdham Downs by quarry workers.
But they were identified in 1836 as an entirely new species of dinosaur - thecodontosaurus - by geologists Samuel Stutchbury and Henry Riley.
Arnos Vale Cemetery in Bristol is marking the discovery and the work of Samuel Stutchbury, who is buried there.
The cemetery has teamed up with the Bristol Dinosaur Project to host a family day on 22 February and a public lecture on 24 February.
It's thought the thecodontosaurus - which means socket-toothed dinosaur - was washed into a limestone cave some 200-250 million years ago when the Bristol area was roamed by Triassic dinosaurs.
Some of the bones found in 1834 are now on display at Bristol's City Museum and Art Gallery.
At the Arnos Vale events, people will be able to find out more about the dinosaur and the Bristolian scientist who discovered it.
Samuel Stutchbury was the curator of the Bristol Instition, which went on to become the city's museum, and a contemporary of Charles Darwin, to whom he lent fossils for study.
The February events are part of a series running throughout the year which mark the lives and achievements of people remembered or buried at the cemetery.
You can find out more about them at the Arnos Vale Cemetery website: http://www.arnosvale.org.uk/.
A unique dinosaur skeleton unearthed in Bristol more than 175 years ago is being celebrated in the city.
In 1834 fossilised remains initially thought to be a reptile, were found on Durdham Downs by quarry workers.
But they were identified in 1836 as an entirely new species of dinosaur - thecodontosaurus - by geologists Samuel Stutchbury and Henry Riley.
Arnos Vale Cemetery in Bristol is marking the discovery and the work of Samuel Stutchbury, who is buried there.
The cemetery has teamed up with the Bristol Dinosaur Project to host a family day on 22 February and a public lecture on 24 February.
It's thought the thecodontosaurus - which means socket-toothed dinosaur - was washed into a limestone cave some 200-250 million years ago when the Bristol area was roamed by Triassic dinosaurs.
Some of the bones found in 1834 are now on display at Bristol's City Museum and Art Gallery.
At the Arnos Vale events, people will be able to find out more about the dinosaur and the Bristolian scientist who discovered it.
Samuel Stutchbury was the curator of the Bristol Instition, which went on to become the city's museum, and a contemporary of Charles Darwin, to whom he lent fossils for study.
The February events are part of a series running throughout the year which mark the lives and achievements of people remembered or buried at the cemetery.
You can find out more about them at the Arnos Vale Cemetery website: http://www.arnosvale.org.uk/.
Drawing with dinosaurs: in praise of the artist's impression
Guardian.co.uk:. Jonathan Jones on Art: Drawing with dinosaurs: in praise of the artist's impression
Art is not only for artists. Painting and drawing have uses that go way beyond the needs of art galleries – like portraying dinosaurs, for example. A while ago at the Natural History Museum in London I heard a great talk by a palaeontologist – I wish I had made a note of his name – about his specialism, which is creating pictures of extinct animals based on their fossil remains. How can you reconstruct, from the evidence of a spiralling stone shell, the soft, living body of an Ammonite? He showed how comparison with a modern animal, the Nautilus, can help, and challenged the audience to sketch our own idea of an Ammonite.
Books on dinosaurs and other ancient life forms are full of artist's impressions, painted and digitally generated. Our longing to see these vanished creatures for real drives an endless industry of re-creation in which intense visual imagination is brought to bear on the dead stone traces of the antediluvians. From Walking with Dinosaurs to David Attenborough's First Life, the techniques of the artist and animator serve science.
This goes back at least to the 19th century when the painter John Martin drew fantastic scenes of life in the Jurassic seas, whose fossils were then being rediscovered by heroic fossil hunters in the cliffs of Lyme Regis. In Martin's teeming ocean monstrous ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs confront one another like mythic dragons. And Martin was in fact a painter of apocalyptic vision: today he is renowned for his lurid paintings of the end of the world, in which blazing clouds boil and innumerable crows fall into the abyss. His dark mind sees the prehistoric past too as an inferno of chaotic biological experiments – the sea of Hell.
Modern scientific renditions of the prehuman world might seem far more careful and realistic. But it is amazing how rapidly ideas about the appearance of dinosaurs change – the theory that dinosaurs had feathers being the most renowned recent revision. This is about new fossil discoveries but it also has to be about imagination. It seems unlikely the world's imagination will ever really give up on the idea of scaly dinosaurs, however much feathery fossil evidence is found.
The strangest picture I have ever seen of a now-extinct animal is more accurate than any conceivable modern reconstruction – because it was done from life. To look on a cave painting of a mammoth is to see what the eyes of an early human saw, when monsters still roamed the Earth. Hair and tusks, force and otherness – a wild beast drawn from nature – confront you. Perhaps, when artists, scientists and animators try to picture the animals of lost worlds, they are channelling an ancient instinct: it is the caveman within who holds the brush.
Art is not only for artists. Painting and drawing have uses that go way beyond the needs of art galleries – like portraying dinosaurs, for example. A while ago at the Natural History Museum in London I heard a great talk by a palaeontologist – I wish I had made a note of his name – about his specialism, which is creating pictures of extinct animals based on their fossil remains. How can you reconstruct, from the evidence of a spiralling stone shell, the soft, living body of an Ammonite? He showed how comparison with a modern animal, the Nautilus, can help, and challenged the audience to sketch our own idea of an Ammonite.
Books on dinosaurs and other ancient life forms are full of artist's impressions, painted and digitally generated. Our longing to see these vanished creatures for real drives an endless industry of re-creation in which intense visual imagination is brought to bear on the dead stone traces of the antediluvians. From Walking with Dinosaurs to David Attenborough's First Life, the techniques of the artist and animator serve science.
This goes back at least to the 19th century when the painter John Martin drew fantastic scenes of life in the Jurassic seas, whose fossils were then being rediscovered by heroic fossil hunters in the cliffs of Lyme Regis. In Martin's teeming ocean monstrous ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs confront one another like mythic dragons. And Martin was in fact a painter of apocalyptic vision: today he is renowned for his lurid paintings of the end of the world, in which blazing clouds boil and innumerable crows fall into the abyss. His dark mind sees the prehistoric past too as an inferno of chaotic biological experiments – the sea of Hell.
Modern scientific renditions of the prehuman world might seem far more careful and realistic. But it is amazing how rapidly ideas about the appearance of dinosaurs change – the theory that dinosaurs had feathers being the most renowned recent revision. This is about new fossil discoveries but it also has to be about imagination. It seems unlikely the world's imagination will ever really give up on the idea of scaly dinosaurs, however much feathery fossil evidence is found.
The strangest picture I have ever seen of a now-extinct animal is more accurate than any conceivable modern reconstruction – because it was done from life. To look on a cave painting of a mammoth is to see what the eyes of an early human saw, when monsters still roamed the Earth. Hair and tusks, force and otherness – a wild beast drawn from nature – confront you. Perhaps, when artists, scientists and animators try to picture the animals of lost worlds, they are channelling an ancient instinct: it is the caveman within who holds the brush.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
UT launches campaign to "save the dinosaur tracks
The Horn: UT launches campaign to "save the dinosaur tracks
Since 1941, the University of Texas has been home to a large set of footprints of sauropod and theropod dinosaurs made 112 million years ago near the Paluxy River in Glen Rose, Texas. The Glen Rose Dinosaur Tracks are currently displayed in a small building outside of the Texas Memorial Museum; however, scientists have recently discovered that the tracks have begun to deteriorate due to moisture-related problems in their current home.
“Several years ago, we found surface deterioration of the stone,” said Susan Romberg, Director of External Affairs in the College of Natural Sciences. “A full assessment was needed to determine the extent of the damage and the cause of the deterioration.”
