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Researchers work across fields to uncover information about hadrosaur
teeth
October 11, 2012 by Cindy Spence
Hadrosauroidea
Enlarge
Family tree of the Hadrosauroidea. Representative genera of each tribe
are shown to scale. Credit: Wikipedia/GNU
(Phys.org)—An unusual collaboration between researchers in two disparate
fields resulted in a new discovery about the teeth of
65-million-year-old dinosaurs.
Ads by Google
Dental Implant Warnings - What You Should Know Before Getting Dental
Implants. Read Expert Advice - symptomfind.com/CosmeticDentalCare
With the help of University of Florida mechanical engineering professor
W. Gregory Sawyer and UF postdoctoral researcher Brandon Krick, Florida
State University paleobiologist Gregory Erickson determined the teeth of
hadrosaurs—an herbivore from the late Cretaceous period—had six tissues
in their teeth instead of two. The results were published in the
journal Science Oct. 5.
"When something has been in the ground 65 million years, by and large we
pick it up and we look at it and say, 'oh, look at what has been
preserved.' But we don't mechanically interrogate fossils to see if
there is other information," Sawyer said. "When we started to
mechanically interrogate these teeth, what we found was all of these
properties were preserved, and one other thing: these teeth were a lot
more complicated than we thought."
For years, Erickson, who has a background in biomechanical engineering
and studies bone biomechanics as a paleobiologist, had thought so. So he
turned to the UF Tribology Laboratory, which researches the science of
friction and surface wear.
Engineers don't often see the interesting paleontological questions,
Sawyer said. One look at the surface of the dinosaur teeth piqued his
interest, however, because he is intrigued by how wear occurs across
surfaces with different materials. The shape of the tooth made him think
it was much more complex than previously thought.
From an engineering perspective, Sawyer said his lab often works with
composites that contain different material properties that wear
differently, so the question was whether just two materials—enamel and
dentine—would wear the way the hadrosaur teeth did. Sawyer and Krick
thought not, and turned to nanoindenters and microtribometers.
Just a decade ago, a paleontologist might not have asked engineers for
help, and they could not have helped him. In the last 10 years, however,
Sawyer said advances in engineering—tribology and nanoscience, in
particular—make it possible to test more materials, even those millions
of years old.
Ads by Google
Living With Dentures - Live Better With False Teeth. Explore Denture
Advice And Tips. - www.DentureLiving.com/NewDentures
Erickson said reptilian dinosaurs have been dismissed as simplistic
creatures in their feeding and dental structure. They were herbivores,
their teeth composed of enamel and dentine. The fossil record did little
to contradict that.
Testing with nanoindenters and microtribometers, however, proved the
conventional wisdom wrong.
"Hadrosaurs' teeth were incredibly complicated, among the most complex
of any animal," Sawyer said. "These dinosaurs had developed a lot of
tricks."
The duck-billed hadrosaur was a toothy creature with up to 1,400 teeth,
Erickson said. The teeth migrated across the chewing surface, with
sharp, enamel-edged front teeth moving sideways to become grinding teeth
as the teeth matured. The adaptation allowed hadrosaurs to bite off
chunks of bark and stems and chew them to a digestible mush, leading
Erickson to describe them as "walking pulp mills." The teeth wore down
at the rate of 1 millimeter per day, cycling through the jaw like a
conveyor belt, before falling out or being swallowed. The dinosaurs lost
about 1,800 teeth a year, leaving behind plenty of fossils for testing.
When the fossils emerged from batteries of tests, the researchers found
six tissues in the tooth structure, not two.
"Modern tools told us there were different materials in there," said
Sawyer, who is also a UF Research Foundation Professor and Distinguished
Teaching Scholar.
Erickson said the work could not have been accomplished without Sawyer's
lab, "arguably the best tribological lab in the world," and said he is
excited about the possibilities for new avenues of research. There are
drawers full of fossils in collections around the world that may have
more information to yield.
Sawyer agrees, and says that more engineering data could well be buried
in fossils.
"Perhaps now it makes sense to take some of that fossil record, when we
have other pieces of the record, and start to do things like sectioning
and histology," Sawyer said. "There are opportunities now with modern
scientific tools to probe their mechanical and tribological properties.
If we treat a fossil as a modern material, what happens? Do the
mechanical properties track?"
The collaborative nature of the Florida university system was a key to
getting the work done, Sawyer said, as was the funding his research gets
from the University of Florida Foundation.
"It took us five years to do this because it was always a side project
and wasn't funded. We could chew on it at our own pace," Sawyer said.
"This is exactly what you hope for when you endow research, that people
will take those funds and do things that are scientifically
significant."
Journal reference: Science search and more info website
Provided by University of Florida search and more info website
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© Phys.Org™ 2003-2012 Privacy Policy | Terms of Use
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-fields-uncover-hadrosaur-teeth.html#jCp
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-fields-uncover-hadrosaur-teeth.html#jCp
With the help of University
of Florida mechanical engineering professor W. Gregory Sawyer and UF
postdoctoral researcher Brandon Krick, Florida State University
paleobiologist Gregory Erickson determined the teeth of hadrosaurs—an
herbivore from the late Cretaceous period—had six tissues in their teeth
instead of two. The results were published in the journal Science Oct.
5.
