DINOSAUR TRAIN Premieres "Big Big Dinosaur Week" Featuring New Episodes This August on PBS KIDS

From ExecDigital: DINOSAUR TRAIN Premieres "Big Big Dinosaur Week" Featuring New Episodes This August on PBS KIDS
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HOLLYWOOD, CA--(Marketwire - July 11, 2012) - The EMMY^®-nominated animated children's series DINOSAUR TRAIN^® will premiere the new "Big Big Dinosaur Week" episodes beginning August 13 on PBS KIDS^® to explore the largest of the dinosaur species from different time periods. Encore broadcasts will run from August 17 to 19^th (check local listings).
Throughout the week of August 13-17, 2012, "Big Big Dinosaur Week" will feature four new episodes that follow Buddy, Shiny, Tiny and Don as they discover the largest of the dinosaur species while exploring their natural surroundings. They'll also learn about nocturnal and diurnal animals, sunrises and sunsets, natural art and geysers. Additionally, "Big Big Dinosaur Week" will introduce a brand new train car on the Dinosaur Train -- the flatbed car.
The kick-off episode begins aboard the Dinosaur Train when the Pteranodon family gets the idea to travel around and meet some of the biggest dinosaurs. They even sing the song, 'The Biggest Dinosaurs,' before meeting Allie Alamosaurus, an enormous and friendly long-necked, plant eating sauropod.
The Jim Henson Company continues to encourage DINOSAUR TRAIN fans to join the "Nature Trackers Club." Kids and their parents can visit pbs.org/parents/dinosaurtrain/naturetrackers to download "Nature Trackers" activities and receive a free DINOSAUR TRAIN surprise to celebrate their achievement.
DINOSAUR TRAIN™ is an Emmy-nominated and Parents' Choice Silver Honor TV series, and it consistently ranks in the top ten shows for kids ages 2 to 5*. In DINOSAUR TRAIN, young viewers join Buddy and his adoptive family of Pteranodons, on whimsical adventures through prehistoric jungles, swamps, volcanoes and oceans as they discover basic concepts in natural science, natural history and paleontology. The Dinosaur Train, a colorful locomotive, is customized to accommodate all kinds of dinosaurs, and has the ability to visit the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous worlds, while the Train's Conductor, a knowledgeable Troodon, provides passengers with fascinating facts along the way.
*Source: Nielsen NPower Live+7 AAs, August 2011-March 2012
Synopses

• "Remember the Alamosaurus / Sunrise, Sunset"
  Premieres Monday, August 13 and Repeats Friday, August 17

The Pteranodon family gets the idea to travel around on the Dinosaur Train and meet some of the biggest dinosaurs. They even sing a song, 'The Biggest Dinosaurs,' before meeting Allie Alamosaurus, an enormous, long-necked, plant eating sauropod who is very friendly. Allie explains that her huge, strong legs hardly bend at all, but she can still have fun playing games with the kids, and teaching them some of her favorites!
Mom and Dad take the Pteranodon kids on an overnight camping trip where they watch both a sunrise and sunset, learning that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. The kids also find out more about nocturnal (night-active) animals, and diurnal (day-active) animals.

• "A Heck of a Neck / Gilbert Visits the Nest"
  Premieres Tuesday, August 14

The Pteranodon kids have a Nature Trackers adventure when they meet Denise Diplodocus, a super-long, super big dinosaur. At first the kids mistake Denise's neck for a snake, and tail for a bridge. Later, Denise amazes the kids, telling them how hard it is for her to raise up her long, heavy neck. Shiny and the others help her raise her neck higher than normal just once, but it feels better for Denise to keep closer to the ground and low-lying trees.
Shiny is nervous about Gilbert's impending visit to Pteranodon Terrace. She goes into a cleaning frenzy, wanting everything to look perfect, and her siblings to act perfectly. When Gilbert arrives, everyone starts having fun except Shiny who feels ignored. Soon Gilbert and the other kids persuade Shiny to join them, and they all eat, play, and laugh together.

• "An Apatosaurus Adventure / Nature Art"
  Premieres Wednesday, August 15

The Pteranodon kids visit the Jurassic Time Period to meet Apollo Apatosaurus, a huge, long-necked, long-tailed dinosaur who likes adventure. Apollo loves to whip his long tail, and does so as he leads the kids on a pretend adventure to find a tree with hard-to-reach, yummy, delicious leaves!
Mrs. Pteranodon cleans out the clutter from the family nest and the kids are amazed at the pile of stuff -- leaves, flower petals, pieces of wood, and shells. Tiny stops Mom from throwing out all the stuff, determined that she and Buddy, Tiny, and Don will find a use for it all. And, they do -- the Pteranodon kids have fun making nature art on the beach using the items from the nest!

• "Arnie Rides the Flatcar / Old Reliable"
  Premieres Thursday, August 16

Buddy, Tiny, and Mom visit their very large sauropod friend, Arnie Argentinosaurus, and his Dad. Arnie has grown bigger since our kids have seen him and is now too big to ride on the Dinosaur Train anymore. Tiny and Buddy arrange with Mr. Conductor for Arnie to be the first big dinosaur to ride on the newest Dinosaur Train car -- the flatbed car!
Mr. Pteranodon and Mr. Lambeosaurus take all the kids to see a field of geysers -- holes in the ground that hot water shoots out from! At the same time, Mrs. Pteranodon and Mrs. Lambeosaurus are relaxing nearby in soothing pools of warm water, called hot springs. In the end, the kids love seeing the geysers and then joining the Moms in their hot springs, while accidentally surprising Mr. Conductor, who is secretly trying to relax in his own private hot spring pool!
About DINOSAUR TRAIN
DINOSAUR TRAIN was created by Craig Bartlett (Hey Arnold!). Lisa Henson, Halle Stanford and Craig Bartlett serve as executive producers for DINOSAUR TRAIN. Each 30-minute episode includes two 11-minute animated segments and a live action sequence featuring a paleontologist that brings the show's natural science and natural history curriculum to life for preschoolers by giving specific facts about dinosaurs and comparing their features to animals of today. The series is produced by The Jim Henson Company, and co-produced with Singapore animation company Sparky Animation, with the participation and assistance of the Singapore Media Development Authority. UK production and financial support is provided by Ingenious Media. The Jim Henson Company oversees all ancillary exploitation of the property, including licensing and merchandising. PBS handles DVD distribution to consumer and education markets.
DINOSAUR TRAIN is a Parents' Choice Recommended TV series and its accompanying website received a Parents' Choice Silver Award and a prestigious 2010 Prix Jeunesse Award. PBSKIDS.org/dinosaurtrain welcomes more than 2.4 million visits each month, offering engaging content designed to continue dinosaur exploration beyond the television series, including printables, games, and a dinosaur field guide. Parents, caregivers and educators can find resources and activities to extend the series learning at PBS Parents (PBSPARENTS.org) and PBS Teachers (PBSTEACHERS.org).

UK: New Trailer for ‘The Dinosaur Project’, and Those Lizards Look Pretty Angry

From Filmoria.co.uk: New Trailer for ‘The Dinosaur Project’, and Those Lizards Look Pretty Angry

When you were a kid, chances are you had something dinosaur related in your possession – a toy, a book, a photo from that trip to the natural history museum. But, it has been more than ten years since the last installment of the Jurassic Park franchise cashed in on our love of the ‘terrible lizards’. The Dinosaur Project, looks to pick up the slack while we await the fourth rumoured Jurassic Park film to become a reality.

The Dinosaur Project stars relative newcomers Natasha Loring (Beaver Falls) and Matt Kane (The Cut), and is directed by Sid Bennett. Bennett is typically known for television work, but is no stranger to prehistoric themes, having directed the series Prehistoric Park back in 2006. The story follows a father and son team, documentary crew in tow, to the Congo on a mission to uncover the truth about Africa’s ‘Nessie’, a mythical creature called Mokele-mbeme. Of course, things go terribly wrong once they find out dinosaurs really aren’t extinct. The result appears to be a found footage type film (think Cloverfield crossed with The Troll Hunter) which won’t be short on moments that make you jump. Of course this film doesn’t have quite the budget of Jurassic Park, but hopefully the CGI isn’t too disappointing. The film is marketing itself through a website called the Cryptozoological Society, a fictional establishment that is calling for help finding the missing team in the Congo. A quote from their Facebook page establishes some more context for the film:

STUDIOCANAL are delighted to finally bring this astonishing story of the missing Congo expedition to UK audiences, and the findings of the Cryptozoological Society to audiences around the world. The film features stunning recovered footage of creatures thought to be extinct for 65 million years. As the search for the missing crew continues, questions remain about the source of the missing footage …and the manner in which it was discovered. Producer Nick Hill said in a statement today, “It has been incredible to have the original source material to work with, and we have great respect and admiration for the work of the Cryptozoological Society and are keen to support them in their search. The movie raises important questions about species which conventional science tells us have long since become extinct, and we hope it will help raise awareness of the search to locate the missing persons and the BCZS’s ongoing work in the Congo.

The Dinosaur Project is out August 10th in the UK with no word yet on a North American debut. You can check out the film’s site at www.cryptozoological.co.uk, and enjoy the trailer below.

Connecticut Dinosaur Trail Debuts with Support from the DECD/Connecticut Office of Tourism

From Courant.com: READER SUBMITTED: Connecticut Dinosaur Trail Debuts with Support from the DECD/Connecticut Office of Tourism

The Connecticut Dinosaur Trail is a historic collaboration that brings together the private and public sector with state agencies to promote tourism in Connecticut. Partners include four of the state's pre-eminent tourist attractions: Connecticut Science Center, Dinosaur State Park, The Dinosaur Place and Yale Peabody Museum. The Dinosaur Trail links these venues and hotel partners.