In 2008, funding was obtained from UT's College of Natural Sciences in order to complete the assessment, Romberg said. The money also funded a full plan of operations for preservation of the tracks, which was developed by Conservation Solutions, Inc. The company recommendations included removing the stone tracks from their present location, treating the stone to preserve it, reassembling and mounting of the stone on a modular support system, and relocating the tracks to an exhibit gallery inside the environmentally safe, climate-controlled Texas Memorial Museum.
Dinosaur Valley State Park in Glen Rose, the site where these tracks originated from, has long been viewed as the site of some of the best-preserved dinosaur tracks in the world. This particular set tells paleontologists much about the details of the ancient creatures, including their size, weight, and the way they moved; therefore it is regarded as an important key to the study of the species.
Paleontologists have estimated that the sauropod, one of the dinosaurs who made these tracks, was 60 feet long and weighed 20 tons. This sauropod’s tracks have become the standard against which all tracks similar in nature are compared.
The other featured dinosaur is the theropod, estimated to have been smaller at a length of about 30 feet. Scientists think that due to the proximity of the tracks, it is possible that the theropod, a carnivorous creature, was following or stalking the sauropod.
A campaign has begun called “Save the Dinosaur Tracks” in order to raise the funds to move the tracks into a new display inside the Texas Memorial Museum. The goal of creating a new display for the tracks is not only to keep them better preserved, but also to create a better educational environment for people to be able to learn about the tracks and about the dinosaurs that are such an important part of Texas history and science in general.
“We are seeking $1,000,000 in funding,” Romberg said. “This would be a wonderful sponsorship for a corporate donor to fund the preservation and exhibition of a unique piece of Texas' natural history, with outstanding K-12 educational outreach opportunities that will benefit present and future generations.
Romberg and the College of Natural Sciences are seeking large donations from corporations, foundations, and major donors in order to preserve the tracts. They are also planning grassroots activities such as a t-shirt design contest for children and barbeque sales on UT football game days.
For more information on the tracks and the campaign to save them, visit savethedinosaurtracks.org.
Since 1941, the University of Texas has been home to a large set of footprints of sauropod and theropod dinosaurs made 112 million years ago near the Paluxy River in Glen Rose, Texas. The Glen Rose Dinosaur Tracks are currently displayed in a small building outside of the Texas Memorial Museum; however, scientists have recently discovered that the tracks have begun to deteriorate due to moisture-related problems in their current home.
“Several years ago, we found surface deterioration of the stone,” said Susan Romberg, Director of External Affairs in the College of Natural Sciences. “A full assessment was needed to determine the extent of the damage and the cause of the deterioration.”
In 2008, funding was obtained from UT's College of Natural Sciences in order to complete the assessment, Romberg said. The money also funded a full plan of operations for preservation of the tracks, which was developed by Conservation Solutions, Inc. The company recommendations included removing the stone tracks from their present location, treating the stone to preserve it, reassembling and mounting of the stone on a modular support system, and relocating the tracks to an exhibit gallery inside the environmentally safe, climate-controlled Texas Memorial Museum.
Dinosaur Valley State Park in Glen Rose, the site where these tracks originated from, has long been viewed as the site of some of the best-preserved dinosaur tracks in the world. This particular set tells paleontologists much about the details of the ancient creatures, including their size, weight, and the way they moved; therefore it is regarded as an important key to the study of the species.
Paleontologists have estimated that the sauropod, one of the dinosaurs who made these tracks, was 60 feet long and weighed 20 tons. This sauropod’s tracks have become the standard against which all tracks similar in nature are compared.
The other featured dinosaur is the theropod, estimated to have been smaller at a length of about 30 feet. Scientists think that due to the proximity of the tracks, it is possible that the theropod, a carnivorous creature, was following or stalking the sauropod.
A campaign has begun called “Save the Dinosaur Tracks” in order to raise the funds to move the tracks into a new display inside the Texas Memorial Museum. The goal of creating a new display for the tracks is not only to keep them better preserved, but also to create a better educational environment for people to be able to learn about the tracks and about the dinosaurs that are such an important part of Texas history and science in general.
“We are seeking $1,000,000 in funding,” Romberg said. “This would be a wonderful sponsorship for a corporate donor to fund the preservation and exhibition of a unique piece of Texas' natural history, with outstanding K-12 educational outreach opportunities that will benefit present and future generations.
Romberg and the College of Natural Sciences are seeking large donations from corporations, foundations, and major donors in order to preserve the tracts. They are also planning grassroots activities such as a t-shirt design contest for children and barbeque sales on UT football game days.
For more information on the tracks and the campaign to save them, visit savethedinosaurtracks.org.
New dinosaur dating technique paper released
Physorg.com: New dinosaur dating technique paper released
Antonio Simonetti, a research associate professor in the Department of Civil Engineering and Geological Sciences at the University of Notre Dame, is the coauthor of an important new paper describing a novel method for age dating dinosaur fossils.
Simonetti and colleagues from the University of Alberta used a U-Pb (uranium-lead) dating technique to analyze a fossilized dinosaur bone discovered in New Mexico. In a paper in the prestigious journal Geology, the researchers discuss their method and reveal that it determined that the femur bone from a giant hadrosaur dinosaur was 64.8 million years old.
The finding has caused a significant stir in scientific circles. There has been wide agreement among paleontologists that dinosaurs became extinct roughly 65.5 million years ago. Various theories as to the cause of this extinction have been suggested, ranging from a huge asteroid striking the earth to changes in global sea levels and climate to sustained periods of volcanism.
However, the method used by Simonetti and his colleagues determined that the New Mexico plant eating dinosaur was alive roughly 700,000 years after the surmised giant extinction event.
Although the challenge to the accepted dinosaur extinction model has received the most attention, Simonetti believes that the dating method described in the paper is especially significant.
The current method paleontologists use to date dinosaur fossils is a technique called relative chronology. The method estimates a fossil’s age relative to the known age of deposits of sediment in which it was found.
However, the relative chronology technique does not take into account the possibility that millions of years of geological and environmental activity can cause a fossil to drift from its original position in a layer of sediment and be re-deposited in a younger sediment layer.
The U-Pb method Simonetti and his Alberta colleagues employed uses a laser beam to sample minute particles of the fossil, which are then subjected to isotopic analysis using state-of-the-art instrumentation.
Simonetti and his colleagues believe that if the uranium-lead dating technique is confirmed in additional fossil samples, prevailing theories about the end of the dinosaurs will need to be revised.
And much of that dating work will be done in a new laboratory facility at Notre Dame. Simonetti and Clive R. Neal, a professor of civil engineering and geological sciences, have received a National Science Foundation-MRI equipment grant to establish “MITERAC” — the Midwest Isotope and Trace Element Research Analytic Center — in Cushing Hall. The facility will expand the research endeavors of 18 researchers from six universities in Indiana and Michigan, including some who will use the facility for the new uranium-lead dating technique.
Provided by University of Notre Dame
Antonio Simonetti, a research associate professor in the Department of Civil Engineering and Geological Sciences at the University of Notre Dame, is the coauthor of an important new paper describing a novel method for age dating dinosaur fossils.
Simonetti and colleagues from the University of Alberta used a U-Pb (uranium-lead) dating technique to analyze a fossilized dinosaur bone discovered in New Mexico. In a paper in the prestigious journal Geology, the researchers discuss their method and reveal that it determined that the femur bone from a giant hadrosaur dinosaur was 64.8 million years old.
The finding has caused a significant stir in scientific circles. There has been wide agreement among paleontologists that dinosaurs became extinct roughly 65.5 million years ago. Various theories as to the cause of this extinction have been suggested, ranging from a huge asteroid striking the earth to changes in global sea levels and climate to sustained periods of volcanism.