"When something has been in the ground 65 million years, by and large we
pick it up and we look at it and say, 'oh, look at what has been
preserved.' But we don't mechanically interrogate fossils to see if
there is other information," Sawyer said. "When we started to
mechanically interrogate these teeth, what we found was all of these
properties were preserved, and one other thing: these teeth were a lot
more complicated than we thought."
For years, Erickson, who has a background in biomechanical engineering
and studies bone biomechanics as a paleobiologist, had thought so. So he
turned to the UF Tribology Laboratory, which researches the science of
friction and surface wear.
Engineers don't often see the interesting paleontological questions,
Sawyer said. One look at the surface of the dinosaur teeth piqued his
interest, however, because he is intrigued by how wear occurs across
surfaces with different materials. The shape of the tooth made him think
it was much more complex than previously thought.
From an engineering perspective, Sawyer said his lab often works with
composites that contain different material properties that wear
differently, so the question was whether just two materials—enamel and
dentine—would wear the way the hadrosaur teeth did. Sawyer and Krick
thought not, and turned to nanoindenters and microtribometers.
Just a decade ago, a paleontologist might not have asked engineers for
help, and they could not have helped him. In the last 10 years, however,
Sawyer said advances in engineering—tribology and nanoscience, in
particular—make it possible to test more materials, even those millions
of years old.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-fields-uncover-hadrosaur-teeth.html#jCp
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-fields-uncover-hadrosaur-teeth.html#jCp
With the help of University
of Florida mechanical engineering professor W. Gregory Sawyer and UF
postdoctoral researcher Brandon Krick, Florida State University
paleobiologist Gregory Erickson determined the teeth of hadrosaurs—an
herbivore from the late Cretaceous period—had six tissues in their teeth
instead of two. The results were published in the journal Science Oct.
5.
"When something has been in the ground 65 million years, by and large we
pick it up and we look at it and say, 'oh, look at what has been
preserved.' But we don't mechanically interrogate fossils to see if
there is other information," Sawyer said. "When we started to
mechanically interrogate these teeth, what we found was all of these
properties were preserved, and one other thing: these teeth were a lot
more complicated than we thought."
For years, Erickson, who has a background in biomechanical engineering
and studies bone biomechanics as a paleobiologist, had thought so. So he
turned to the UF Tribology Laboratory, which researches the science of
friction and surface wear.
Engineers don't often see the interesting paleontological questions,
Sawyer said. One look at the surface of the dinosaur teeth piqued his
interest, however, because he is intrigued by how wear occurs across
surfaces with different materials. The shape of the tooth made him think
it was much more complex than previously thought.
From an engineering perspective, Sawyer said his lab often works with
composites that contain different material properties that wear
differently, so the question was whether just two materials—enamel and
dentine—would wear the way the hadrosaur teeth did. Sawyer and Krick
thought not, and turned to nanoindenters and microtribometers.
Just a decade ago, a paleontologist might not have asked engineers for
help, and they could not have helped him. In the last 10 years, however,
Sawyer said advances in engineering—tribology and nanoscience, in
particular—make it possible to test more materials, even those millions
of years old.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-fields-uncover-hadrosaur-teeth.html#jCp
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-fields-uncover-hadrosaur-teeth.html#jCp
Family tree of the
Hadrosauroidea. Representative genera of each tribe are shown to scale.
Credit: Wikipedia/GNU
(Phys.org)—An unusual collaboration between researchers in two disparate
fields resulted in a new discovery about the teeth of
65-million-year-old dinosaurs.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-fields-uncover-hadrosaur-teeth.html#jCp
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-fields-uncover-hadrosaur-teeth.html#jCp
Family tree of the
Hadrosauroidea. Representative genera of each tribe are shown to scale.
Credit: Wikipedia/GNU
(Phys.org)—An unusual collaboration between researchers in two disparate
fields resulted in a new discovery about the teeth of
65-million-year-old dinosaurs.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-fields-uncover-hadrosaur-teeth.html#jCp
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-fields-uncover-hadrosaur-teeth.html#jCp
From LiveScience: Velociraptor: Facts about the 'Speedy Thief'
Velociraptor — "raptor" for short — roamed the Earth about 75 million to 71 million years ago toward the end of the Cretaceous Period, which was the glory days of the dinosaurs.
Velociraptor was named in 1924 by Henry Fairfield Osborn, president of the American Museum of Natural History. He bestowed the name on this dinosaur, which is derived from the Latin words "velox" (swift) and "raptor" (robber or plunderer), as an apt description of its survival tactics. Earlier that year, Osborn had called the dinosaur "Ovoraptor djadochtari" in an article in the popular press, but was later referred to as Velociraptor in scientific journals and papers.
Velociraptor
is one of the most bird-like dinosaurs ever discovered. It was small
and fast, and the sickle-shaped claw on the second toe of each foot made
it a formidable predator. A special bone in its wrist allowed it to
swivel its wrist sideways in a flapping motion and to fold its arm
against its body like a bird. This motion allowed it to snap its arms
forward to grab fleeing prey and is an important part of the flight
stroke in modern birds.
CREDIT: Todd Marshall
CREDIT: Todd Marshall
There were two species of Velociraptors. Fossils of the V. mongoliensis species have been discovered in Mongolia. A second species, V. osmolskae, was named in 2008 for skull material discovered in Inner Mongolia, China.