The Connecticut Dinosaur Trail was made possible by a Marketing Challenge Grant from the Department of Economic and Community Development and the Connecticut Office of Tourism (COT). The $25,000 grant will be used to boost tourism and encourage family trips to the partner locations. A dedicated website, http://www.ctdinotrail.com, gives information about the Trail.

"Thanks to the Governor's and state legislature's commitment to tourism, we are able to provide resources to a variety of attractions with the hope of extending the reach of the state's strategic marketing efforts through collaborative partnerships, such as the Connecticut Dinosaur Trail," said Randy Fiveash, Director of COT. "We believe this unique and historic partnership will be a wonderful way to highlight Connecticut's dinosaur attractions, and get people excited about their visit to Connecticut." Each property offers a unique dinosaur experience.

The Connecticut Science Center in downtown Hartford, now hosting the blockbuster traveling exhibit Dinosaurs Unearthed, offers visitors the thrill of interacting with over a dozen animatronic beasts as well as hearing their roars and feeling their footsteps. Two 3D movies take visitors back to when these beasts roamed the planet. A permanent dinosaur exhibit will follow.

Dinosaur State Park, a registered National Natural Landmark located in Rocky Hill, is home to over 2,000 Therapod dinosaur footprints left there 200 million years ago during the early Jurassic Period. Visitors can view more than 600 of the footsteps, now preserved in gray sandstone, and cast their own dinosaur footprints. A 60 acre park includes hiking trails and an arboretum of evolution that doubles as a picnic area.

The Dinosaur Place in Montville is an outdoor nature trail with over 30 life-sized dinosaur replicas and educational exhibits along the way. Indoor activities include a replica fossil quarry where junior paleontologists can unearth a dinosaur skeleton. Its Splashpad, New England's largest, features a dinosaur-themed children's water park.

The Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History in New Haven is a hub of dinosaur research. Visitors will find themselves surrounded by dinosaur fossils 200 to 65 million years old, including the type specimens of Stegosaurus, Triceratops and a 70-foot-long Apatosaurus ("Brontosaurus"). Here also is the world's largest dinosaur painting, Rudolph Zallinger's The Age of Reptiles.

Vacation packages from hotel partners, Courtyard by Marriott Norwich, Hartford Marriott Downtown Hartford and Courtyard by Marriott Cromwell will allow tourists outside the area to easily experience the Trail and extend their stay. Families registering at http://www.ctdinotrail.com can receive discounts and hotel packages.

Dinosaur trail has stop in Montville

From Norwich Bulletin: Dinosaur trail has stop in Montville

Montville, Conn. — What’s this? The Dinosaur Place at Nature’s Art in Oakdale is now a spot on the Connecticut Dinosaur Trail. The other stops are the Connecticut Science Center in Hartford, Dinosaur State Park in Rocky Hill and the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History in New Haven.

The dinosaur trail: The trail was created last month using a $25,000 Marketing Challenge Grant from the Department of Economic and Community Development and the Connecticut Office of Tourism that had to be matched by the participants.

Local partner: The Waterford Hotel Group is participating in the program, offering room discounts, small gifts and dinosaur trail literature at three of its hotels — Courtyard by Marriott in Norwich, Hartford Marriott Downtown and Courtyard by Marriott Cromwell.

Present attractions: The Dinosaur Place is on Route 85 in Montville. It is in its 11th year and features 30 life-size dinosaurs on 60 acres and 1.5 miles of hiking trails. It is also home to New England’s largest freshwater splash pad.

Coming attractions: Among features being added because of the dinosaur trail designation are a scavenger hunt and coloring contests, said Laura Rush, guest relations and marketing manager. Two more dinosaurs are soon to be placed along the hiking trails, she said.

Retooling the brand: The Dinosaur Place is going to be increasingly marketed as a campus similar to Disney World, Rush said. The business has nine full-time employees, with staff swelling to as many as 30 during the peak months of May and June. It serves 50,000 visitors per year, Rush said.

What it costs: Admission to The Dinosaur Place is $18.99 in summer and $14.49 in spring and fall.

On the Web: ctdinotrail.com, thedinosaurplace.com.

500mn-year-old bacteria recreated in lab

From ZeeNews: 500mn-year-old bacteria recreated in lab

London: A 500 million-year-old bacteria has been brought back to life in a laboratory at Georgia Tech in an experiment with echoes of Stephen Spielberg’s Jurassic Park, where scientists recreated dinosaurs using ancient DNA.

The researchers have resurrected a 500-million-year-old gene and inserted it into a modern E Coli bacteria.

The ‘Frankenstein’ germ has thrived. In the lab, the creation has now lived through 1,000 generations.

The scientists hope to find out whether the ‘ancient’ bacteria will evolve the same way it did ‘first time round’ - or whether it will evolve into a different, new organism.

“This is as close as we can get to rewinding and replaying the molecular tape of life,” the Daily Mail quoted scientist Betul Kacar, a NASA astrobiology postdoctoral fellow in Georgia Tech, as saying.

The new ‘chimeric’ bacteria have mutated rapidly - and some have become stronger and healthier than today’s germs.

The growth rate eventually increased and, after the first 500 generations, the scientists sequenced the genomes of all eight lineages to determine how the bacteria adapted.

Not only did the fitness levels increase to nearly modern-day levels, but also some of the altered lineages actually became healthier than their modern counterpart.

When the researchers looked closer, they noticed that every EF-Tu gene did not accumulate mutations.

Instead, the modern proteins that interact with the ancient EF-Tu inside of the bacteria had mutated and these mutations were responsible for the rapid adaptation that increased the bacteria’s fitness.

In short, the ancient gene has not yet mutated to become more similar to its modern form, but rather, the bacteria found a new evolutionary trajectory to adapt.

These results were presented at the recent NASA International Astrobiology Science Conference

The scientists will continue to study new generations, waiting to see if the protein will follow its historical path or whether it will adopt via a novel path altogether.

“We think that this process will allow us to address several longstanding questions in evolutionary and molecular biology,” said Kacar.

“Among them, we want to know if an organism’s history limits its future and if evolution always leads to a single, defined point or whether evolution has multiple solutions to a given problem,” he noted.

Nevada: Natural History Museum celebrates 21 years of learning

From Las Vegas Sun: Natural History Museum celebrates 21 years of learning

For a brief moment Saturday, the Las Vegas Natural History Museum aquarium room was particularly festive. It was because of the museum's 21st anniversary that Executive Director Marilyn Gillespie called for everyone’s attention. Children, who were scrambling around the room gaping at the sharks and sea creature exhibits, turned their attention to Gillespie — or more likely the cake in front of her. She then led a rendition of "Happy Birthday" and handed out slices of cake and ice cream.

For most museums, this type of celebration might be for a 121st anniversary, but in a young city like Las Vegas, Gillespie said, 21 is a big deal.

“A lot of museums around the country are 150 years old, but Las Vegas is very young and a boom town. It’s a tough atmosphere for museums in the entertainment capital of the world,” Gillespie said. “We are outshone by the glitz and glamour on the Strip, so we’re very proud we’ve made it 21 years.”

Turning 21 certainly didn't bug the museum; in fact, the celebration was a "21 Bug Salute" in honor of the parasite-themed traveling exhibit, "What's Eating You?"

The cake was decorated with critters while experts from Western Exterminators set up an exhibit of live insects. One boy, 9 year-old Nicholas Greco, was brave enough to hold an African millipede and tarantula.

“The millipede felt like Velcro on my hands,” said Greco. “The tarantula just felt hairy.”

Outside food trucks and a live DJ entertained visitors looking to grab lunch and relax after a day exploring.

Helen Shannon brought her four kids. She said the sea exhibits, bugs and fun facts occupied them for nearly two hours.

“They spent ages playing on the machines and at the bug exhibit going ‘Yuck’ at the bugs,” Shannon said. "They love it here."

Gillespie said the day has been a big boost for the museum.

“It’s been packed. We have a parking issue, it’s that good,” Gillespie said, commenting on the full parking lot outside. “I didn’t really hear the numbers, but I would say we will have thousands of people here today.”

Gillespie said the museum has come a long way from when it opened in 1991. It’s filled the basement with new exhibits, expanded the building and is constantly introducing new booths.

“The very first year we were skimpy. It was just totally, 100 percent, a different museum than it is today,” Gillespie said. “We’ve really maxed this building out and are looking toward the future, and we feel like we have a really bright future. So it does feel very special today.”

Argentina: Tecnópolis theme park reopens

From the Buenos Aires Herald: Tecnópolis theme park reopens Tecnópolis theme park reopened just in time for the winter holidays. The Government sponsored park, which was visited by over four million people last year, got a 2012 make over.

It boasts 10 thematic zones, including one depicting the use of energy, one of Argentine industry, a solar area, the Knowledge park, which was especially designed for children and allows to feel the effects of an earthquake, the biopark features life sized dinosaur robots.

The youth world area features a skating area of over 2000 square metres, and the largest stage in the theme park. In the 'Woods of games' area visitors can recreate mechanical and electronic sounds and the movement park is dedicated to modern transport systems.

Tecnópolis will be open every day from Saturday July 14th to Sunday July 29th from midday to 8 pm. Beginning on July 31st and through October.it will open Tuesday to Sunday between 12 pm and 8pm.