However, the method used by Simonetti and his colleagues determined that the New Mexico plant eating dinosaur was alive roughly 700,000 years after the surmised giant extinction event.
Although the challenge to the accepted dinosaur extinction model has received the most attention, Simonetti believes that the dating method described in the paper is especially significant.
The current method paleontologists use to date dinosaur fossils is a technique called relative chronology. The method estimates a fossil’s age relative to the known age of deposits of sediment in which it was found.
However, the relative chronology technique does not take into account the possibility that millions of years of geological and environmental activity can cause a fossil to drift from its original position in a layer of sediment and be re-deposited in a younger sediment layer.
The U-Pb method Simonetti and his Alberta colleagues employed uses a laser beam to sample minute particles of the fossil, which are then subjected to isotopic analysis using state-of-the-art instrumentation.
Simonetti and his colleagues believe that if the uranium-lead dating technique is confirmed in additional fossil samples, prevailing theories about the end of the dinosaurs will need to be revised.
And much of that dating work will be done in a new laboratory facility at Notre Dame. Simonetti and Clive R. Neal, a professor of civil engineering and geological sciences, have received a National Science Foundation-MRI equipment grant to establish “MITERAC” — the Midwest Isotope and Trace Element Research Analytic Center — in Cushing Hall. The facility will expand the research endeavors of 18 researchers from six universities in Indiana and Michigan, including some who will use the facility for the new uranium-lead dating technique.
Provided by University of Notre Dame
Dinosaurs come alive when prehistoric meets present at Lowry Park Zoo's DinoQuest
TampBay.com: Dinosaurs come alive when prehistoric meets present at Lowry Park Zoo's DinoQuest
The Tyrannosaurus rex is scary, the Dilophosaurus is annoying, and the Brachiosaurus, well, it's just huge. The prehistoric past meets the present in DinoQuest, a new dinosaur exhibit at Lowry Park Zoo. The outdoor exhibit opened last week and runs through May 1. It stars 20 animated dinosaurs that look, move and roar like their Jurassic counterparts. Here is what to expect.
Susan Thurston, Times staff writer
>> What is it about?
DinoQuest centers around the story that dinosaurs — for unexplained reasons — have returned to a futuristic city, terrorizing the citizens and causing everyone to flee. Visitors enter the city through a dark and smoke-filled portal like something out of a Hollywood movie set. The city is eerily calm except for the paleontological museum, where dinosaurs have busted through the front door, leaving chards of glass and enraging a large T. rex skeleton. Visitors escape through a second portal, stepping back in time when dinosaurs roamed the forests.
>> What are the highlights?
The 20 animatronic dinosaurs look and sound real, with moving eyes, mouths and bodies. The Brachiosaurus stretches 18 feet tall. The Dilophosaurus sprays water on unsuspecting visitors. The zoo created the outdoor exhibit area from scratch using mostly unused space near the Garden of Love. The dinosaurs were leased from Billings Productions of Texas, which provides life-sized dinosaurs to zoos, museums and theme parks. After the exhibit ends, the space will be transformed into Zoo Boo and Wild Wonderland.
>> What's particularly noteworthy?
Though Disney-like in appearance, DinoQuest also seeks to educate. Signs by each dinosaur give the name, dimensions, characteristics and pronunciation. (Try saying Massospondylus fast three times.) Each dinosaur is compared to a modern-day equivalent at the zoo. For example, the Elaphrosaurus is like an emu, a bipedal runner, in Wallaroo Station. Visitors wanting more information about the dinosaurs can also text or scan a QR code with their iPhone.
. Is DinoQuest scary?
For the littles ones, yes. The dinosaurs are big and loud and almost too lifelike for toddlers and preschoolers. Even though your children love watching Dino Dan on TV, they might shriek when one of these dinosaurs roars in their face. On opening day, several kids ages 4 and under covered their ears or eyes. A few even cried. That said, if kids can get through the roaring T. rex skeleton near the entrance, they'll probably do fine through the rest of it. Parents of real timid tots might want to consider avoiding the "meat-eating loop'' of carnivores. The zoo smartly opted to put the scariest dinos in one area obscured behind a wall. Overall, if your child is afraid of the animated dinos at T-Rex Café at Downtown Disney, they will probably shudder at these.
>> Is it worth it?
Yes. Even if you skip the meat-eaters, the $4 per person charge plus regular zoo admission seems reasonable. Beyond the dinosaur forest and Shop-O-Saurus Gift Shop, there's a huge inflatable Velocity Raptor Slide, a small fossil pit, a T. rex robot that kids can control and castings of dinosaur fossils. You can get better fossils digging at Dinosaur World in Plant City but you won't find more lifelike prehistoric creatures. Parents not sure about going can always mull it over while visiting the rest of the zoo. Tickets are available at the exhibit entrance.
>> What else?
DinoQuest is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily and during Dino Nites from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. most Fridays and Saturdays through April 30. Dino Nites are $9.95 per person and include free zoo rides. Zoo members are free. Dino Discovery Club passes are $15 per person for unlimited day and Dino Nites admission. Dinosaur parties and sleepovers are also available.
If you go DinoQuest runs through May 1 at the Lowry Park Zoo, 1101 W Sligh Ave., Tampa. Admission is $4 per person plus zoo admission or zoo pass membership. Regular zoo admission is $23.95 for adults, $21.95 for seniors and $18.95 for children ages 3 to 11. lowryparkzoo.com; (813) 935-8552.
The Tyrannosaurus rex is scary, the Dilophosaurus is annoying, and the Brachiosaurus, well, it's just huge. The prehistoric past meets the present in DinoQuest, a new dinosaur exhibit at Lowry Park Zoo. The outdoor exhibit opened last week and runs through May 1. It stars 20 animated dinosaurs that look, move and roar like their Jurassic counterparts. Here is what to expect.
Susan Thurston, Times staff writer
>> What is it about?
DinoQuest centers around the story that dinosaurs — for unexplained reasons — have returned to a futuristic city, terrorizing the citizens and causing everyone to flee. Visitors enter the city through a dark and smoke-filled portal like something out of a Hollywood movie set. The city is eerily calm except for the paleontological museum, where dinosaurs have busted through the front door, leaving chards of glass and enraging a large T. rex skeleton. Visitors escape through a second portal, stepping back in time when dinosaurs roamed the forests.
>> What are the highlights?
The 20 animatronic dinosaurs look and sound real, with moving eyes, mouths and bodies. The Brachiosaurus stretches 18 feet tall. The Dilophosaurus sprays water on unsuspecting visitors. The zoo created the outdoor exhibit area from scratch using mostly unused space near the Garden of Love. The dinosaurs were leased from Billings Productions of Texas, which provides life-sized dinosaurs to zoos, museums and theme parks. After the exhibit ends, the space will be transformed into Zoo Boo and Wild Wonderland.
>> What's particularly noteworthy?
Though Disney-like in appearance, DinoQuest also seeks to educate. Signs by each dinosaur give the name, dimensions, characteristics and pronunciation. (Try saying Massospondylus fast three times.) Each dinosaur is compared to a modern-day equivalent at the zoo. For example, the Elaphrosaurus is like an emu, a bipedal runner, in Wallaroo Station. Visitors wanting more information about the dinosaurs can also text or scan a QR code with their iPhone.
. Is DinoQuest scary?