A member of the dromaeosaurid family, Velociraptor was roughly the size of a small turkey and smaller than others in this family of dinosaurs, which included the Deinonychus and Achillobator. Adult Velociraptors were up to 6.8 feet (2 meters) long, 1.6 feet (0.5 meter) tall at the hip and weighed up to 33 pounds (15 kilograms).Like Tyrannosaurus rex, Velociraptor had a prominent role in the "Jurassic Park" movies, but scientists do not believe it resembled anything close to its Hollywood depiction in terms of size or appearance. While the Velociraptor was featherless in the movies, paleontologists discovered quill knobs on a well-preserved forearm from Mongolia in 2007, indicating Velociraptor had feathers. The feathers were just for show — most likely to attract a mate, regulate body temperature and help females protect their eggs — as Velociraptor did not fly.
Although many of its closely related ancestors could fly, Velociraptor is thought to have been grounded due to its weight in proportion to its short forelimbs. Scientists theorize that the short forelimbs could have been the evolutionary leftovers of what were once wings.
Although it shared many of the same physical characteristics with other dromaeosaurs, Velociraptor's distinguishing features included a long skull that was concave on the upper surface and convex on the lower. It also had a distinctive upturned snout.
Velociraptor's tail of hard, fused bones was inflexible and not useful as a weapon but it kept him balanced as he ran, hunted and jumped. Scientists estimate that a Velociraptor could jump as high as 10 feet (3 meters) straight in the air.
Velociraptor, like other dromaeosaurids, had two large hand-like appendages with three curved claws. The claws were used the same way as birds of prey use talons — as hooks to keep victims from escaping.
The jaws were lined with 26 to 28 widely spaced teeth on each side, each more strongly serrated on the back edge than the front, making them ideal for catching and securing quick-moving prey. A sickle-shaped retractable claw on each hindfoot was likely used to finish the job of killing its prey by piercing its throat.
The moniker of "speedy thief" is a bit misleading. The Velociraptor may have been able to run up to roughly 40 mph (60 kph) on its two skinny legs, but it could only sustain that speed for very short bursts.
What did Velociraptor eat?
A carnivore, it is believed that the Velociraptor survived on mostly small animals, such as reptiles, amphibians and other smaller, slower dinosaurs.
The horned dinosaur Protoceratops, a herbivore, was a favorite meal of the Velociraptor, according to paleontologists. It also preyed on other herbivore dinosaurs.
Fossil discoveries
The first Velociraptor fossil was discovered by Peter Kaisen on the first American Museum of Natural History expedition to the Outer Mongolian Gobi Desert in August 1923. The skull was crushed but complete and one of the toe claws was also recovered.
Velociraptor fossils have been found in the Gobi Desert, which covers southern Mongolia and parts of northern China. In all, about a dozen Velociraptor fossils exist and all known specimens of Velociraptor mongoliensis were discovered in the Djadochta Formation (also spelled Djadokhta), in the Mongolian province of Ömnögovi. [Image Gallery: Dinosaur Fossils]
While North American teams were not permitted in communist Mongolia during the Cold War, Soviet and Polish scientists collaborated with Mongolian scientists on expeditions that recovered several more Velociraptor specimens. On one of these expeditions in 1971, a Polish-Mongolian team discovered the fossils of a Velociraptor and a Protoceratops in the midst of battle. They were preserved by a sand dune that collapsed on them.
Between 1988 and 1990, a joint Chinese-Canadian team discovered Velociraptor remains in northern China. In 1990, a joint Mongolian-American expedition to the Gobi, led by the American Museum of Natural History and the Mongolian Academy of Sciences, turned up several well-preserved skeletons.
— Kim Ann Zimmermann
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Researchers work across fields to uncover information about hadrosaur
teeth
October 11, 2012 by Cindy Spence
Hadrosauroidea
Enlarge
Family tree of the Hadrosauroidea. Representative genera of each tribe
are shown to scale. Credit: Wikipedia/GNU
(Phys.org)—An unusual collaboration between researchers in two disparate
fields resulted in a new discovery about the teeth of
65-million-year-old dinosaurs.
Ads by Google
Dental Implant Warnings - What You Should Know Before Getting Dental
Implants. Read Expert Advice - symptomfind.com/CosmeticDentalCare
With the help of University of Florida mechanical engineering professor
W. Gregory Sawyer and UF postdoctoral researcher Brandon Krick, Florida
State University paleobiologist Gregory Erickson determined the teeth of
hadrosaurs—an herbivore from the late Cretaceous period—had six tissues
in their teeth instead of two. The results were published in the
journal Science Oct. 5.
"When something has been in the ground 65 million years, by and large we
pick it up and we look at it and say, 'oh, look at what has been
preserved.' But we don't mechanically interrogate fossils to see if
there is other information," Sawyer said. "When we started to
mechanically interrogate these teeth, what we found was all of these
properties were preserved, and one other thing: these teeth were a lot
more complicated than we thought."
For years, Erickson, who has a background in biomechanical engineering
and studies bone biomechanics as a paleobiologist, had thought so. So he
turned to the UF Tribology Laboratory, which researches the science of
friction and surface wear.
Engineers don't often see the interesting paleontological questions,
Sawyer said. One look at the surface of the dinosaur teeth piqued his
interest, however, because he is intrigued by how wear occurs across
surfaces with different materials. The shape of the tooth made him think
it was much more complex than previously thought.
From an engineering perspective, Sawyer said his lab often works with
composites that contain different material properties that wear
differently, so the question was whether just two materials—enamel and
dentine—would wear the way the hadrosaur teeth did. Sawyer and Krick
thought not, and turned to nanoindenters and microtribometers.