The theme park is located in the Greater Buenos Aires area of Villa Martelli. Entrance is free of charge and there is a free parking lot for 2,000 cars and nine food stands and restaurants along the park.

Pair studies fragments of prehistory

From Daily Inter Lake: Pair studies fragments of prehistory

When asked what they did over the summer, two Flathead High School alumni will be able to say they spent several weeks in China trying to piece together the prehistoric past using fragments of fossilized dinosaur eggs.

Hannah Wilson, a 2011 Flathead graduate, and Robert Rader, a 2008 Flathead graduate, went on a paleontology trip May 17 through June 19 in China’s Zhejiang Province, studying dinosaur eggs at the Zhejiang Museum of Natural History in Hangzhou.

Wilson just completed her freshman year at Montana State University majoring in history and economics while Rader finished his junior year at the University of Montana and is majoring in geoscience.

They were among nine students chosen from across the state to participate in the International Research Experience for Students program through National Science Foundation grants.

Wilson was intrigued by paleontology after taking a course on dinosaurs through Montana State University Associate Professor of Paleontology David Varricchio in the fall.

“That was the beginning,” Wilson said. “I like the mystery of fossils. In general, it’s like a big puzzle. You find bits and pieces of fossils and have to reconstruct them to see what it looked like, but you’re never completely sure what an organism looked like millions of years ago, how it died or how it lived.”

Wilson and Rader worked alongside Varricchio in China.

They spent a majority of their time looking at incomplete eggs from the museum’s extensive collection to decipher if holes or cracks found in eggs were made from hatchlings, predators or the natural elements.

“A lot of eggs were fragmented. Some are about the size of a grapefruit or an orange and they are black, almost perfectly round. Previous research said the holes were from hatchlings. We disagreed. Some hatched, but maybe they were crushed over time. We’re still very early in the research process,” Rader said, noting he has yet to study data collected during the trip.

While in China, the students also traveled to Shanghai, Beijing and various rural areas to conduct a week of fieldwork and learn about the culture.

“The program enabled you to interact with local Chinese people, eat authentically and explore the culture,” Wilson said.

Field research and study were different in China compared to the United States. Wilson said there was not much emphasis on documenting field findings.

Wilson said this was a challenge. In the museum, the students did not have documented clues of where or how fossils were found since many of the specimens were dropped off by local farmers or construction workers. Something as simple as deciphering the round egg’s top or bottom was challenging without documenting the position fossils were found in the field, Wilson said.

“A project I took on was trying to identify the tops and bottoms of eggs. We didn’t know how they were laid,” Wilson said.

Wilson said she learned valuable skills in museum exhibit preparation, field exploration, lab work and writing professional research papers.

“The program gave a good sense of what a research project entails,” Wilson said. “I believe the ability to properly execute the scientific method is really important and it’s something I hope to improve upon in my own skill set.”

Wilson, who was an International Baccalaureate student at Flathead, said the baccalaureate program helped her appreciate an interdisciplinary education. She described it as “holistic” learning.

“I would definitely credit the International Baccalaureate program for being able to do all this,” Wilson said.

Both Wilson and Rader are working on research papers with fellow participants on the trip in hopes of publishing and presenting at conferences.

Additionally Wilson is working on papers to submit to the International Symposium on Dinosaur Eggs and Babies in Hangzhou. If accepted, she would present her research at the conference.

Wilson and Rader have extended their fossil digs over the summer. Wilson is in Choteau chipping away at rocks to find more fossilized eggs while Rader is in Bear Gulch searching for fish fossils.

“Yesterday we found a really beautiful Troodon dinosaur tooth,” Wilson said, noting that the Troodon is closely related to birds.

After Wilson graduates, she wants to attend law school while Rader plans to pursue a master’s program in paleontology.

Fossil Egg Discovery Links Dinosaurs To Modern Birds

From Newsroom America: Fossil Egg Discovery Links Dinosaurs To Modern Birds

(Newsroom America) -- The only dinosaur egg discovered in the world so far to have an oval shape, similar to that of chicken eggs, is put forward as a link between dinosaurs and modern birds.

Before her death in December 2010, Nieves López Martínez, palaeontologist of the Complutense University of Madrid, was working on the research of dinosaur eggs with a very peculiar characteristic: an ovoid, asymmetrical shape.

Together with Enric Vicens, palaeontologist of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, the two scientists conducted an exhaustive analysis of their discovery, recently published in the journal Palaeontology.

The new type of dinosaur egg has been given the scientific name of Sankofa pyrenaica. The eggs were discovered in the Montsec area of Lleida, in two sites located on either side of the Terradets pass.

The South Pyrenean area is rich in dinosaur egg sites, most of which correspond to sauropod eggs from the upper Cretaceous, dating back more than 70 million years ago. During that period, the area was a coastal area full of beaches and deltas which won land from the sea through sediment accumulation. Sand and mud from that period gave way, millions of years later, to the sandstone and marl where dinosaur remains now can be found. On the beach ridges and flat coastal lands is where a large group of dinosaurs laid their eggs.

The sites where the discoveries were made correspond to the upper Cretaceous, between the Campanian and Maastrichtian periods, some 70 to 83 million years ago. The fossils found belong to small eggs measuring some 7 centimetres tall and 4 cm wide, while the eggshell was on average 0.27mm thick. Most of the eggs found were broken in small fragments, but scientists also discovered more or less complete eggs, which can be easily studied in sections. The eggs found at the sites all belong to the same species. The main difference when compared to other eggs from the same period is their asymmetrical shape, similar to that of chicken eggs. The more complete samples clearly show an oval form rarely seen in eggs from the upper Cretaceous period and similar to modern day eggs.

Their shape is a unique characteristic of theropod eggs from the upper Cretaceous period and suggests a connection with bird eggs. Non avian dinosaur eggs are symmetrical and elongated. Asymmetry in bird eggs is associated to the physiology of birds: they take on this shape given the existence of only one oviduct which can form only one egg at a time. In this case the isthmus, the region in the oviduct creating the eggshell membrane, is what gives the egg its asymmetrical shape. Thanks to this shape, the wider end contains a bag of air which allows the bird to breathe in the last stages of its development. This evolutionary step was still relatively underdeveloped in dinosaurs.

Thus, the egg discovered by UCM and UAB researchers in certain manners represents the missing link between dinosaurs and birds, they say.

"Only one other egg, discovered in Argentina and corresponding to a primitive bird from the same period, has similar characteristics. The discovery represents proof in favour of the hypothesis that non avian theropods, the dinosaurs of the Cretaceous period, and birds could have had a common ancestor."

Tourists dig it: Digging for dinosaurs in Colorado

From Madison.com: Tourists dig it: Digging for dinosaurs in Colorado

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) — The sounds of hammers hitting prehistoric rock and children's laughter rise with the dust and heat haze between two hills in the Colorado desert.

It's more than 100 degrees in the Mygatt-Moore Quarry just this side of the Utah state line, but 6-year-old Nicolas Otal doesn't seem to notice.

He's digging for dinosaurs. Real dinosaurs — not the kind of simulated dig in an air-conditioned museum to be found, then covered again for the next visitor — but actual undiscovered pieces of bone fragment and fossilized plant matter hidden deep inside rock from the Jurassic period.

It's a dream come true — and the best vacation ever.

"Come on, look, we found actual prehistoric pebbles," Nicolas said with elation as he handed over a deep gray rock to his father, Carlos.

The pair traveled from Ashburn, Va., just northwest of Washington, D.C., to experience what it was like to be a paleontologist.

"This was one of the only ones in the country that I found that would take kids this young," Carlos Otal said.

As a parent, he wanted to encourage his son's interest in a real learning environment, even if that meant a trip across the country. Their visit included two days of dinosaur digging at the quarry, exploring Colorado National Monument, and a day in Glenwood Springs.

"The driving force here is kids," said Nehali Dave, field assistant for Dinosaur Journey, the Fruita-based branch of the Museum of Western Colorado.

"We bring customers out, tell them about the area, then demonstrate some digging techniques," said Dave, a student at Whitman College.

Digging for dinosaurs is much harder and less glamorous than Hollywood depicts it.

"You break rocks to find dinosaurs," Dave explained to 10-year-old Ben Radford of Ojai, Calif.

Ben and his mother, Amy, were on a three-week camping adventure to discover all things ancient in western Colorado.

Their visit included a trip to Dinosaur National Monument and Crow Canyon Archaeological Center in the southwest part of the state.

"Next week we'll be digging for more human artifacts," Amy Radford said.

Just over a hill, Brody Lehr, 8, from Parkland, Ill., was carefully whisking dirt away from the giant femur of a plateosaurus.

He likes dinosaurs but hopes to be a herpetologist when he grows up.

"My grandparents say I'm a great cutter of stones, but I like reptiles a lot because they're more bloody than dinosaurs," Brody said.

It's taken three years to uncover the large femur bone.

"It's 1.87 meters long and we haven't found the end of it yet," said Krista Brundridge, field coordinator for Dinosaur Journey, "It's one of the larger bones we've ever pulled out of here, and it takes a long time to get it out."

It's another point, the painstakingly long process of digging, that Brundridge hopes children take away with them.

Even after 30 years of digging, the Mygatt-Moore Quarry is a treasure trove of dinosaur bones. More than 20 individual dinosaurs have been discovered so far.

The quarry is believed to have been a large pond where dinosaurs congregated and fed, often on each other.