For the littles ones, yes. The dinosaurs are big and loud and almost too lifelike for toddlers and preschoolers. Even though your children love watching Dino Dan on TV, they might shriek when one of these dinosaurs roars in their face. On opening day, several kids ages 4 and under covered their ears or eyes. A few even cried. That said, if kids can get through the roaring T. rex skeleton near the entrance, they'll probably do fine through the rest of it. Parents of real timid tots might want to consider avoiding the "meat-eating loop'' of carnivores. The zoo smartly opted to put the scariest dinos in one area obscured behind a wall. Overall, if your child is afraid of the animated dinos at T-Rex Café at Downtown Disney, they will probably shudder at these.
>> Is it worth it?
Yes. Even if you skip the meat-eaters, the $4 per person charge plus regular zoo admission seems reasonable. Beyond the dinosaur forest and Shop-O-Saurus Gift Shop, there's a huge inflatable Velocity Raptor Slide, a small fossil pit, a T. rex robot that kids can control and castings of dinosaur fossils. You can get better fossils digging at Dinosaur World in Plant City but you won't find more lifelike prehistoric creatures. Parents not sure about going can always mull it over while visiting the rest of the zoo. Tickets are available at the exhibit entrance.
>> What else?
DinoQuest is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily and during Dino Nites from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. most Fridays and Saturdays through April 30. Dino Nites are $9.95 per person and include free zoo rides. Zoo members are free. Dino Discovery Club passes are $15 per person for unlimited day and Dino Nites admission. Dinosaur parties and sleepovers are also available.
If you go DinoQuest runs through May 1 at the Lowry Park Zoo, 1101 W Sligh Ave., Tampa. Admission is $4 per person plus zoo admission or zoo pass membership. Regular zoo admission is $23.95 for adults, $21.95 for seniors and $18.95 for children ages 3 to 11. lowryparkzoo.com; (813) 935-8552.
Dinosaurs on display at Burpee (IL) aren’t the ones you’ve seen before
Rcckford Register Star: Dinosaurs on display at
Burpee aren’t the ones you’ve seen before
Five things you should know about the traveling “Giants: African Dinosaurs” exhibit that opens Saturday and runs through May 15 at the Burpee Museum of Natural History in Rockford.
1. The dinosaurs are unmatched. You can’t see these dinosaurs at any other museum. At least while they’re on display here. “These are not your grandfather’s dinosaurs,” said Scott Williams, Burpee’s director of exhibits and science. “These are different dinosaurs ... with different names, from a different continent, not like what you see at The Field Museum (in Chicago) or even here. They’ve adapted to different ecosystems.”
By the way, 2,051 dinosaur bone replicas are being displayed in skeletons and a skull in the “Giants” exhibit.
2. Some dinos are really old and ate other dinos. The 70-foot-long, plant-eating Jobaria — the skeleton of which is on display at CherryVale Mall because it was too big to house at Burpee — would have been dinner for the 27-foot-long Afrovenator. Afrovenator is one of six dinosaur skeletons at Burpee as part of the traveling show.
Both Jobaria and Afrovenator are about 135 million years old. By comparison, Jane is about 66 million years old. Jane is the nearly complete juvenile T. rex on permanent display at Burpee.
3. The show is in a new space. This is the second traveling exhibit housed in a new hall that joins Burpee and the Discovery Center Museum. The hall is part of a $10.5 million expansion for both museums. The first traveling exhibit was “Grossology,” which ended in early January. That display of icky body functions was more in tune with Discovery Center-type activities than the natural historical activities that Burpee showcases.
4. Organizers expect to more than recoup costs. The cost to rent the “Giants” traveling exhibit: $100,000. Alan Brown, Burpee’s executive director, has said he expects PaleoFest visitors will be among those who help the museum more than break even for the exhibit.
5. The exhibit should be a big draw for PaleoFest. PaleoFest is March 5 and 6 at Burpee, and several workshops and other activities highlight the “Giants” exhibit.
Family workshops examine the teeth and claws of the giant African dinosaurs and study microfossils for evidence of the creatures’ habitats. Plus, Paul Sereno, founder and president of Project Exploration, which owns the “Giants” exhibit, will be the keynote speaker at a dinner March 6.
Last year, 1,300 tickets were sold for PaleoFest activities. Williams, Burpee’s exhibits director, said he expects a bigger crowd this year because of the African dinosaurs exhibit. As anecdotal evidence of interest, Williams said: “There was this little boy, who when we mounted Jobaria at the mall, he was there from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.” when the last of its 300 bones was put in place.
Burpee aren’t the ones you’ve seen before
Five things you should know about the traveling “Giants: African Dinosaurs” exhibit that opens Saturday and runs through May 15 at the Burpee Museum of Natural History in Rockford.
1. The dinosaurs are unmatched. You can’t see these dinosaurs at any other museum. At least while they’re on display here. “These are not your grandfather’s dinosaurs,” said Scott Williams, Burpee’s director of exhibits and science. “These are different dinosaurs ... with different names, from a different continent, not like what you see at The Field Museum (in Chicago) or even here. They’ve adapted to different ecosystems.”
By the way, 2,051 dinosaur bone replicas are being displayed in skeletons and a skull in the “Giants” exhibit.
2. Some dinos are really old and ate other dinos. The 70-foot-long, plant-eating Jobaria — the skeleton of which is on display at CherryVale Mall because it was too big to house at Burpee — would have been dinner for the 27-foot-long Afrovenator. Afrovenator is one of six dinosaur skeletons at Burpee as part of the traveling show.
Both Jobaria and Afrovenator are about 135 million years old. By comparison, Jane is about 66 million years old. Jane is the nearly complete juvenile T. rex on permanent display at Burpee.
3. The show is in a new space. This is the second traveling exhibit housed in a new hall that joins Burpee and the Discovery Center Museum. The hall is part of a $10.5 million expansion for both museums. The first traveling exhibit was “Grossology,” which ended in early January. That display of icky body functions was more in tune with Discovery Center-type activities than the natural historical activities that Burpee showcases.
4. Organizers expect to more than recoup costs. The cost to rent the “Giants” traveling exhibit: $100,000. Alan Brown, Burpee’s executive director, has said he expects PaleoFest visitors will be among those who help the museum more than break even for the exhibit.
5. The exhibit should be a big draw for PaleoFest. PaleoFest is March 5 and 6 at Burpee, and several workshops and other activities highlight the “Giants” exhibit.
Family workshops examine the teeth and claws of the giant African dinosaurs and study microfossils for evidence of the creatures’ habitats. Plus, Paul Sereno, founder and president of Project Exploration, which owns the “Giants” exhibit, will be the keynote speaker at a dinner March 6.
Last year, 1,300 tickets were sold for PaleoFest activities. Williams, Burpee’s exhibits director, said he expects a bigger crowd this year because of the African dinosaurs exhibit. As anecdotal evidence of interest, Williams said: “There was this little boy, who when we mounted Jobaria at the mall, he was there from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.” when the last of its 300 bones was put in place.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Oldest known tracks of birds dinosaur ancestors found in Africa
Exminer.com National: Oldest known tracks of birds dinosaur ancestors found in Africa
Paleontologists from Germany and Niger (Africa) reported the discovery of the oldest known records of paravian maniraptorans and of didactyl theropod tracks from Africa on February 14, 2011, at the Public Library of Science web site.
Paravian maniraptorans and of didactyl theropods are thought to be the link between birds and dinosaurs. There is a lively argument concerning the relationship.
"Overall features of Paravipus tracks imply an unknown Gondwanan member of the paravian clade Deinonychosauria as a possible trackmaker, but there is no record of a medium sized mid-Jurassic deinonychosaur from southern continents yet. Paravipus tracks provide evidence that digit II was modified in the trackmaker (and not the result of pathology or injury), with only the posterior part of digit II involved in weight-bearing during locomotion. This is a unique feature in tracks of Middle to Late Jurassic age. The modification of digit II with a hyperextensible joint seemed to have evolved much earlier in the phylogeny of paravian maniraptorans than previously expected."