Just a decade ago, a paleontologist might not have asked engineers for
help, and they could not have helped him. In the last 10 years, however,
Sawyer said advances in engineering—tribology and nanoscience, in
particular—make it possible to test more materials, even those millions
of years old.
Ads by Google
Living With Dentures - Live Better With False Teeth. Explore Denture
Advice And Tips. - www.DentureLiving.com/NewDentures
Erickson said reptilian dinosaurs have been dismissed as simplistic
creatures in their feeding and dental structure. They were herbivores,
their teeth composed of enamel and dentine. The fossil record did little
to contradict that.
Testing with nanoindenters and microtribometers, however, proved the
conventional wisdom wrong.
"Hadrosaurs' teeth were incredibly complicated, among the most complex
of any animal," Sawyer said. "These dinosaurs had developed a lot of
tricks."
The duck-billed hadrosaur was a toothy creature with up to 1,400 teeth,
Erickson said. The teeth migrated across the chewing surface, with
sharp, enamel-edged front teeth moving sideways to become grinding teeth
as the teeth matured. The adaptation allowed hadrosaurs to bite off
chunks of bark and stems and chew them to a digestible mush, leading
Erickson to describe them as "walking pulp mills." The teeth wore down
at the rate of 1 millimeter per day, cycling through the jaw like a
conveyor belt, before falling out or being swallowed. The dinosaurs lost
about 1,800 teeth a year, leaving behind plenty of fossils for testing.
When the fossils emerged from batteries of tests, the researchers found
six tissues in the tooth structure, not two.
"Modern tools told us there were different materials in there," said
Sawyer, who is also a UF Research Foundation Professor and Distinguished
Teaching Scholar.
Erickson said the work could not have been accomplished without Sawyer's
lab, "arguably the best tribological lab in the world," and said he is
excited about the possibilities for new avenues of research. There are
drawers full of fossils in collections around the world that may have
more information to yield.
Sawyer agrees, and says that more engineering data could well be buried
in fossils.
"Perhaps now it makes sense to take some of that fossil record, when we
have other pieces of the record, and start to do things like sectioning
and histology," Sawyer said. "There are opportunities now with modern
scientific tools to probe their mechanical and tribological properties.
If we treat a fossil as a modern material, what happens? Do the
mechanical properties track?"
The collaborative nature of the Florida university system was a key to
getting the work done, Sawyer said, as was the funding his research gets
from the University of Florida Foundation.
"It took us five years to do this because it was always a side project
and wasn't funded. We could chew on it at our own pace," Sawyer said.
"This is exactly what you hope for when you endow research, that people
will take those funds and do things that are scientifically
significant."
Journal reference: Science search and more info website
Provided by University of Florida search and more info website
print this article
email this article
0
text-to-speech
save as pdf
send feedback
share to facebook
share to twitter
share to linkedin
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Physicists extend special relativity beyond the speed of light
created Oct 08, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (55) | comments 132
Free program makes computer graphics more realistic created Oct 09,
2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (39) | comments 5
Voyager 1 may have left the solar system created Oct 09, 2012 |
popularity 4.9 / 5 (33) | comments 17
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is a simulation created Oct 12, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (36) | comments
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more news
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of wear
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Tags
late cretaceous period, dinosaur teeth, 65 million years, hadrosaur, new
discovery, paleontologist, material properties, biomechanics, fossil,
teeth, journal science
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Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-fields-uncover-hadrosaur-teeth.html#jCp
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Researchers work across fields to uncover information about hadrosaur
teeth
October 11, 2012 by Cindy Spence
Hadrosauroidea
Enlarge
Family tree of the Hadrosauroidea. Representative genera of each tribe
are shown to scale. Credit: Wikipedia/GNU
(Phys.org)—An unusual collaboration between researchers in two disparate
fields resulted in a new discovery about the teeth of
65-million-year-old dinosaurs.
Ads by Google
Dental Implant Warnings - What You Should Know Before Getting Dental
Implants. Read Expert Advice - symptomfind.com/CosmeticDentalCare
With the help of University of Florida mechanical engineering professor
W. Gregory Sawyer and UF postdoctoral researcher Brandon Krick, Florida
State University paleobiologist Gregory Erickson determined the teeth of
hadrosaurs—an herbivore from the late Cretaceous period—had six tissues
in their teeth instead of two. The results were published in the
journal Science Oct. 5.
"When something has been in the ground 65 million years, by and large we
pick it up and we look at it and say, 'oh, look at what has been
preserved.' But we don't mechanically interrogate fossils to see if
there is other information," Sawyer said. "When we started to
mechanically interrogate these teeth, what we found was all of these
properties were preserved, and one other thing: these teeth were a lot
more complicated than we thought."
For years, Erickson, who has a background in biomechanical engineering
and studies bone biomechanics as a paleobiologist, had thought so. So he
turned to the UF Tribology Laboratory, which researches the science of
friction and surface wear.
Engineers don't often see the interesting paleontological questions,
Sawyer said. One look at the surface of the dinosaur teeth piqued his
interest, however, because he is intrigued by how wear occurs across
surfaces with different materials. The shape of the tooth made him think
it was much more complex than previously thought.