"Some of the bones have bite marks on them from predators, so we might not find more than one bone," Brundridge said.

The quarry is a valuable research area because of its large sample size and the vast number of fossils and bones hidden within it, she said.

More than 5,000 specimens have been uncovered so far, mostly by families wanting a down and dirty Jurassic experience.

Almost as valuable is that the quarry and Dinosaur Journey, which houses the specimens, bring a large number of tourists and recognition to the Grand Valley, said John Foster, curator of paleontology for the Museum of Western Colorado.

The site is one of the top five dinosaur quarries in the country, Foster said. Interest is high because "dinosaur appeal is timeless," he said.

Dinosaur Journey and the quarry attract 50,000 visitors to the Grand Valley each year, Foster said.

The number of people wanting to dig has doubled since 2001, according to museum officials.

"Interest has been building every year. It dropped a little in 2008 when the recession hit, but we are far busier today than we were 10 years ago," Foster said.

"We hope to continue to build the program," Foster said. "Everybody likes dinosaurs."

TX: New dinosaurs have crowds roaring in Houston

From Statesman.com: New dinosaurs have crowds roaring in Houston

HOUSTON Why is every child on the planet so fascinated by dinosaurs? Maybe it's because the beasts are huge, but they're also extinct, so they can't come get you in the middle of the night.

Regardless, kids seem to love posing in front of the many huge dinosaur skeletons in the new Hall of Paleontology at the Houston Museum of Natural Science in the city's Hermann Park.

It's obvious they'd prefer to climb aboard the dinos, but their parents are doing a good job of stopping them from doing that while they, the parents, read the wall placards explaining how the beasts lived.

The vast, new hall features more than 60 new skeletal mounts in action poses, combining some real bone with realistic casts of what the bones would look like.

A lot of the skeletons, I'm told, were pieced together with bones from a number of similar animals found in the same area. (It's hard to tell whose bones are whose in such a circumstance.)

On the walls alongside the dinosaurs are similarly posed portraits showing what the dinosaurs looked like on the outside.

The exhibits include a Tyrannosaurus rex with what the museum says are the most complete hands and feet of any T. rex ever found, along with some T. rex skin.

There's also a triceratops mummy, with some of his skin on the wall, too. He's been named Lane, and he's 70 percent real triceratops — a particularly high percentage.

You'll also find wall after wall of beautifully preserved fossils, more than 100 preserved trilobites and an exquisite collection of petrified prehistoric poop. (I can hear you clapping with glee.)

My favorite exhibit is probably the Glyptodon, a prehistoric armadillo. It's huge. If you were to hit this with your car, your car would be the one upside down on the side of the road.

You'll also find a section of ancient petrified tree cross-sections cleverly named Jurassic Bark, along with an exhibit on human evolution, comparing the bones of early hominids — they were about as tall as today's 5-year-olds — with present humans.

Find out more about this exhibit and others at hmns.org. General admission, which includes the Hall of Paleontology, is $15 for adults and $10 for children.

After you visit the Hall of Paleontology, if it's less than 100 degrees outside, you might want to stop by Hermann Park's other key attraction, the Houston Zoo, to see the new elephant enclosure that opened last fall.

The pachyderms now play in a nice, big habitat. On the recent day I visited, they were wallowing in some mud in an attempt to keep cool. I felt like joining them because it was, in fact, more than 100 degrees outside.

The Houston Zoo, by the way, is involved in conservation efforts for elephants in the wild. They're majestic beasts, and during my visit, I learned that an elephant brain, averaging 13 pounds, is the biggest of any land mammal's.

So, if you can stand the heat, go check out the big brain on the elephant.

Admission is $13 for adults, $9 for children and $7 for seniors at houstonzoo.org.

The most convenient place to stay to see all this is the Hotel Zaza (5701 Main St., hotelzaza.com/#houston), just a couple of blocks from the natural science museum.

Even in the heat, it's a short trek, and you'll enjoy the hotel's glamorous vibe and the excellent food in Monarch restaurant. (I highly recommend the veal schnitzel, an elevated version of the German classic.) Summer rates start at $199.

The hotel's right next to the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, another excellent museum to cool off in.

Also remember that if you're staying downtown, the Museum District can easily be reached by light rail.

Kimberley gas hub gets nod from EPA

From Perth Now: Kimberley gas hub gets nod from EPA

THE controversial Kimberley gas hub has been given a "strict conditional" go-ahead from Western Australia's environmental watchdog.

Environmental Protection Authority chairman Paul Vogel today said the assessment of the gas precinct at James Price Point, north of Broome, was the largest and most multi-faceted in the department’s 40-year history.

“The level of community debate about this has been unprecedented, absolutely, it has polarised white and indigenous communities across Australia,” said Dr Vogel, adding that the Kimberley’s relatively undisturbed environment was one of the key issues.

Woodside Petroleum’s $30 billion Browse liquefied natural gas project will underpin the development of the gas hub, subject to a final investment decision next year, as well as state and federal ministerial approvals.

The proposed gas hub, which is being driven by the WA Government , has been dogged with controversy since the Barnett government announced the location in 2008.

Recently, the EPA’s decision making process came under scrutiny after it revealed that four of the five board members were stood aside due to conflicts of interest.

Dr Vogel was the only board member left to make the recommendation. He today defended the EPA’s method for choosing the James Price Point location and the subsequent recommendation, saying it was a “well thought out process”.

He also said he had access to a wide-range of experts and organisations that helped him formulate his recommendations, which he said was workable for Woodside’s project.

The EPA has laid down a “rigorous set” of 29 conditions and offsets for the gas hub, following wide consultation with traditional owners, community members, interest groups and scientific experts.

Included in the conditions are strict boundaries for seabed dredging and ongoing monitoring and reporting of the hub’s surrounding environment - particularly humpback whales and bilbies.

The EPA has also heeded concerns regarding aboriginal heritage matters, with particular attention to the fossilised dinosaur footprints, which Dr Vogel said was of regional, national and international importance.

As a result, the gas hub will not be allowed to cross the shore within 900 metres of James Price Point in order to avoid disturbing the area.

The EPA report is up for public appeal for the next two weeks. Dr Vogel said today he was sure there will be many submissions, but whether there would be a legal challenge was up to individuals to decide.

The Wilderness Society, which has been one of many organisations that have been vocal about its opposition to the project, said today the EPA’s recommendation is a non-decision by just one person.

“Under Section 11 of the Environmental Protection Act, the Independent Board is required to have a quorum of at least three in order to make a decision,” the society’s Peter Robertson said.

“The Authority and Environment Minister [Bill] Marmion have used a loophole to thwart the intent of the Act and try to rail road through an approval.”

Dr Vogel said he and the EPA did not feel any pressure from the State Government with regards to making the favourable recommendation.

In a statement today, Mr Marmion - who had delayed the release of the report following the board members' conflict of interest - said he believed the EPA had taken the appropriate course of action and has "confidence in the integrity of the EPA chairman Dr Vogel, to provide me with informed advice and recommendations on the project".

"In light of the public statements made at the time questioning the appropriateness of the EPA's process, I decided it was proper to seek legal advice from the State Solicitor's Office before releasing [today's] report," he said.

Mr Marmion will make a final decision on the Kimberley gas precinct following the two-week public appeals period.

WOODSIDE REACTION
Woodside Petroleum today welcomed the EPA's recommendation, with chief executive Peter Coleman saying the company would review the strict conditions.

"We are confident that the social and environmental impacts arising from the development and operation of an LNG precinct on the Dampier Peninsula can be minimised and managed effectively," he said.

Mr Coleman reaffirmed that Woodside remained on track to make a final investment decision on Browse LNG project in the first half of 2013.

The Browse project will have the capacity to produce 12 million tonnes of LNG each year.

The gas precinct at James Price Point will have the capacity to produce up to 50 million tonnes of LNG a year with the addition of other LNG producers.

Police looking into leads in dino vandalism case

From Daily Herald Tribune: Police looking into leads in dino vandalism case

Beaverlodge RCMP may have new leads that could help track down vandals who destroyed and stole dinosaur fossils from the Red Willow River last week.

RCMP spokeswoman Const. Ellen Archibald says the police are looking to speak to key individuals who have been identified as being in the area at the time of the vandalism, but no arrests have been made.

“We are still looking, but names that have been brought forward, we are attempting to locate witnesses and possible suspects to speak to them,” said Archibald. “It’s not that we have located suspects, they’re possible, so people that were in the area.”

A campsite near the fossil find was identified as a possible crime scene by Pipestone Creek Dinosaur Initiative officials. Fossils were strewn through the campsite along with garbage and receipts.

Archibald was unable to confirm the suspects were connected to the campsite.

“If people bring things forward, leads will certainly be followed up, but at this time, I have no idea,” said Archibald. “Whether a receipt was found or brought forward, I have no idea at this time.”

Archibald adds that the investigation is still ongoing and interviews will be conducted.

The fossilized skeleton discovered by paleontologist Phil Bell was believed to be a hadrosaur, a duck-billed dinosaur, which would have been the most intact of its kind found in the Peace Country.

If caught the perpetrator of the vandalism could receive a fine of up to $40,000 or one year in prison

Johnstown, PA: How rocks, dinosaurs made Shawnee history

From the Tribune Democrat: How rocks, dinosaurs made Shawnee history

SCHELLSBURG — Geological history and adventure will combine in a program at Shawnee State Park.

“Of Stones and Bones in the Shawnee Valley” will detail how the area’s landscape was formed and even discuss dinosaurs that roamed the area.