Abstract
Background
A new dinosaur tracksite from Middle Jurassic sediments of the Irhazer Group on the plains of Agadez (Rep. Niger, northwest Africa) revealed extraordinarily well preserved didactyl tracks of a digitigrade bipedal trackmaker. The distinct morphology of the pes imprints indicates a theropod trackmaker from a paravian maniraptoran closely related to birds.
Methodology/Principal Findings
The early age and the morphological traits of the tracks allow for description of the new ichnotaxon Paravipus didactyloides. A total of 120 tracks are assigned to 5 individual trackways. The ‘medium-sized’ tracks with an average footprint length of 27.5 cm and footprint width of 23.1 cm are deeply imprinted into the track bearing sandstone.
Conclusions/Significance
A comparison with other didactyl tracks gives new insights into the foot morphology of advanced maniraptoran theropods and contributes to knowledge of their evolutionary history. The new ichnotaxon takes an important position in the ichnological fossil record of Gondwana and the mid-Jurassic biota worldwide, because it is among the earliest known records of paravian maniraptorans and of didactyl theropod tracks from Africa.
Citation: Mudroch A, Richter U, Joger U, Kosma R, Idé O, et al. (2011) Didactyl Tracks of Paravian Theropods (Maniraptora) from the ?Middle Jurassic of Africa. PLoS ONE 6(2): e14642. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0014642
Paleontologists from Germany and Niger (Africa) reported the discovery of the oldest known records of paravian maniraptorans and of didactyl theropod tracks from Africa on February 14, 2011, at the Public Library of Science web site.
Paravian maniraptorans and of didactyl theropods are thought to be the link between birds and dinosaurs. There is a lively argument concerning the relationship.
"Overall features of Paravipus tracks imply an unknown Gondwanan member of the paravian clade Deinonychosauria as a possible trackmaker, but there is no record of a medium sized mid-Jurassic deinonychosaur from southern continents yet. Paravipus tracks provide evidence that digit II was modified in the trackmaker (and not the result of pathology or injury), with only the posterior part of digit II involved in weight-bearing during locomotion. This is a unique feature in tracks of Middle to Late Jurassic age. The modification of digit II with a hyperextensible joint seemed to have evolved much earlier in the phylogeny of paravian maniraptorans than previously expected."
Abstract
Background
A new dinosaur tracksite from Middle Jurassic sediments of the Irhazer Group on the plains of Agadez (Rep. Niger, northwest Africa) revealed extraordinarily well preserved didactyl tracks of a digitigrade bipedal trackmaker. The distinct morphology of the pes imprints indicates a theropod trackmaker from a paravian maniraptoran closely related to birds.
Methodology/Principal Findings
The early age and the morphological traits of the tracks allow for description of the new ichnotaxon Paravipus didactyloides. A total of 120 tracks are assigned to 5 individual trackways. The ‘medium-sized’ tracks with an average footprint length of 27.5 cm and footprint width of 23.1 cm are deeply imprinted into the track bearing sandstone.
Conclusions/Significance
A comparison with other didactyl tracks gives new insights into the foot morphology of advanced maniraptoran theropods and contributes to knowledge of their evolutionary history. The new ichnotaxon takes an important position in the ichnological fossil record of Gondwana and the mid-Jurassic biota worldwide, because it is among the earliest known records of paravian maniraptorans and of didactyl theropod tracks from Africa.
Citation: Mudroch A, Richter U, Joger U, Kosma R, Idé O, et al. (2011) Didactyl Tracks of Paravian Theropods (Maniraptora) from the ?Middle Jurassic of Africa. PLoS ONE 6(2): e14642. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0014642
Bushfires existed in dinosaurs' time
theage.com.au: Bushfires existed in dinosaurs' time
SCIENTISTS have used fossilised pollen and DNA extracted from gumleaves to establish that bushfires appeared in Australia more than 50 million years earlier than thought.
The findings, which take bushfires back to the time of the dinosaurs' demise, mean fire probably contributed to transforming the prehistoric landscape from lush rainforest into dry eucalypt forest.
Australian National University's Mike Crisp and his colleagues developed an evolutionary family tree for the myrtle family - of which the eucalyptus is a member - by extracting DNA from leaves.
Advertisement: Story continues below The DNA helped document the species' evolution back 80 million years, but researchers could not pin down when the eucalypt developed the fire-resistant feature known as epicormic buds, which aid regeneration.
''The DNA alone won't put a timescale on it; you need fossils of known age. That's where the pollen comes in,'' Professor Crisp said. ''The trick is to work out where these fossils go on the evolutionary tree and when you've done that you can put the timeline on the tree and work out when things happened.''
Using more than 100 pollen fossil samples, the research team was able to establish that eucalypts developed the buds about 62 million years ago. This puts bushfire activity in Australia back to more than 60 million years ago - rather than the previous view that fire dated back just 10 million years.
Professor Crisp said the findings coincided with the time the landscape of Australia started to change, when the ancient ancestors of the eucalypt moved out of the rainforest and into the woodlands.
''It means you have two lines of evidence pointing to fire originating at that time,'' Professor Crisp said.
''One is to do with the anatomy of the eucalypts and their ability to re-sprout, and the other to do with the kinds of habitat they grew in. And the timing was the same for both.''
The lead author of the paper, Professor Crisp, worked with colleagues from Charles Sturt University, the University of Tasmania and the University of Queensland.
The results of the study are published today in the journal Nature Communications.
SCIENTISTS have used fossilised pollen and DNA extracted from gumleaves to establish that bushfires appeared in Australia more than 50 million years earlier than thought.
The findings, which take bushfires back to the time of the dinosaurs' demise, mean fire probably contributed to transforming the prehistoric landscape from lush rainforest into dry eucalypt forest.
Australian National University's Mike Crisp and his colleagues developed an evolutionary family tree for the myrtle family - of which the eucalyptus is a member - by extracting DNA from leaves.
Advertisement: Story continues below The DNA helped document the species' evolution back 80 million years, but researchers could not pin down when the eucalypt developed the fire-resistant feature known as epicormic buds, which aid regeneration.
''The DNA alone won't put a timescale on it; you need fossils of known age. That's where the pollen comes in,'' Professor Crisp said. ''The trick is to work out where these fossils go on the evolutionary tree and when you've done that you can put the timeline on the tree and work out when things happened.''
Using more than 100 pollen fossil samples, the research team was able to establish that eucalypts developed the buds about 62 million years ago. This puts bushfire activity in Australia back to more than 60 million years ago - rather than the previous view that fire dated back just 10 million years.
Professor Crisp said the findings coincided with the time the landscape of Australia started to change, when the ancient ancestors of the eucalypt moved out of the rainforest and into the woodlands.
''It means you have two lines of evidence pointing to fire originating at that time,'' Professor Crisp said.
''One is to do with the anatomy of the eucalypts and their ability to re-sprout, and the other to do with the kinds of habitat they grew in. And the timing was the same for both.''
The lead author of the paper, Professor Crisp, worked with colleagues from Charles Sturt University, the University of Tasmania and the University of Queensland.
The results of the study are published today in the journal Nature Communications.
Researcher Simonetti coauthors important new dinosaur-dating paper
Thriving in Michiana: Researcher Simonetti coauthors important new dinosaur-dating paper
Antonio Simonetti, a research associate professor in the Department of Civil Engineering and Geological Sciences at the University of Notre Dame, is the coauthor of an important new paper describing a novel method for age dating dinosaur fossils.
Simonetti and colleagues from the University of Alberta used a U-Pb (uranium-lead) dating technique to analyze a fossilized dinosaur bone discovered in New Mexico. In a paper in the prestigious journal Geology, the researchers discuss their method and reveal that it determined that the femur bone from a giant hadrosaur dinosaur was 64.8 million years old.