From an engineering perspective, Sawyer said his lab often works with
composites that contain different material properties that wear
differently, so the question was whether just two materials—enamel and
dentine—would wear the way the hadrosaur teeth did. Sawyer and Krick
thought not, and turned to nanoindenters and microtribometers.
Just a decade ago, a paleontologist might not have asked engineers for
help, and they could not have helped him. In the last 10 years, however,
Sawyer said advances in engineering—tribology and nanoscience, in
particular—make it possible to test more materials, even those millions
of years old.
Ads by Google
Living With Dentures - Live Better With False Teeth. Explore Denture
Advice And Tips. - www.DentureLiving.com/NewDentures
Erickson said reptilian dinosaurs have been dismissed as simplistic
creatures in their feeding and dental structure. They were herbivores,
their teeth composed of enamel and dentine. The fossil record did little
to contradict that.
Testing with nanoindenters and microtribometers, however, proved the
conventional wisdom wrong.
"Hadrosaurs' teeth were incredibly complicated, among the most complex
of any animal," Sawyer said. "These dinosaurs had developed a lot of
tricks."
The duck-billed hadrosaur was a toothy creature with up to 1,400 teeth,
Erickson said. The teeth migrated across the chewing surface, with
sharp, enamel-edged front teeth moving sideways to become grinding teeth
as the teeth matured. The adaptation allowed hadrosaurs to bite off
chunks of bark and stems and chew them to a digestible mush, leading
Erickson to describe them as "walking pulp mills." The teeth wore down
at the rate of 1 millimeter per day, cycling through the jaw like a
conveyor belt, before falling out or being swallowed. The dinosaurs lost
about 1,800 teeth a year, leaving behind plenty of fossils for testing.
When the fossils emerged from batteries of tests, the researchers found
six tissues in the tooth structure, not two.
"Modern tools told us there were different materials in there," said
Sawyer, who is also a UF Research Foundation Professor and Distinguished
Teaching Scholar.
Erickson said the work could not have been accomplished without Sawyer's
lab, "arguably the best tribological lab in the world," and said he is
excited about the possibilities for new avenues of research. There are
drawers full of fossils in collections around the world that may have
more information to yield.
Sawyer agrees, and says that more engineering data could well be buried
in fossils.
"Perhaps now it makes sense to take some of that fossil record, when we
have other pieces of the record, and start to do things like sectioning
and histology," Sawyer said. "There are opportunities now with modern
scientific tools to probe their mechanical and tribological properties.
If we treat a fossil as a modern material, what happens? Do the
mechanical properties track?"
The collaborative nature of the Florida university system was a key to
getting the work done, Sawyer said, as was the funding his research gets
from the University of Florida Foundation.
"It took us five years to do this because it was always a side project
and wasn't funded. We could chew on it at our own pace," Sawyer said.
"This is exactly what you hope for when you endow research, that people
will take those funds and do things that are scientifically
significant."
Journal reference: Science search and more info website
Provided by University of Florida search and more info website
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Physicists extend special relativity beyond the speed of light
created Oct 08, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (55) | comments 132
Free program makes computer graphics more realistic created Oct 09,
2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (39) | comments 5
Voyager 1 may have left the solar system created Oct 09, 2012 |
popularity 4.9 / 5 (33) | comments 17
Is it real? Physicists propose method to determine if the universe
is a simulation created Oct 12, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (36) | comments
108
Mars rock touched by Curiosity has surprises created Oct 11, 2012 |
popularity 4.9 / 5 (25) | comments 19
more news
Related Stories
created Oct 04, 2012 comments 0
Fossilized teeth—Duck-bill dinosaurs had plant-pulverizing teeth more
advanced than horses
created Jul 13, 2011 comments 0
Stem cells grow fully functional new teeth
created Oct 31, 2011 comments 0
'Ay, there's the rub': Researchers strive to identify the atomic origins
of wear
created Feb 28, 2012 comments 0
T. Rex's killer smile revealed
Tags
late cretaceous period, dinosaur teeth, 65 million years, hadrosaur, new
discovery, paleontologist, material properties, biomechanics, fossil,
teeth, journal science
Relevant PhysicsForums posts
Darwinism: Where is the theory?
createdOct 12, 2012
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...
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© Phys.Org™ 2003-2012 Privacy Policy | Terms of Use
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-fields-uncover-hadrosaur-teeth.html#jCp
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-fields-uncover-hadrosaur-teeth.html#jCp
With the help of University
of Florida mechanical engineering professor W. Gregory Sawyer and UF
postdoctoral researcher Brandon Krick, Florida State University
paleobiologist Gregory Erickson determined the teeth of hadrosaurs—an
herbivore from the late Cretaceous period—had six tissues in their teeth
instead of two. The results were published in the journal Science Oct.
5.
"When something has been in the ground 65 million years, by and large we
pick it up and we look at it and say, 'oh, look at what has been
preserved.' But we don't mechanically interrogate fossils to see if
there is other information," Sawyer said. "When we started to
mechanically interrogate these teeth, what we found was all of these
properties were preserved, and one other thing: these teeth were a lot
more complicated than we thought."
For years, Erickson, who has a background in biomechanical engineering
and studies bone biomechanics as a paleobiologist, had thought so. So he
turned to the UF Tribology Laboratory, which researches the science of
friction and surface wear.
Engineers don't often see the interesting paleontological questions,
Sawyer said. One look at the surface of the dinosaur teeth piqued his
interest, however, because he is intrigued by how wear occurs across
surfaces with different materials. The shape of the tooth made him think
it was much more complex than previously thought.