Fossils, rocks and geologic maps will be used in the presentation.

Ronald Barlick, a naturalist at the park, said the presentation got started because officials are always trying to develop programs that are specific to a particular park.

“The event will include rocks and minerals – and things people aren’t familiar with,” Barlick said.

“We incorporate how we got the land we do today, and start from 500 million years ago. We explain why there aren’t dinosaur bones found in the area, too,” he said.

The free program will take place at 7 p.m. Sunday in the Historic and Interpretive Center attached to the park’s main office.

Barlick said one of his favorite parts of the presentation is dealing with the rocks and minerals.

“I also enjoy how we know there were dinosaurs here without having bones,” he said.

For more information about the event, call Barlick at 733-4892.

Jackson, MS: Museum of Natural Science goes to the dinosaurs

From WLB.TV: Museum of Natural Science goes to the dinosaurs

JACKSON, MS (WLBT) -

The sight and sound of a large robotic dinosaur can spark almost anyone's curiosity at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science.

Their size and teeth look like something out of science fiction, but some roamed what is now Mississippi.

"My favorite part is the big heads of the dinosaurs, because it seems like you're actually inside the mouth of one without getting hurt," says 8 year-old Austin, Texas visitor Bracos Hopkins.

Many fossils can still found from when their was very little land in the area.

"Mississippi was once covered in water and as time progressed one of the areas like Jackson, is a good example, was formed by a volcano eruption. Which the volcano is under the (Mississippi) Coliseum. So, if it ever erupts again this area and the coliseum would be gone," says Mississippi Museum of Natural Science Wildlife Biologist Corey Wright.

The state fossil is a prehistoric whale, but the sharp toothed whale, growing up to 70 feet long also lived where Mississippi is today.

Once land formed there were meat eating raptors. Even the veloso raptor has a Magnolia State connection.

"We were kind of fascinated by the smaller meat eaters that look like the raptors. I guess they are cousins to the raptors over there. Which we didn't realize those type of dinosaurs were around here," says Starkville resident Harry Holliday.

Then their were the family oriented, duck billed plant eaters like the myosaurus.

"The mother had her young, they laid eggs. When the eggs hatched, they were hatchlings. The yearlings lived around them also. So the cool thing about it, you had two different generations of children living together with the mother," explains Wright.

Wright says Mississippi's habitat hasn't changed much over the past 65 million years. There are still plenty of swampy areas and ferns which were some of the first plants and helped dinosaurs survive in the state.

Five types of dinosaurs once lived in the area, now considered Mississippi. The fossils of the animals can still be found in various portions of the state, such as Lee county in the north and Madison and Warren counties in the central portions.

However, many prehistoric animals once lived in the state.

"We had a saber-toothed tiger and a saber-toothed cat," says Wright.

The robotic dinosaur exhibit will be open at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science until January 6, 2013.

'Ice Age: Continental Drift': This Time, Sans Dinosaurs

From Popmatters: 'Ice Age: Continental Drift': This Time, Sans Dinosaurs

Sid the Sloth (John Leguizamo) has never been especially quick, but near the start of Ice Age: Continental Drift, he comes up with a zinger. The occasion is a surprise visit from his parents, Eunice (Joy Behar) and Milton (Alan Tudyk), during which he tries to convince them that he’s led a worthy, adventurous life since they abandoned him. “We fought dinosaurs,” he announces, alluding to the previous Ice Age movie’s plot. “It didn’t really make sense, but it was fun.” And with that, his parents abandon him again. The moment makes clear a few things about this fourth installment of the franchise. First, even if illogic has always been a point of odd pride for the Ice Ages, it actually seems less fun than lazy. (If you were an eight-year-old who had questions about that dinosaur business, too bad.) Second, the story of Sid is here a focus, if only to introduce his toothless granny (Wanda Sykes), whom his parents have brought along in order to leave her with him, that is, to abandon her along with him. (Just saying: this may be a less than hilarious scenario.) And third, the movie means to make a lot of fun of the toothless granny. (Perhaps granny jokes are the new fun.) In fact, the movie means to head directly to the well worn formula of the previous installments. Like more than a few kids’ movies, it makes use of trauma in pursuit of humor. In this case, Sid and Granny’s traumas are only introductory: the much larger, more alarming trauma involves the creation of the continents, here initiated by yet another effort by Scrat (Chris Wedge) to secure an acorn, an effort that splits open the earth from the core outward (the plot, more or less, of a previous Scrat short).

These drifting continents occasion another trek for the trio of Sid, Manny the mammoth (Ray Romano), and Diego the sabre-toothed cat (Denis Leary). When the land heaves and breaks off, Manny is horrified to be separated from his wife Ellie (Queen Latifah) and now teenaged daughter Peaches (Keke Palmer)—and all three are horrified to find that granny is on their drifting chunk of turf. As the trio tries to get back to the others and the others make a march to a land bridge Manny spots as he floats away, the movie cuts between their efforts, pretty much randomly.

This randomness becomes more glaring as the two groups engage in separate and wholly unoriginal adventures. If the basic land break-up reminds you of Voyage to the Center of the Earth and Happy Feet 2, the pirates who find Manny and his crew will remind you of, oh, you name it, everything from Pirates of the Caribbean and The Pirates! Band of Misfits to Peter Pan and Muppet Treasure Island. The leader this time is a big bully of an ape named Gutt (Peter Dinklage), who has to explain that his name comes from his inclination to gut his enemies. (Really, where’s Bill Nighy when you need him?) He’s attended by his own crew of uninspired sidekicks (including Aziz Ansari as a rabbit and Nick Frost as an elephant seal) and instantly inspired to hate Manny when the mammoth uses his giant weight to thwart his plan to make Sid and his granny walk the plank.

As predictable as all this pirate business may be—including a forgettable song and dance about how they came together—its primary purpose appears to be to slow down Manny’s journey back to Ellie. And oh yes, to introduce Diego to his new girlfriend, Captain Gutt’s first mate, who happens to be a female sabre-toothed cat, Shira (Jennifer Lopez). While her flirtations with Diego move Manny and Sid to engage in oh-so-ancient sitting-in-the-tree rhyming, Shira mostly seems another instance of rip-off, as her wasp-waisty figure and catty eyes seem drawn directly from Tigress (Angelina Jolie) in Kung Fu Panda, not to mention Gia the jaguar (Jessica Chastain) of Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted.

At the same time, in the movie’s other too familiar plot, Peaches follows in her mother’s gigantic footsteps, crushing on a guy, Ethan (Drake) whom her father dislikes. While Manny has to learn to appreciate his daughter’s sense of independence (which is a little like his own), she also comes to see his experience and wisdom when it comes to being loyal to best friends. In Peaches’ case, that friend is a plucky molehog named Louis (Josh Gad), whom she dumps pretty much as soon as Ethan and his pack of small-minded, gossipy, and cruelly judgmental mean girl mammoths (voiced by Nicki Minaj, Ally Romano, and Heather Morris) start making fun of him.

Poor Manny, who so misses his family. Poor granny, who misses her teeth. Poor Peaches and poor Louis. And oh yes, poor Scrat, too, injected into the body of this movie in order to chase his acorn. You’re almost glad to see Ellie, who pops up conveniently to offer sage advice to her daughter. By the time these storylines come together, you may be wishing the continents had just drifted right over them.

Dinosaur Spotting In The American West

From HuffPost Lonely Planet: Dinosaur Spotting In The American West

No matter what age you are, from the cute, playful dinosaurs of The Land Before Time, to the truly terrifying killers of Jurassic Park, dinosaurs never get old. Dinosaurs may be extinct (unless you count birds), but that shouldn't stop you from going out and seeing them today, and not just in the halls of big city natural history museums or the occasional big-screen product of Stephen Spielberg's brain.

Here are five top destinations in the western US where you can get up close and personal with dinosaurs, ranging from kid-friendly day trips to serious multi-day digs with the pros.

Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado & Utah
Straddling the Colorado-Utah state line, Dinosaur National Monument, founded in 1909, is home to one of the largest dinosaur fossil beds in North America. If you're one with a soft spot for dinosaurs, but don't actually want to covered head to toe with dust, this is a must-see destination (the beautiful scenery doesn't hurt either). The Dinosaur Wall in the Quarry exhibit, re-opened to the public in 2011, features over 1,500 bones, some of which you can touch, and rangers offer guided tours including a Fossil Discovery Trail hike. For fans of river rafting, one of the best ways to experience the park is through the rivers that actually deposited the fossils that made this location famous, including the Green and Yampa rivers. Ghost Ranch Museum of Paleontology, New Mexico

Better known as the home of artist Georgia O'Keeffe and the shooting locale for movies like Silverado and City Slickers, Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu is also a dinosaur destination perfect for visitors of all ages and levels of interests. The resident paleontologist is always at work excavating what has been found in the quarry located on the ranch, the location of several significant finds, including the 2009 discovery of the genus Tawa, which altered theories on the geographic origin of dinosaurs. As a guest you can watch the next discovery in action. Some activities are geared toward the excavation junkies; if this isn't for you, never fear, just take a hike to the quarry site and do other activities like the dinosaur bone dig or plaster bone casting - perfect for kids - not to mention the great displays, which range from the complete Coelophysis skeleton to fossils of huge alligator-like reptiles.

Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park, Nevada
Say that name three times fast. Nestled just outside the middle of nowhere Nevada, adjacent to the ghost town of Berlin, Berlin-Ichthyosaur is primarily visited to get an up close look at Nevada's official state fossils: Ichthyosaurs, ancient marine reptiles that swam in the warm waters that once covered what is now the Great Basin. Interestingly, these fifty-footers were reptiles like all other dinos, but they gave birth to live young. Weird, right? While in Berlin visiting these one of a kind fossils there is also camping and picnicking to be done, along with the historic Nevada ghost town to explore nearby.

Museum of Western Colorado Paleontology Division, Colorado
If you want hands-on experience this is the place to go. Offered solely between May and August, the Museum of Western Colorado provides several dinosaur experiences including a half day Fruita Paleo dig where you assist paleontologists in digging up rare Jurassic crocodiles, mammals and one of the smallest dinosaurs in the world, the petite Fruitadens. If you're really willing to get your hands dirty, the museum also offers a four to five day Cambrian trilobite or Moab expedition, where you help paleontologists log data on bone and footprint conditions, with the opportunity to keep some of what you find.

Judith River Dinosaur Institute, Montana
This six-day dig program at the Judith River Dinosaur Institute in Montana is only for those willing to take part in a serious endeavor. Only offered three times a year from July to August, each expedition has a mission to excavate a specimen with scientific value. In the past they have excavated pelvises, dorsal plates, and ribs of a stegosaurus, the last of which turned out to be over six feet long! In the upcoming years the institute is working on a new sauropod discovery. Want be in the thick of current Jurassic paleontological research? This is the place to go.
-- Chelsea Garecht, Lonely Planet

Drilling for dinosaur death: the Joides Resolution finds extinction in deep sea mud

From Deep-Sea News: Drilling for dinosaur death: the Joides Resolution finds extinction in deep sea mud

There are scientists floating in the middle of the North Atlantic who are holding the dinosaur extinction in their hands. Really. Here it is:

This may look like an alien landscape, but it’s actually a section of deep sea mud from the drilling ship Joides Resolution. When the lighter-toned sediment on the left was deposited, there were dinosaurs and happy marine plankton – the light color is from calcium carbonate shells. The dark grey-black is stuff thrown up by the meteor. Then, in the dark red, there were no dinosaurs, and much less marine plankton with shells. (See the scientists explain it in video here). That’s the idea behind bringing up cores of mud from the deep sea – there’s history in that there mud.
Since one of the co-chief scientists is Scripps professor Dick Norris (when I took his classes, I was really sad that I had not become a geologist!), the education officer Caitlin Scully offered Deep Sea News a behind-the-scenes look at the JR‘s current expedition. While they were pretty excited about finding the dinosaur extinction, they’re primarily interested what came right afterwards. Caitlin writes:

Finding K-T boundary core was one of the most exciting moment’s we’ve had so far! It was perfect. We could see a layer of blackish-green gritty material that the asteroid impact ejected into the atmosphere, which then rained down into the ocean. There was an abrupt change from light grayish sediment, rich in the white calcium carbonate shells of fossil plankton, to brown sediment devoid of calcium carbonate plankton fossils. Many members of our science party posed for pictures with the K-T, our very own celebrity sediment core. Even though the K-T core was amazing, our primary objective is to learn about the climate events that occurred after 65 million years ago.
Our first drilling location was located in about 5 km of water and we brought sediment onboard that recorded nearly 80 million years of Earth’s past. In one hole we had a record of everything from the K-T Boundary, the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, the ELMO, the E-O boundary and records of many smaller climate events. It was if we opened an earth history textbook and made a checklist of important climate events to find – they were all preserved in 300 meters of North Atlantic Sediment. One member of the science party described our cores as a “Box Set of the Greatest Hits of Earth’s Climate Past.”

The major goal is to learn more about the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, or PETM. Caitlin writes:

Expedition 342 is drilling into the past to learn about the future. Our expedition focuses on a time called the Paleogene, which lasted from about 65 to 21 million years ago. During the early Paleogene, Earth’s temperatures were considerably warmer than today and supported swampy forests rather than ice sheets at the poles. The sediment cores we recover will create a detailed reconstruction of ocean chemistry, circulation, and history of this time period. The Paleogene greenhouse world represents a climatic state that the Earth is rapidly re-approaching due to the use of fossil fuels and the subsequent release of atmospheric greenhouse gases.  Expedition 342 sets out to answer key questions about the Paleogene such as: How did the climate and ecosystems of the Paleogene world work? What should we expect in the next century? Although the early Paleogene is not a perfect analogue for the future, uncovering the story of past climate change will help us understand what the future holds for our rapidly warming planet.

This climate shift can actually be seen in the cores as well. Again, the color change is caused by a mass extinction event, this time of marine plankton called foraminifera.

Stratigraphic Correlator Sandy holds the PETM core.

The JR has also found evidence of huge ocean-wide anoxic events and ancient coral reefs! From their blog:

Imagine the greenhouse world of the Cretaceous – huge volcanoes were spewing carbon dioxide into the oceans and atmosphere, it was hot, there were lots of plants, and, in general, the warm wet climate increased the rate of rock weathering on the planet. In the oceans, phytoplankton flourished. The increased amount of weathering washed huge amounts of critical nutrients like phosphate and nitrate into the oceans. Phytoplankton, small marine plants, depends on nutrients and carbon dioxide to grow, and now they had plenty of both. The result: a phytoplankton boom!
As the exploding phytoplankton population used up the available nutrients they died. The dead phytoplankton rain down into the deep-sea and act as a macabre fertilizer for microbes. These microbes use up huge amounts of oxygen as they feast and decompose the dead phytoplankton. The combination of decay and increased bacterial respiration was so extreme that it caused a global anoxic event. The Cretaceous OAE, also called the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary event or OAE 2, created an ocean starved of oxygen for nearly half a million years. A huge extinction event followed, killing off over 25% of marine invertebrates and charismatic marine reptiles such as ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs.

Again, you can see where the healthy ocean filled with tiny plankton shells gives way to a thick layer of black goo. That thick black sediment is filled with unused nutrients, which means that no critters were around to use them.

Cretaceous Ocean Anoxic Event. Credit: Paul Bown/Joides Resolution

Actually getting these cores on deck is quite an operation. There are 126 people on board the Joides Resolution, all working 12-hour shifts, with science operations proceeding 24 hours a day. Caitlin writes:

You can imagine piston coring to be like pushing a drinking straw into a soft layer cake – when you pull up the straw, it’s full of cake! But the JOIDES Resolution is searching for sediment in deep water with strong currents. For us, piston coring is more like standing on top of a 10-story building, with hundreds of straws taped together to make a long tube, trying to impale a mini cupcake, in high winds. I’m constantly amazed that we can bring up as much sediment as we do. Just last week Expedition 342 broke a JOIDES Resolution record – while piston coring we brought up fifteen sediment cores in twelve hours! That is a new 9-meter record of millions of years of Earth’s climate history being brought on deck every 45 minutes!
…No matter where we are, at each site we usually drill 3 holes. So with our current plan, we will drill 9 sites x 3 holes at each x 25 cores per hole = 675 9-meter sediment cores brought on deck! That’s a lot of climate history! Each core is cut into more manageable 1.5-meter sections, and then is run through a series of tests in our core lab. You can learn about that process in Expedition 342’s video Time Machine.

Looking down into the moon pool in the center of the ship where the drill goes down. In this picture there’s a big camera sled affixed to the end.

Unlike all-too-many scientific operations, the Joides Resolution puts significant investment into outreach. Because so many of our readers are scientists or educations interested in communicating science, I also asked Caitlin about her job as at-sea Education Officer.

Communicating science from the JOIDES Resolution is an educator’s dream job – The ship is inherently cool (471 feet long with a hole in the middle called the “moon pool”), it travels to exotic locations around the world, it is gone for long periods of time, and is responsible for changing the way we think about science (cores from the JOIDES Resolution proved the theory plate tectonics). For Expedition 342, I’m lucky enough to be able to incorporate the story of the Titanic into our science message, extending our reach to new audiences.  The Education Officer is in charge of keeping our followers up to date on the blog, twitter, tumblr, and Facebook Page. Also, I conduct live Ship-to-Shore broadcasts with schools, museums, aquariums, camps, and conferences. During the broadcast I use my iPad and Skype to take groups on tours around the ship and through the labs. Then the public gets the opportunity to ask members of our science party questions about climate science, life at sea, or anything they want. It makes teaching paleoclimate, a challenging topic, relatable, interactive, and best of all, exciting. The Consortium for Ocean Leadership, located in Washington D.C., is responsible for hiring and training a new education officer for every expedition.
I became involved through my work at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. I used IODP data to date the charismatic Claron Formation – the rocks that create Bryce Canyon National Park. For part of my masters, I created educational materials describing geology and isotope dating for the National Park Service. As the Education Officer, I have to understand both the science happening onboard the JOIDES Resolution and the best way to communicate it to the general public. I’m aided by my experience as an educator, naturalist, and blogger for the Birch Aquarium at Scripps, where I taught people of all ages a range of marine science topics.

 

Canada: Drumheller's dinosaurs continue to fascinate visitors

From Canada.com:  Drumheller's dinosaurs continue to fascinate visitors


Drumheller boomed as long as coal was being dug out of the ground, but when that industry collapsed, the Alberta town was able to thrive thanks to another valuable underground resource - dinosaur bones.

Our continued fascination with the giant creatures that ruled the Earth millions of years ago fuels a steady parade of visitors to Alberta’s Badlands.