The finding has caused a significant stir in scientific circles. There has been wide agreement among paleontologists that dinosaurs became extinct roughly 65.5 million years ago. Various theories as to the cause of this extinction have been suggested, ranging from a huge asteroid striking the earth to changes in global sea levels and climate to sustained periods of volcanism.
However, the method used by Simonetti and his colleagues determined that the New Mexico plant eating dinosaur was alive roughly 700,000 years after the surmised giant extinction event.
Although the challenge to the accepted dinosaur extinction model has received the most attention, Simonetti believes that the dating method described in the paper is especially significant.
The current method paleontologists use to date dinosaur fossils is a technique called relative chronology. The method estimates a fossil's age relative to the known age of deposits of sediment in which it was found.
However, the relative chronology technique does not take into account the possibility that millions of years of geological and environmental activity can cause a fossil to drift from its original position in a layer of sediment and be re-deposited in a younger sediment layer.
The U-Pb method Simonetti and his Alberta colleagues employed uses a laser beam to sample minute particles of the fossil, which are then subjected to isotopic analysis using state-of-the-art instrumentation.
Simonetti and his colleagues believe that if the uranium-lead dating technique is confirmed in additional fossil samples, prevailing theories about the end of the dinosaurs will need to be revised.
And much of that dating work will be done in a new laboratory facility at Notre Dame. Simonetti and Clive R. Neal, a professor of civil engineering and geological sciences, have received a National Science Foundation-MRI equipment grant to establish “MITERAC” — the Midwest Isotope and Trace Element Research Analytic Center — in Cushing Hall. The facility will expand the research endeavors of 18 researchers from six universities in Indiana and Michigan, including some who will use the facility for the new uranium-lead dating technique.
Antonio Simonetti, a research associate professor in the Department of Civil Engineering and Geological Sciences at the University of Notre Dame, is the coauthor of an important new paper describing a novel method for age dating dinosaur fossils.
Simonetti and colleagues from the University of Alberta used a U-Pb (uranium-lead) dating technique to analyze a fossilized dinosaur bone discovered in New Mexico. In a paper in the prestigious journal Geology, the researchers discuss their method and reveal that it determined that the femur bone from a giant hadrosaur dinosaur was 64.8 million years old.
The finding has caused a significant stir in scientific circles. There has been wide agreement among paleontologists that dinosaurs became extinct roughly 65.5 million years ago. Various theories as to the cause of this extinction have been suggested, ranging from a huge asteroid striking the earth to changes in global sea levels and climate to sustained periods of volcanism.
However, the method used by Simonetti and his colleagues determined that the New Mexico plant eating dinosaur was alive roughly 700,000 years after the surmised giant extinction event.
Although the challenge to the accepted dinosaur extinction model has received the most attention, Simonetti believes that the dating method described in the paper is especially significant.
The current method paleontologists use to date dinosaur fossils is a technique called relative chronology. The method estimates a fossil's age relative to the known age of deposits of sediment in which it was found.
However, the relative chronology technique does not take into account the possibility that millions of years of geological and environmental activity can cause a fossil to drift from its original position in a layer of sediment and be re-deposited in a younger sediment layer.
The U-Pb method Simonetti and his Alberta colleagues employed uses a laser beam to sample minute particles of the fossil, which are then subjected to isotopic analysis using state-of-the-art instrumentation.
Simonetti and his colleagues believe that if the uranium-lead dating technique is confirmed in additional fossil samples, prevailing theories about the end of the dinosaurs will need to be revised.
And much of that dating work will be done in a new laboratory facility at Notre Dame. Simonetti and Clive R. Neal, a professor of civil engineering and geological sciences, have received a National Science Foundation-MRI equipment grant to establish “MITERAC” — the Midwest Isotope and Trace Element Research Analytic Center — in Cushing Hall. The facility will expand the research endeavors of 18 researchers from six universities in Indiana and Michigan, including some who will use the facility for the new uranium-lead dating technique.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Dinosaurs Galore!
NBC Philadelphia: Dinosaurs Galore!
Celebrate everything dinosaur at The Academy of Natural Sciences (http://www.ansp.org/).
On Saturday, February 19 and Sunday February 20 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. you and your family can spend the day learning about dinos and participating in dinosaur festivities.
There are endless activities at the Paleopalooza. At 1 p.m. on both days, you can meet some of today’s birds and reptiles that are related to the dinosaur. You can also watch an episode of the popular show Dinosaur Train on a big screen, search for your own fossils, examine a tyrannosaur skeleton found in New Jersey and so much more.
Real life paleontologist Dr. Scott Sampson will hold a presentation on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. He'll talk about the latest dinosaur discoveries.
The Paleopalooza is inside the Academy at 1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
Adult tickets cost $12 and children can get in for $10.
Celebrate everything dinosaur at The Academy of Natural Sciences (http://www.ansp.org/).
On Saturday, February 19 and Sunday February 20 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. you and your family can spend the day learning about dinos and participating in dinosaur festivities.
There are endless activities at the Paleopalooza. At 1 p.m. on both days, you can meet some of today’s birds and reptiles that are related to the dinosaur. You can also watch an episode of the popular show Dinosaur Train on a big screen, search for your own fossils, examine a tyrannosaur skeleton found in New Jersey and so much more.
Real life paleontologist Dr. Scott Sampson will hold a presentation on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. He'll talk about the latest dinosaur discoveries.
The Paleopalooza is inside the Academy at 1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
Adult tickets cost $12 and children can get in for $10.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Mark the day in Lexington, KY: 17 Feb, 2011
Dinosaur expert Jack Horner speaking at U K
LEXINGTON, Ky. — A prominent paleontologist who was adviser for the "Jurassic Park" films will speak Thursday night at the University of Kentucky.
The university says Jack Horner's lecture at the Singletary Center for the Arts is titled, "How to Build a Dinosaur: Extinction Doesn't Have to Be Forever," which is also the title of his book.
UK geology professor Frank R. Ettensohn says Horner will be talking about how birds might be used to create modern dinosaurs.
The university says among Horner's discoveries are evidence of parental care by dinosaurs and 75-million-year-old eggs containing embryos from a previously unknown type of dinosaur.
LEXINGTON, Ky. — A prominent paleontologist who was adviser for the "Jurassic Park" films will speak Thursday night at the University of Kentucky.
The university says Jack Horner's lecture at the Singletary Center for the Arts is titled, "How to Build a Dinosaur: Extinction Doesn't Have to Be Forever," which is also the title of his book.
UK geology professor Frank R. Ettensohn says Horner will be talking about how birds might be used to create modern dinosaurs.
The university says among Horner's discoveries are evidence of parental care by dinosaurs and 75-million-year-old eggs containing embryos from a previously unknown type of dinosaur.
Mark the day in the UK: 24 Feb, 2011
Thisis bristol.co.uk: Your chance to find out about the Bristol Dinosaur on the Downs
A LECTURE about the Bristol Dinosaur will be held at Arnos Vale Cemetery on February 24.
The lecture will be about the Thecodontosaurus, whose remains were found in Durdham Down by quarry workers digging for limestone in the 19th century.
The bones were identified as a new species of dinosaur in 1836 by geologists Henry Riley and Samuel Stutchbury, who was buried at Arnos Vale in 1859.
The lecture, being delivered by Bristol University lecturer Mike Benton from 7.30pm in the Anglican Chapel, is being held as part of its Dinosaur Month. The cemetery will also hold a dinosaur- themed family fun day on February 22.
At the Dino Discovery Day, which will run in one-hour sessions starting between 10am and 1pm in the Speilman Centre, families can become dinosaur hunters, find fossils, solve puzzles and build their own dinosaurs.