From an engineering perspective, Sawyer said his lab often works with
composites that contain different material properties that wear
differently, so the question was whether just two materials—enamel and
dentine—would wear the way the hadrosaur teeth did. Sawyer and Krick
thought not, and turned to nanoindenters and microtribometers.
Just a decade ago, a paleontologist might not have asked engineers for
help, and they could not have helped him. In the last 10 years, however,
Sawyer said advances in engineering—tribology and nanoscience, in
particular—make it possible to test more materials, even those millions
of years old.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-fields-uncover-hadrosaur-teeth.html#jCp
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-fields-uncover-hadrosaur-teeth.html#jCp
With the help of University
of Florida mechanical engineering professor W. Gregory Sawyer and UF
postdoctoral researcher Brandon Krick, Florida State University
paleobiologist Gregory Erickson determined the teeth of hadrosaurs—an
herbivore from the late Cretaceous period—had six tissues in their teeth
instead of two. The results were published in the journal Science Oct.
5.
"When something has been in the ground 65 million years, by and large we
pick it up and we look at it and say, 'oh, look at what has been
preserved.' But we don't mechanically interrogate fossils to see if
there is other information," Sawyer said. "When we started to
mechanically interrogate these teeth, what we found was all of these
properties were preserved, and one other thing: these teeth were a lot
more complicated than we thought."
For years, Erickson, who has a background in biomechanical engineering
and studies bone biomechanics as a paleobiologist, had thought so. So he
turned to the UF Tribology Laboratory, which researches the science of
friction and surface wear.
Engineers don't often see the interesting paleontological questions,
Sawyer said. One look at the surface of the dinosaur teeth piqued his
interest, however, because he is intrigued by how wear occurs across
surfaces with different materials. The shape of the tooth made him think
it was much more complex than previously thought.
From an engineering perspective, Sawyer said his lab often works with
composites that contain different material properties that wear
differently, so the question was whether just two materials—enamel and
dentine—would wear the way the hadrosaur teeth did. Sawyer and Krick
thought not, and turned to nanoindenters and microtribometers.
Just a decade ago, a paleontologist might not have asked engineers for
help, and they could not have helped him. In the last 10 years, however,
Sawyer said advances in engineering—tribology and nanoscience, in
particular—make it possible to test more materials, even those millions
of years old.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-fields-uncover-hadrosaur-teeth.html#jCp
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-fields-uncover-hadrosaur-teeth.html#jCp
With the help of University
of Florida mechanical engineering professor W. Gregory Sawyer and UF
postdoctoral researcher Brandon Krick, Florida State University
paleobiologist Gregory Erickson determined the teeth of hadrosaurs—an
herbivore from the late Cretaceous period—had six tissues in their teeth
instead of two. The results were published in the journal Science Oct.
5.
"When something has been in the ground 65 million years, by and large we
pick it up and we look at it and say, 'oh, look at what has been
preserved.' But we don't mechanically interrogate fossils to see if
there is other information," Sawyer said. "When we started to
mechanically interrogate these teeth, what we found was all of these
properties were preserved, and one other thing: these teeth were a lot
more complicated than we thought."
For years, Erickson, who has a background in biomechanical engineering
and studies bone biomechanics as a paleobiologist, had thought so. So he
turned to the UF Tribology Laboratory, which researches the science of
friction and surface wear.
Engineers don't often see the interesting paleontological questions,
Sawyer said. One look at the surface of the dinosaur teeth piqued his
interest, however, because he is intrigued by how wear occurs across
surfaces with different materials. The shape of the tooth made him think
it was much more complex than previously thought.
From an engineering perspective, Sawyer said his lab often works with
composites that contain different material properties that wear
differently, so the question was whether just two materials—enamel and
dentine—would wear the way the hadrosaur teeth did. Sawyer and Krick
thought not, and turned to nanoindenters and microtribometers.
Just a decade ago, a paleontologist might not have asked engineers for
help, and they could not have helped him. In the last 10 years, however,
Sawyer said advances in engineering—tribology and nanoscience, in
particular—make it possible to test more materials, even those millions
of years old.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-fields-uncover-hadrosaur-teeth.html#jCp
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-fields-uncover-hadrosaur-teeth.html#jCp
With the help of University
of Florida mechanical engineering professor W. Gregory Sawyer and UF
postdoctoral researcher Brandon Krick, Florida State University
paleobiologist Gregory Erickson determined the teeth of hadrosaurs—an
herbivore from the late Cretaceous period—had six tissues in their teeth
instead of two. The results were published in the journal Science Oct.
5.
"When something has been in the ground 65 million years, by and large we
pick it up and we look at it and say, 'oh, look at what has been
preserved.' But we don't mechanically interrogate fossils to see if
there is other information," Sawyer said. "When we started to
mechanically interrogate these teeth, what we found was all of these
properties were preserved, and one other thing: these teeth were a lot
more complicated than we thought."
For years, Erickson, who has a background in biomechanical engineering
and studies bone biomechanics as a paleobiologist, had thought so. So he
turned to the UF Tribology Laboratory, which researches the science of
friction and surface wear.
Engineers don't often see the interesting paleontological questions,
Sawyer said. One look at the surface of the dinosaur teeth piqued his
interest, however, because he is intrigued by how wear occurs across
surfaces with different materials. The shape of the tooth made him think
it was much more complex than previously thought.