The two biggest draws for dinosaur lovers is the Royal Tyrell Museum in Drumheller and nearby Dinosaur Provincial Park which provides bones and fossils that make up a large percentage of the museum’s collection.

Visitors to Drumheller will immediately observe dinosaur kitsch everywhere they turn. It seems that every other street corner sports a garishly-painted dinosaur that undoubtedly makes visiting paleontologists cringe at its inaccuracy. They were supposedly salvaged from a dinosaur theme park that went bankrupt years ago.

Lamp posts sport dinosaur decorations, a local supermarket has a dinosaur head bursting out of the wall into the parking lot and then there’s the World’s Largest Dinosaur, a towering Tyrannosaurus Rex of the giant-roadside-attraction school of architecture that is attached to the visitor information centre.

For $3, you can pay for the privilege of climbing up the dinosaur to gaze out of his mouth to view the town and the Badlands beyond. It’s not quite the vista you’d get from the Empire State Building, but it’s hard to resist.

With so much exposure to dinosaur iconography, you have no choice but to visit the Royal Tyrell, but, chances are, if you’ve come to Drumheller that’s what you’re there for. It is arguably one of the world’s great dinosaur museums. In case you’re wondering, the museum’s Royal designation was obtained in 1990 when Queen Elizabeth II visited. The museum gets its name from geologist Joseph Burr Tyrrell who discovered the first dinosaur fossils in the region.

If you are a die-hard dinosaur fan, you could easily spend an entire day exploring the museum’s collection, but even the most casual visitor will spend several hours touring the building‘s many displays.

To enhance your understanding of what you see in the museum, you can sign up for a short, 90-minute hike into the surrounding countryside to learn about how the fossils are extracted from the ground and even look for them yourself.

One thing to be aware of is that Alberta has some of the strictist fossil-collecting laws in the world. If you're from outside Alberta, forget about it. The fossils belong to Alberta and you can be heavily fined or imprisoned if you take home a souvenir. Albertans are allowed to keep fossils collected from the surface that are found on private land, but the specimen remains the property of the province and the individual who found it is considered to be its guardian.

If you enjoy hiking in the Badlands around the Tyrell and want more time to admire its otherworldly scenery, then it’s time to hit the road and head out for a visit to Dinosaur Provincial Park.

The park is a 176-kilometre drive from Drumheller and could be visited as a day trip or you can stay longer by camping in the park or staying in one of several hotels in nearby Brooks. Even if you don’t have camping gear, you can “glamp” in walled tents available in the park with advance reservation.

During my visit, instead of driving the direct highway route, we took the back roads to soak in a bit of the scenery. We were rewarded with the nice view of Dorothy's grain elevator, one of those rapidly disappearing cathedrals of the prairies as well as a solitary pronghorn antelope which took the time to pose for photographs.

One thing to be wary of if using a GPS to navigate to the park is that some devices direct travellers to Steveville, a town on the far northwest side of the park where there are few facilities.

The park itself is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and, despite this honour, is actually a provincial park and not a national one. Another misconception is that it is administered by the Royal Tyrell Museum. It is not, although its scientists do conduct research there. The museum also maintains some of the fossils in the park’s impressive visitor centre which itself was once a field station of the Tyrell which scientists once used as a base of operations.

If you’d like to live the experience of a field researcher, the park offers one, two and three-day programs where you can work with Royal Tyrell researchers to excavate a real bone bed.

For those who are not as adventurous, the park has a wide variety of other tours of varying durations and difficulties that take you into the heart of the park’s desert landscape.

On any of these tours you will soon learn why this place is so rich with fossils. The standing joke is you can’t throw a stone without hitting a dinosaur bone and the stone you throw just may be one of those bones. It’s not far from the truth. At first, I couldn’t see any fossils as a I roamed around the sandy scenery but within 20 minutes of instruction from our expert guide, I was seeing them everywhere.

Even if you don’t have the slightest interest in sauropods, Dinosaur Provincial Park is worth a visit just for the scenery. It’s a glacier-cut valley of desert sand and rock, with hoodoos and hills striated with reds, browns and blacks layered over eons of geologic time. The shapes and colours make it a photographer’s delight, especially at sunrise and sunset as the shadows and colours change from moment to moment. The park even offers a tour for photographers.

The black layers visible in the valley walls are a reminder of the coal that once dominated the area’s economy before the dinosaurs made it famous.

That history is worth exploring once you’ve overdosed on fossils and the best place to do it is in Drumheller’s Atlas Mine, a national historic site that was the region’s last working mine until it shut down in 1979.

Despite the national historic designation, the mine is not administered by Parks Canada, but is instead operated by a volunteer, non-profit historical society which does a tremendous job.

I was impressed by their enthusiasm for the site’s history and their ability to explain it to visitors and to bring the place to life. A visit starts with a trip via coal train to the wash room where miners would suit up before their descent into the mines. You are equipped with a helmet and light and head up to the tipple where coal rocks were sorted and loaded into trains then up the mine opening.

Unfortunately, the mine has been sealed so you cannot go too far into the ground, but the seal is not very deep and the historic society hopes it will be excavated some day so that visitors could see more of the vast network of mine shafts that lay just beyond the fallen rock.

It may not be profitable to mine coal any more, but the site is a reminder that the same geologic forces that made mining possible is the reason Drumheller is rich with fossils and a place that will continue to attract visitors.

On the Web:

Atlas Coal Mine
atlascoalmine.ab.ca

Royal Tyrrell Museum
tyrrellmuseum.com

Dinosaur Provincial Park
albertaparks.ca/dinosaur
Drumheller tourist information
traveldrumheller.com

 

Rare duck-billed dinosaur fossil destroyed by vandals in Alberta

The Globe and Mail:  Rare duck-billed dinosaur fossil destroyed by vandals in Alberta
Paleontologists were thrilled when they found the fossilized remains of a duck-billed dinosaur in northwestern Alberta last month.

But joy turned quickly to despair when they returned to the site near the Red Willow River a few days ago and found that vandals had smashed the Hadrosaur skeleton to pieces.

he Pipestone Creek Dinosaur Initiative says the fossil was discovered by paleontologist Phil Bell and a University of Alberta team on June 15.

They partially prepared it for removal, then reburied it for protection until it could be fully removed later this month.

Bell returned to the site on Thursday and found the specimen — which was about one meter long and 80 centimetres wide — had been destroyed.

“We still know very little about the dinosaurs that existed up here so every skeleton is crucial,” Bell said in a statement.

“Each bone is irreplaceable.”

RCMP say they are investigating but don’t have any suspects. They say a number of fossils had either been removed or destroyed at the site.

The group says it is at least the fourth act of fossil poaching and vandalism in the region in the last month and a half.

At Pipestone Creek Park in the region, a bone bed has been harmed, and in late May, a Plexiglas cover protecting and showcasing several fossilized bones was smashed.

In later incidents in June, a vertebra and several rib bones were stolen.

The group says the University of Alberta and the Royal Tyrell Museum are also helping in the case.
The group says it is illegal to alter, mark or damage palaeontological resources under the Historical Resources Act. Offenders may face up to $40,000 in fines or a year in prison.

Bell said the destroyed fossils are beyond having monetary value, adding that he considers them priceless.
“They are irreplaceable historical artifacts and illegal to sell,” he said.

However, a Tyrannosaurus bataar fossil which U.S. government seized last month on the grounds that it is alleged to have been fraudulently imported, previously fetched $1.052 million at auction. The bones were discovered in Mongolia in 1946, and Mongolia hopes to have them eventually returned there.

In May, Bell stated in a blog post about the Mongolian case that in the last 10 years, fossils have been disappearing at alarming rates.

“Recently, it has come to our attention that the illegal sale of dinosaur fossils on the black market is reaching new lows,” Bell stated on the Pipestone Creek Dinosaur Initiative’s blog.

“What’s worse, huge public auctions in the United States are creating a demand for these priceless treasures,” he added.

Police are asking anyone with information about the latest incident to contact them.

A team of local volunteers had been organized to remove the fossil using quads and winches next week.
Bell said the Hadrosaur would have warranted a major exhibit in a new museum that’s planned for the area, scheduled to open next summer in Wembley, Alta.

“It’s a tragedy not only for our science but for the whole community that will benefit from the new museum,” he said.

 

Saudi Arabia: Enjoy a day with the dinosaurs

From Saudi Gazette:  Enjoy a day with the dinosaurs

 

 

Dinosaurs roamed the world millions of years back and has fascinated man ever since he found the first fossil. In fact, they have led to the development of a whole new school of study.

This summer, the Saudi Aramco cultural program organized a “Dinosaur world” for children and adults alike. The place provides abundant knowledge and entertainment under one roof.

The entrance of the “Dinosaur world” is dramatic, people enter through a dinosaur’s ferocious, teeth-sticking mouth. Visitors are then surrounded by larger-than-life animatrpnics dinosaurs on all sides with a handmade, makeshift volcano.

The first model is of the loud and fierce Tyrannosaurus Rex followed by the Triceratops, Stegosaurus, Spinosaures, Maiasaura, and Velociraptor.

Some simple hands-on demonstration of scientific nature are also displayed on the other side of the tent.

The interiors of the “Dinosaur world” takes you into pre-historic times, with its dramatic background music of rustling winds and fierce voice and dim lights.

The impressive models and rare skeletons and animatronics enchanted people especially younger visitors, while educating them on some of the less common but truly giant dinosaurs of the day.