Felicia Smith, of the Arnos Cemetery Trust, said: "The activities in Dinosaur Month explore the ways in which the early scientists in the 1830s understood geological time and the ancient denizens of the Earth. They will also highlight the current scientific and educational work based around the Bristol dinosaur."
Tickets are £7 per person (£5 for concessions) for the lecture and £7 per family for the family fun day. Visit arnosvale.org.uk or bristoldinosaur.com.
A LECTURE about the Bristol Dinosaur will be held at Arnos Vale Cemetery on February 24.
The lecture will be about the Thecodontosaurus, whose remains were found in Durdham Down by quarry workers digging for limestone in the 19th century.
The bones were identified as a new species of dinosaur in 1836 by geologists Henry Riley and Samuel Stutchbury, who was buried at Arnos Vale in 1859.
The lecture, being delivered by Bristol University lecturer Mike Benton from 7.30pm in the Anglican Chapel, is being held as part of its Dinosaur Month. The cemetery will also hold a dinosaur- themed family fun day on February 22.
At the Dino Discovery Day, which will run in one-hour sessions starting between 10am and 1pm in the Speilman Centre, families can become dinosaur hunters, find fossils, solve puzzles and build their own dinosaurs.
Felicia Smith, of the Arnos Cemetery Trust, said: "The activities in Dinosaur Month explore the ways in which the early scientists in the 1830s understood geological time and the ancient denizens of the Earth. They will also highlight the current scientific and educational work based around the Bristol dinosaur."
Tickets are £7 per person (£5 for concessions) for the lecture and £7 per family for the family fun day. Visit arnosvale.org.uk or bristoldinosaur.com.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Rawrrr, Boise State researcher gets dinosaur named after her
ArbiterOnline (Boise State) Rawrrr, Boise State researcher gets dinosaur named after her
Boise State postdoctoral researcher Celina Suarez is one of only a handful of people in history to have her name attached to a dinosaur. Geminiraptor suarezarum, a raptor-like species that walked the Earth about 125 million years ago, was discovered by Suarez and her identical twin Marina.
The dinosaur’s fossilized upper jawbone was found near Green River, Utah, in 2004, when the Suarez sisters were Temple University master’s students working on a summer excavation project for the Utah Geological Survey. While investigating the sediment profile above the dig site, they spotted a gully where dinosaur bones were sticking out of the rock. Three species have been recovered from the site thus far, including Geminiraptor — now the oldest known member of the dinosaur family Troodontidae and the only one ever found to be present in North America during the Early Cretaceous period (about 145 to 98 million years ago).
Utah Geological Survey paleontologist Jim Kirkland told the sisters the great news soon after the bones were analyzed. But they didn’t know until late last year that the scientific classification of the ancient creature would bear their family name and refer to Gemini, which is Latin for “twins.”
This cast of a fossilized jawbone is a memento for Suarez, who discovered the original with her twin sister while they were graduate students working on a dinosaur dig in Utah. The fossil led to the naming of a new species in honor of the Suarez sisters: Geminiraptor suarezarum.
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“It was just so exciting. When we were kids, Marina and I thought we’d find a dinosaur in our backyard,” said Suarez, who is conducting postdoctoral research at Boise State while her sister does the same at Johns Hopkins University. “When we first found the Utah site we knew it was significant, but we had no idea we would become part of history.”
Suarez now specializes in geochemical paleontology, analyzing the chemical makeup of ancient bones as it relates to the original biology of an animal and the geology of the environment that became its tomb. Funded through a two-year, $170,000 National Science Foundation fellowship, her work at Boise State is expected to contribute to scholarly publications and research results in the Department of Geosciences.
Using bone specimens from nearby Hagerman and from the Idaho Museum of Natural History, Suarez will examine the chemical and physical processes of fossilization — an area of paleontology that is not well understood. In addition to contributing to a fuller understanding of biogeography throughout time, she said the study of fossils teaches us about past climates and how they may reference current and future environments on Earth.
Suarez is working with mentor Matt Kohn, a Boise State geochemistry professor and expert on stable isotopes and trace elements, which are crucial to unlocking the mysteries of vertebrate fossils.
“I had read a lot of Dr. Kohn’s papers and used them in my master’s and Ph.D. research, and I was excited about the prospect of working with him and learning some new tools,” Suarez said of her decision to come to Boise State. “Once you find these bones they often sit in a drawer in a museum collection, but advances in equipment and technology are allowing us to do a lot more with them.”
Since she started consulting with Boise State’s Department of Geosciences in the fall of 2010, Suarez has been impressed with the high level of scholarship and collaboration. While she and Kohn investigate chemical changes that occur in bone through the process of fossilization, Suarez also will collaborate with associate professor Kris Campbell in Boise State’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering to explore physical changes using a laser light technique called Raman spectroscopy.
In addition to her work in Boise over the next two years, Suarez is preparing for a summer trip to China, where she will examine dig sites with scientists from the Chinese Geological Academy of Sciences and the University of Pennsylvania. She also has done research on fossils in Alaska and plans to continue looking for undiscovered species that may give us clues to our own survival.
“There are about 700 named species of dinosaur. There are probably way more than that, but we haven’t found them — yet,” said Suarez. “Contributing to the discovery of the Geminiraptor was really exciting, but more than that, it made me want to go back to the field and discover more.”
Boise State postdoctoral researcher Celina Suarez is one of only a handful of people in history to have her name attached to a dinosaur. Geminiraptor suarezarum, a raptor-like species that walked the Earth about 125 million years ago, was discovered by Suarez and her identical twin Marina.
The dinosaur’s fossilized upper jawbone was found near Green River, Utah, in 2004, when the Suarez sisters were Temple University master’s students working on a summer excavation project for the Utah Geological Survey. While investigating the sediment profile above the dig site, they spotted a gully where dinosaur bones were sticking out of the rock. Three species have been recovered from the site thus far, including Geminiraptor — now the oldest known member of the dinosaur family Troodontidae and the only one ever found to be present in North America during the Early Cretaceous period (about 145 to 98 million years ago).
Utah Geological Survey paleontologist Jim Kirkland told the sisters the great news soon after the bones were analyzed. But they didn’t know until late last year that the scientific classification of the ancient creature would bear their family name and refer to Gemini, which is Latin for “twins.”
This cast of a fossilized jawbone is a memento for Suarez, who discovered the original with her twin sister while they were graduate students working on a dinosaur dig in Utah. The fossil led to the naming of a new species in honor of the Suarez sisters: Geminiraptor suarezarum.
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“It was just so exciting. When we were kids, Marina and I thought we’d find a dinosaur in our backyard,” said Suarez, who is conducting postdoctoral research at Boise State while her sister does the same at Johns Hopkins University. “When we first found the Utah site we knew it was significant, but we had no idea we would become part of history.”
Suarez now specializes in geochemical paleontology, analyzing the chemical makeup of ancient bones as it relates to the original biology of an animal and the geology of the environment that became its tomb. Funded through a two-year, $170,000 National Science Foundation fellowship, her work at Boise State is expected to contribute to scholarly publications and research results in the Department of Geosciences.
Using bone specimens from nearby Hagerman and from the Idaho Museum of Natural History, Suarez will examine the chemical and physical processes of fossilization — an area of paleontology that is not well understood. In addition to contributing to a fuller understanding of biogeography throughout time, she said the study of fossils teaches us about past climates and how they may reference current and future environments on Earth.
Suarez is working with mentor Matt Kohn, a Boise State geochemistry professor and expert on stable isotopes and trace elements, which are crucial to unlocking the mysteries of vertebrate fossils.