From an engineering perspective, Sawyer said his lab often works with
composites that contain different material properties that wear
differently, so the question was whether just two materials—enamel and
dentine—would wear the way the hadrosaur teeth did. Sawyer and Krick
thought not, and turned to nanoindenters and microtribometers.
Just a decade ago, a paleontologist might not have asked engineers for
help, and they could not have helped him. In the last 10 years, however,
Sawyer said advances in engineering—tribology and nanoscience, in
particular—make it possible to test more materials, even those millions
of years old.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-fields-uncover-hadrosaur-teeth.html#jCp
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-fields-uncover-hadrosaur-teeth.html#jCp
With the help of University
of Florida mechanical engineering professor W. Gregory Sawyer and UF
postdoctoral researcher Brandon Krick, Florida State University
paleobiologist Gregory Erickson determined the teeth of hadrosaurs—an
herbivore from the late Cretaceous period—had six tissues in their teeth
instead of two. The results were published in the journal Science Oct.
5.
"When something has been in the ground 65 million years, by and large we
pick it up and we look at it and say, 'oh, look at what has been
preserved.' But we don't mechanically interrogate fossils to see if
there is other information," Sawyer said. "When we started to
mechanically interrogate these teeth, what we found was all of these
properties were preserved, and one other thing: these teeth were a lot
more complicated than we thought."
For years, Erickson, who has a background in biomechanical engineering
and studies bone biomechanics as a paleobiologist, had thought so. So he
turned to the UF Tribology Laboratory, which researches the science of
friction and surface wear.
Engineers don't often see the interesting paleontological questions,
Sawyer said. One look at the surface of the dinosaur teeth piqued his
interest, however, because he is intrigued by how wear occurs across
surfaces with different materials. The shape of the tooth made him think
it was much more complex than previously thought.
From an engineering perspective, Sawyer said his lab often works with
composites that contain different material properties that wear
differently, so the question was whether just two materials—enamel and
dentine—would wear the way the hadrosaur teeth did. Sawyer and Krick
thought not, and turned to nanoindenters and microtribometers.
Just a decade ago, a paleontologist might not have asked engineers for
help, and they could not have helped him. In the last 10 years, however,
Sawyer said advances in engineering—tribology and nanoscience, in
particular—make it possible to test more materials, even those millions
of years old.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-fields-uncover-hadrosaur-teeth.html#jCp
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-fields-uncover-hadrosaur-teeth.html#jCp
With the help of University
of Florida mechanical engineering professor W. Gregory Sawyer and UF
postdoctoral researcher Brandon Krick, Florida State University
paleobiologist Gregory Erickson determined the teeth of hadrosaurs—an
herbivore from the late Cretaceous period—had six tissues in their teeth
instead of two. The results were published in the journal Science Oct.
5.
"When something has been in the ground 65 million years, by and large we
pick it up and we look at it and say, 'oh, look at what has been
preserved.' But we don't mechanically interrogate fossils to see if
there is other information," Sawyer said. "When we started to
mechanically interrogate these teeth, what we found was all of these
properties were preserved, and one other thing: these teeth were a lot
more complicated than we thought."
For years, Erickson, who has a background in biomechanical engineering
and studies bone biomechanics as a paleobiologist, had thought so. So he
turned to the UF Tribology Laboratory, which researches the science of
friction and surface wear.
Engineers don't often see the interesting paleontological questions,
Sawyer said. One look at the surface of the dinosaur teeth piqued his
interest, however, because he is intrigued by how wear occurs across
surfaces with different materials. The shape of the tooth made him think
it was much more complex than previously thought.
From an engineering perspective, Sawyer said his lab often works with
composites that contain different material properties that wear
differently, so the question was whether just two materials—enamel and
dentine—would wear the way the hadrosaur teeth did. Sawyer and Krick
thought not, and turned to nanoindenters and microtribometers.
Just a decade ago, a paleontologist might not have asked engineers for
help, and they could not have helped him. In the last 10 years, however,
Sawyer said advances in engineering—tribology and nanoscience, in
particular—make it possible to test more materials, even those millions
of years old.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-fields-uncover-hadrosaur-teeth.html#jCp
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-fields-uncover-hadrosaur-teeth.html#jCp
With the help of University
of Florida mechanical engineering professor W. Gregory Sawyer and UF
postdoctoral researcher Brandon Krick, Florida State University
paleobiologist Gregory Erickson determined the teeth of hadrosaurs—an
herbivore from the late Cretaceous period—had six tissues in their teeth
instead of two. The results were published in the journal Science Oct.
5.
"When something has been in the ground 65 million years, by and large we
pick it up and we look at it and say, 'oh, look at what has been
preserved.' But we don't mechanically interrogate fossils to see if
there is other information," Sawyer said. "When we started to
mechanically interrogate these teeth, what we found was all of these
properties were preserved, and one other thing: these teeth were a lot
more complicated than we thought."
For years, Erickson, who has a background in biomechanical engineering
and studies bone biomechanics as a paleobiologist, had thought so. So he
turned to the UF Tribology Laboratory, which researches the science of
friction and surface wear.
Engineers don't often see the interesting paleontological questions,
Sawyer said. One look at the surface of the dinosaur teeth piqued his
interest, however, because he is intrigued by how wear occurs across
surfaces with different materials. The shape of the tooth made him think
it was much more complex than previously thought.