Beside each gigantic model, young volunteers were present to guide and provide additional information about the dinosaurs. For example, how many eggs they laid, how fast they grew, how much they ate, the size and detail of each animal, etc. Now, I’ll shed some light on the different types of dinosaur models exhibited at the “Dinosaur world.” One of the dinosaur’s name was Allosaurus. The name Allosaurus means different lizard. Allosaurus lived around 150 million years ago in the late Jurassic period. It was a carnivorous animal with big, sharp teeth.They were active predators and there is evidence that they attacked the Stegosaurus.

The word Tyrannosaurus rex comes from the Greek words meaning tyrant lizard, while the word ‘rex’ means ‘king’ in Latin.

Tyrannosaurus rex walked on two legs, balancing its huge head with a long and heavy tail that sometimes contained over 40 vertebrae in addition to small arms that were extremely powerful and featured two clawed fingers. Tyrannosaurus rex lived in the late Cretaceous period around 66 million years ago.

Along with Stegosaurus and Iguanodon types of dinosaurs, Tyrannosaurus rex was one of the three famous dinosaurs that inspired the appearance of Godzilla. The Iguanodon dinosaurs were herbivorous.

The children also had a unique opportunity to ride the Triceratops dinosaur with the help of volunteers and parents, and they were surely elated when their parents caught the candid moments on the camera.

Toward the end, there was also a short film documentary showing how the dinosaurs got extinct over a period of time.

 

 

New Jersey: Dinosaurs galore in Glen Ridge

From New Jersey.com: Dinosaurs galore in Glen Ridge

A crowd gathers around the T. Rex on the lawn outside the Glen Ridge Public Library on June 28. The T. Rex, from Field Station: Dinosaurs in Secaucus, is making appearances at libraries around North Jersey this summer. The event included informational talks from dinosaur wranglers and the singing of "dino-songs." Field Station: Dinosaurs opened to the public this spring, and features 31 animatronic dinosaur models. The dinosaur-themed park is the creation of former Glen Ridge and current Bloomfield resident Guy Gsell.

 

July 2, 2012 9:06 AM Print Text Dinosaur disappears...from Montana truck stop

From CBSNews: Crimesider: Dinosaur disappears...from Montana truck stop

(CBS/AP) MISSOULA, Mont. - Who stole our dinosaur?

It's a question being asked at the Hi-Noon Petroleum truck stop near Missoula, Mont, after the 12-foot-long, 6-foot-tall fiberglass creature vanished from a hill overlooking Interstate 90.

The Crossroads Travel Center mascot missing since June 21 had been a fixture there for at least five years.
Hi-Noon marketing manager Earl Allen says taking the prehistoric icon would have been a bit of a project, since it wouldn't fit in the back of a pickup.

Hi-Noon is offering a $250 gas card for information leading to the safe return of  its dinosaur.

 

 

Toronto, Canada: Ultimate Dinosaurs: Giants From Gondwana at the ROM

From Wired.com:  Ultimate Dinosaurs: Giants From Gondwana at the ROM



My family and I visited Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum (the ROM) over the weekend to take in the museum’s latest exhibit. Ultimate Dinosaurs: Giants From Gondwana opened a few weeks ago and is available as an add-on to the standard ROM admission prices. While the museum already boasts an impressive, permanent dinosaur exhibit, Ultimate Dinosaurs is an entirely different experience and one well worth the price of admission.

When talking about a dinosaur exhibit, naturally the stars of the show are the dinosaurs. In this case, they are spectacular. The show, which features specimens from the Southern Hemisphere, includes a wide range of dinosaurs (17 full-sized casts), many in very active poses. Some of these creatures are relatively recent discoveries and many have never been displayed in Canada before now. In fact, the exhibit is a world premiere, the largest dinosaur exhibit ever mounted by the ROM and the largest exhibition of these southern dinosaurs ever exhibited in North America. Among the specimens you’ll see are Giganotosaurus, a 100 million year old Argentinean carnivore that’s bigger than a T-Rex, and Futalognkosaurus (capable of defeating any spell-checker), a 110 foot long skeleton so large it has to be displayed in the public entrance — which means everyone gets a good look at this one, regardless of whether they fork over the extra money for the special exhibit. It’s worth paying extra just to see these dinosaurs that are so seldom represented in typical displays.

We had the boys with us and at nine years old, they love dinosaurs. But they also need some entertainment value if the grown-ups are to be left in peace to really appreciate the specimens and read through the information. Fortunately, the ROM designed this exhibit very well and pulled out all the interactivity stops. There are video game-like stations where kids can manipulate the continents and assemble them into the land mass of Gondwana on a big screen. Walls include massive video screens with ultra-realistic dinosaur animations that respond to people passing by. And the exhibit makes the best use of iOS devices that I’ve yet seen.
Many of the dinosaur skeletons are accompanied by specially mounted iPads. Swivel the iPad and point it at any part of the dinosaur and the beast comes to life on the display, fleshed out and moving, with points of interest that let you touch and expand for detailed information. It worked really well and adds a whole new dimension to what is ultimately a relatively static exhibit — skeletons. Better yet, the ROM makes the app available as a free download. On its own, it doesn’t do anything (it’s not a full-blown standalone dino reference app), but installed on an iPhone or iPad and brought to the exhibit, it gives the user personal access to that extra immersive capability. The app is also designed to interact with posters that advertise the exhibit, which is pretty cool. Simply point it at one and the dinosaur on the poster will come to life onscreen and tear its way out of the poster frame. This effect also works when pointing at the pages in the exhibit guide, sold in the ROM gift shops.

Ultimate Dinosaurs: Giants From Gondwana is currently at the ROM in Toronto. If you are planning a visit to the city (or already live there and haven’t been to the ROM in a while), the museum is a great way to spend a day and this exhibit simply makes it better. Cost is an additional $10 for adults and $5 for children.

 

"Beautiful" Squirrel-Tail Dinosaur Fossil Upends Feather Theory

From National Geographic:  "Beautiful" Squirrel-Tail Dinosaur Fossil Upends Feather Theory

"Certainly one of the most beautiful dinosaur fossils ever found."

Photograph courtesy H. Tischlinger, Jura Museum Eichstätt

Christine Dell'Amore

National Geographic News

Published July 2, 2012

A newfound squirrel-tailed specimen is the most primitive meat-eating dinosaur with feathers, according to a new study. The late-Jurassic discovery, study authors say, challenges the image of dinosaurs as "overgrown lizards." 

Unearthed recently from a Bavarian limestone quarry, the "exquisitely preserved" 150-million-year-old fossil has been dubbed Sciurumimus albersdoerferi—"Scirius" being the scientific name for tree squirrels.
Sciurumimus was likely a young megalosaur, a group of large, two-legged meat-eating dinosaurs. The hatchling had a large skull, short hind limbs, and long, hairlike plumage on its midsection, back, and tail.
"I was overwhelmed when I first saw it. Even apart from the preservation of feathers, this is certainly one of the most beautiful dinosaur fossils ever found," said study leader Oliver Rauhut, a paleontologist at the Bavarian State Collections of Palaeontology and Geology in Germany.

Goodbye, Overgrown Lizards?
Previously, paleontologists have found feathers only on coelurosaurs—birdlike dinosaurs that evolved later than so-called megalosaurs such as Sciurumimus.

Because Sciurumimus is not closely related to coelurosaurs, the new fossil suggests feathered dinosaurs were the norm, not the exception, Rauhut said.

"Probably all dinosaurs were feathered," he added, "and we should say good bye to the familiar image of the overgrown lizards."

Previous research had already suggested that feathers were widespread in the Cretaceous and late Jurassic periods (prehistoric time line), noted Corwin Sullivan, a paleontologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing—even if few specimens have been found.

Feathered-dinosaur remains are sparse because "we only find them in places where conditions were just right for their bodies to be buried and preserved in a way that kept the feathers as well as the bones intact," Sullivan, who was not involved in the research, noted by email.


Dinosaur-Feather Evolution Still Up in the Air
More interesting, according to Sullivan, is what Sciurumimus means for how dinosaurs evolved feathers.
Scientists weren't sure if dinosaurs other than coelurosaurs had feathers. But Sciurumimus is "the first clear evidence" that feathers predated those birdlike dinosaurs, Sullivan said.

Other than meat-eating dinosaurs, hair-like feathers are also known in two bird-hipped dinosaurs, a completely different branch of the dinosaur family tree.

According to the study authors, this "obviously" suggests that dinosaurs' common ancestor had feathers, which passed the trait on to each branch of the dinosaur family tree.

"I would say that this is an obvious possibility, rather than an obvious conclusion," Sullivan said.
Although the feathers of bird-hipped dinosaurs look similar to those of Sciurumimus and primitive coelurosaurs, it's still possible the trait evolved independently, and not in a common ancestor.
"We paleontologists are going to need to find more fossils—of things even less closely related to birds than Sciurumimus—to be sure."

Squirrel-tailed dinosaur study published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

 

CT: This way to Dinosaur territory

From The Day:  This way to Dinosaur territory 

Officials recently announced the debut of the first-ever Connecticut Dinosaur Trail, a collaboration between the private and public sector and state agencies. The primary partners are Connecticut Science Center, Dinosaur State Park, The Dinosaur Place and Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History.


Each property offers exhibits and programs about dinosaurs and paleontology that draw on the history of dinosaur research and fossil discovery in the Connecticut Valley. The Dinosaur Trail links these venues and three hotel partners in the central and eastern portion of the state.


For more information about the Connecticut Dinosaur Trail, visit www.ctdinotrail.com.