“I had read a lot of Dr. Kohn’s papers and used them in my master’s and Ph.D. research, and I was excited about the prospect of working with him and learning some new tools,” Suarez said of her decision to come to Boise State. “Once you find these bones they often sit in a drawer in a museum collection, but advances in equipment and technology are allowing us to do a lot more with them.”
Since she started consulting with Boise State’s Department of Geosciences in the fall of 2010, Suarez has been impressed with the high level of scholarship and collaboration. While she and Kohn investigate chemical changes that occur in bone through the process of fossilization, Suarez also will collaborate with associate professor Kris Campbell in Boise State’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering to explore physical changes using a laser light technique called Raman spectroscopy.
In addition to her work in Boise over the next two years, Suarez is preparing for a summer trip to China, where she will examine dig sites with scientists from the Chinese Geological Academy of Sciences and the University of Pennsylvania. She also has done research on fossils in Alaska and plans to continue looking for undiscovered species that may give us clues to our own survival.
“There are about 700 named species of dinosaur. There are probably way more than that, but we haven’t found them — yet,” said Suarez. “Contributing to the discovery of the Geminiraptor was really exciting, but more than that, it made me want to go back to the field and discover more.”
Saturday, February 5, 2011
5 Feb 2011, Dinosaur News: Dinosaurs roaming the Texas Panhandle...well, almost.
ConnectAmarillo.com: Dinosaurs roaming the Texas Panhandle...well, almost.
AMARILLO, TX -- Animals not seen for millions of years can be see at the Don Harrington Discovery Center..almost in the flesh.
The new dinosaur exhibit, which will be here for a few months is now up and running...with Raptors, a mother Triceratops and her hatchlings....along with a T-Rex...who has the unique ability, and software, that allows it track an individual and interact with anyone close.
"You know, it's kind of funny we human beings are inherently very social creatures and and so when you see comething that pays attention to you...you pay attention to it back, says Chip Lindsey, associate director of the Discovery Center. "And when they roar, it's either going to scare you or get you excited and you talk back to them. we've seen staff members begin conversations with the dinosaurs, visitors carrying on and getting excited."
The discovery center is now open until 8 p-m on Friday and Saturdays and that also also have a new film called "Sea Monsters" they're showing in their theatre that's included in your entrance fee.
AMARILLO, TX -- Animals not seen for millions of years can be see at the Don Harrington Discovery Center..almost in the flesh.
The new dinosaur exhibit, which will be here for a few months is now up and running...with Raptors, a mother Triceratops and her hatchlings....along with a T-Rex...who has the unique ability, and software, that allows it track an individual and interact with anyone close.
"You know, it's kind of funny we human beings are inherently very social creatures and and so when you see comething that pays attention to you...you pay attention to it back, says Chip Lindsey, associate director of the Discovery Center. "And when they roar, it's either going to scare you or get you excited and you talk back to them. we've seen staff members begin conversations with the dinosaurs, visitors carrying on and getting excited."
The discovery center is now open until 8 p-m on Friday and Saturdays and that also also have a new film called "Sea Monsters" they're showing in their theatre that's included in your entrance fee.
Abrictosaurus
Abrictosaurus (ih-BRICK-tuh-SAW-russ)
Type Species: consors (KON-surz)
Discoved: 1974, in Lesotho
Clasification:
-Order: Ornithiscia
-Suborder: Ornithopoda
-Family: Heterodontosauridae
Name: Greek abrictor=awake + Greek saurus = lizard
Size: 3 feet long
Period: early Jurassic, 208 million to 200 million years ago.
Place: Southern Africa
Abrictosaurus is set apart from all other Heterodontosaurids because it has no pointed canine teeth at the front of its lower jaw. It had a turkey-size body and a long tail.
Wikipedia:
This dinosaur is known from the fossil remains of only two individuals, found in the Upper Elliot Formation of Qacha's Nek District in Lesotho and Cape Province in South Africa, respectively. The Upper Elliot is thought to date from the Hettangian and Sinemurian stages of the Early Jurassic Period, approximately 200 to 190 million years ago. This formation is thought to preserve sand dunes as well as seasonal floodplains, in a semiarid environment with sporadic rainfall. Other dinosaurs found in this formation include the theropod Megapnosaurus, the sauropodomorph Massospondylus, as well as other heterodontosaurids like Heterodontosaurus and Lycorhinus. Remains of terrestrial crocodylomorphs, cynodonts and early mammals are also abundant
History and naming
Both specimens of Abrictosaurus are housed in the collection of University College London. The holotype specimen was discovered in Lesotho and consists of a partial skull and skeleton (UCL B54). Paleontologist Richard Thulborn, who first described the specimen in 1974, considered it a new species of Lycorhinus and named it L. consors, using the Latin word consors which means 'companion' or 'spouse'. As UCL B54 lacked the caniniforms which had been found in the type species, Lycohinus angustidens, Thulborn believed it to be female. Neither the skull nor the skeletons of Abrictosaurus have been fully described in the literature. A tooth from the latest Triassic of Switzerland has been assigned to Abrictosaurus sp., but this has not been supported, as the specimen does not have unique characteristics of Abrictosaurus, heterodontosaurids, or ornithischians in general.
In 1975, James Hopson redescribed a fragmentary heterodontosaur skull (UCL A100) found in South Africa that Thulborn had previously assigned to Lycorhinus angustidens. After showing that UCL A100 could not belong to L. angustidens but was instead more similar to UCL B54, Hopson erected a new genus to contain both specimens. The generic name Abrictosaurus (from the Greek αβρικτος/abriktos meaning 'wakeful' and σαυρος/sauros meaning 'lizard') refers to Hopson's disagreement with Thulborn's hypothesis that heterodontosaurids underwent periods of aestivation (hibernation during hot and/or dry seasons). The specific name was retained, creating the new binomial Abrictosaurus consors.
Despite Hopson's renaming, Thulborn continued to consider Lycorhinus angustidens, Heterodontosaurus tucki, and Abrictosaurus consors to be three species of the genus Lycorhinus. Most paleontologists maintain all three genera separately, although there is no precise definition of a species or genus in paleontology
Bibliography
-Dinosaur Encyclopedia, by Don Lessem and Donald Glut, The Dinosaur Society, 1993
-Wikipedia
Friday, February 4, 2011
Abelisaurus
Abelisaurus (ay-BEE-li-SAW-rus)
Discovered: 1985
Type species: comahuensis (Koh-muh-hoo-EN-sis)
Classification:
Order - Saurischia
Suborder - Theropoda
Family - Abelisauridae
Name: Abeli=Latinized name for Roberto Abel, director of the Museo Provinciale de Cipoletti + Greek sauros - lizard
Size - 25 feet long
Period: Late Cretaceous, 70 million years ago
Place: Argentina
Diet: Meat
Known only from one incomplete skull, possessing a long head, a deep face, and no horns or ornaments overs its eyes.
(Wikipedia says: Both genus and species were named and described by Argentine paleontologists Jose Bonaparte and Fernando Novas in 1985, who placed it in the newly-created family Abelisauridae)
Fossil Material:
The one known fossil skull of Abelisaurus is incomplete, especially on the right side. It is also missing most of the palate (roof of the mouth). Despite the missing pieces, it is over 85 centimeters (33 inches) long. Although there are no bony crests or horns, like those found in some other abelisaurids, such as Carnotaurus, rough ridges on the snout and above the eyes might have supported some kind of crest made out of keratin, which would not have become fossilized. There are also very large fenestrae (window-like openings) in the skull, which are found in many dinosaurs and reduce skull weight.
Bibliography
-Dinosaur Encyclopedia, by Don Lessem and Donald Glut, The Dinosaur Society, 1993
-Wikipedia
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