From an engineering perspective, Sawyer said his lab often works with
composites that contain different material properties that wear
differently, so the question was whether just two materials—enamel and
dentine—would wear the way the hadrosaur teeth did. Sawyer and Krick
thought not, and turned to nanoindenters and microtribometers.
Just a decade ago, a paleontologist might not have asked engineers for
help, and they could not have helped him. In the last 10 years, however,
Sawyer said advances in engineering—tribology and nanoscience, in
particular—make it possible to test more materials, even those millions
of years old.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-fields-uncover-hadrosaur-teeth.html#jCp
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-fields-uncover-hadrosaur-teeth.html#jCp
With the help of University
of Florida mechanical engineering professor W. Gregory Sawyer and UF
postdoctoral researcher Brandon Krick, Florida State University
paleobiologist Gregory Erickson determined the teeth of hadrosaurs—an
herbivore from the late Cretaceous period—had six tissues in their teeth
instead of two. The results were published in the journal Science Oct.
5.
"When something has been in the ground 65 million years, by and large we
pick it up and we look at it and say, 'oh, look at what has been
preserved.' But we don't mechanically interrogate fossils to see if
there is other information," Sawyer said. "When we started to
mechanically interrogate these teeth, what we found was all of these
properties were preserved, and one other thing: these teeth were a lot
more complicated than we thought."
For years, Erickson, who has a background in biomechanical engineering
and studies bone biomechanics as a paleobiologist, had thought so. So he
turned to the UF Tribology Laboratory, which researches the science of
friction and surface wear.
Engineers don't often see the interesting paleontological questions,
Sawyer said. One look at the surface of the dinosaur teeth piqued his
interest, however, because he is intrigued by how wear occurs across
surfaces with different materials. The shape of the tooth made him think
it was much more complex than previously thought.
From an engineering perspective, Sawyer said his lab often works with
composites that contain different material properties that wear
differently, so the question was whether just two materials—enamel and
dentine—would wear the way the hadrosaur teeth did. Sawyer and Krick
thought not, and turned to nanoindenters and microtribometers.
Just a decade ago, a paleontologist might not have asked engineers for
help, and they could not have helped him. In the last 10 years, however,
Sawyer said advances in engineering—tribology and nanoscience, in
particular—make it possible to test more materials, even those millions
of years old.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-fields-uncover-hadrosaur-teeth.html#jCp
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-fields-uncover-hadrosaur-teeth.html#jCp
With the help of University
of Florida mechanical engineering professor W. Gregory Sawyer and UF
postdoctoral researcher Brandon Krick, Florida State University
paleobiologist Gregory Erickson determined the teeth of hadrosaurs—an
herbivore from the late Cretaceous period—had six tissues in their teeth
instead of two. The results were published in the journal Science Oct.
5.
"When something has been in the ground 65 million years, by and large we
pick it up and we look at it and say, 'oh, look at what has been
preserved.' But we don't mechanically interrogate fossils to see if
there is other information," Sawyer said. "When we started to
mechanically interrogate these teeth, what we found was all of these
properties were preserved, and one other thing: these teeth were a lot
more complicated than we thought."
For years, Erickson, who has a background in biomechanical engineering
and studies bone biomechanics as a paleobiologist, had thought so. So he
turned to the UF Tribology Laboratory, which researches the science of
friction and surface wear.
Engineers don't often see the interesting paleontological questions,
Sawyer said. One look at the surface of the dinosaur teeth piqued his
interest, however, because he is intrigued by how wear occurs across
surfaces with different materials. The shape of the tooth made him think
it was much more complex than previously thought.
From an engineering perspective, Sawyer said his lab often works with
composites that contain different material properties that wear
differently, so the question was whether just two materials—enamel and
dentine—would wear the way the hadrosaur teeth did. Sawyer and Krick
thought not, and turned to nanoindenters and microtribometers.
Just a decade ago, a paleontologist might not have asked engineers for
help, and they could not have helped him. In the last 10 years, however,
Sawyer said advances in engineering—tribology and nanoscience, in
particular—make it possible to test more materials, even those millions
of years old.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-fields-uncover-hadrosaur-teeth.html#jCp
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-fields-uncover-hadrosaur-teeth.html#jCp
Family tree of the
Hadrosauroidea. Representative genera of each tribe are shown to scale.
Credit: Wikipedia/GNU
(Phys.org)—An unusual collaboration between researchers in two disparate
fields resulted in a new discovery about the teeth of
65-million-year-old dinosaurs.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-fields-uncover-hadrosaur-teeth.html#jCp
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-fields-uncover-hadrosaur-teeth.html#jCp
Family tree of the
Hadrosauroidea. Representative genera of each tribe are shown to scale.
Credit: Wikipedia/GNU
(Phys.org)—An unusual collaboration between researchers in two disparate
fields resulted in a new discovery about the teeth of
65-million-year-old dinosaurs.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-fields-uncover-hadrosaur-teeth.html#jCp
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-fields-uncover-hadrosaur-teeth.html#jCp
Family tree of the
Hadrosauroidea. Representative genera of each tribe are shown to scale.
Credit: Wikipedia/GNU
(Phys.org)—An unusual collaboration between researchers in two disparate
fields resulted in a new discovery about the teeth of
65-million-year-old dinosaurs.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-fields-uncover-hadrosaur-teeth.html#jCp
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-fields-uncover-hadrosaur-teeth.html#jCp
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