Patagonia Dinosaur Discovery Adds Extra Dimension To Adventure Industry

From Press Release Rocket: Patagonia Dinosaur Discovery Adds Extra Dimension To Adventure Industry
The global scientific community is buzzing with news of a unique discovery in Argentinian Patagonia. Palaeontologists from Argentina and Sweden discovered two fossilised eggs and a set of bones that belonged to a little-known bird-like dinosaur that lived in the region over 70 million years ago.

The remains, of a species in the Alvarezsauridae group of dinosaurs, was found during an expedition to Patagonia in 2010 by party member Dr. J Powell of the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales but has been named Bonapartenykus ultimus in honour of Dr. Jose Bonaparte, who discovered the very first specimen of an alvarezsaurid in the same area of South America in 1991.

In recent years Patagonia has exploded in popularity with holidaymakers seeking an alternative to lounging by the pool, this is evident by the sheer number of results you get if you search for a travel adventure website that serves the area. With cruises to Antarctica on offer as well as walking routes such as the infamous Torres del Paine w trek, it is not hard to see why tourists from around the globe are discovering the amazing landscapes that have enthralled scientists and provided valuable data about the history of our planet for decades.

The newly identified species is said to have measured 2.6 metres (8.5 feet) in length, making it one of the largest members of the Alvarezsauridae family to be discovered. The palaeontologists who discovered it believe it could be one the last survivors of its kind to live on Gondwana, the southern landmass during the Mesozoic Era.

As the eggs were found so close to the hind quarters of the fossil specimen, the experts have ruled out the skeleton and the eggs mixing after the dinosaur died and have suggested that the eggs may have been inside the oviducts of the animal when it met its end.

Martin Kundrat of Uppsala University said: “So it looks like we have indirect evidence for keeping two eggs in two oviducts. They were close to being laid, but the female didn’t make it.”

The scientists also found that there was fossilised fungus on pieces of egg shell they found. Kundrat explained that various fungi affect bird eggs today: “It looks like at the very late stage the eggs could suffer from the same contamination as in common birds,”

“It doesn’t mean it must kill the embryo, because usually in the embryonic space or inner space it’s still protected by a very dense network of organic fibres called the shell membrane.”

Dinosaur bone found by archaeological team in Md.

From HTR News:Dinosaur bone found by archaeological team in Md.

EDGEWATER, Md. (WTW) — The artifact-rich, multilayered Pig Point site being worked by Anne Arundel County's archaeological team for yet another season has turned up more unusual finds — a dinosaur bone and a dog burial site.

The dinosaur bone was found during last season's dig along the banks of the Patuxent River overlooking Jug Bay in south county, and later identified as technicians pored over the pickings at the county's archaeological lab at Historic London Town and Gardens.

The dog burial site was discovered just weeks ago as this season's dig got under way near the original upper tract. Three years ago, the team found evidence of a series of wigwams indicating a settlement over hundreds of years.

Al Luckenbach, the county's archaeologist, said he immediately identified the petrified dinosaur bone because he had seen similar bones years ago.

"They were building (in) an area northwest of BWI (Thurgood Marshall) Airport and were finding huge pieces of petrified wood and bone," he said. "I picked up a piece of dinosaur backbone, and more."

He said staff members sometimes do not realize what they have discovered until it's cleaned up in the lab.

"We dig up a lot of stuff over the (summer) season and then go into the lab over the winter and start washing it up. We didn't realize we had it until it turned up this winter," he said.

A lab worker showed it to him and Luckenbach said, "Oh, that is a ferruginous sandstone dinosaur backbone from the Arundel Formation" — only because he had seen one many years ago.

The Arundel Formation is a huge clay deposit stretching between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, running roughly along Route 1.

Part of the formation is made up of iron-bearing sandstone, which appears closest to the surface in the Laurel area off Route 1 in Prince George's County, where it is known as the Muirkirk Deposit. The deposit was the site of iron mining operations stretching back into the early 19th century, and troves of fossilized animal and plant remains have been found in it.

Some of the first dinosaur bones, believed to be 110 million years old, were found there. These include some of the earliest finds in the Smithsonian Institution's dinosaur collection.

In the Cretaceous Period, some 100 million years ago, the area was a delta, with rivers that meandered in wide bends. Scientists believe flooding deposits bones and plant matter in oxbow lakes formed when large bends in a river are cut off, creating a lake.

Luckenbach first thought a Native Americans had picked up the dinosaur bone near the Muirkirk area and brought it to Pig Point.

But after further investigation, he thinks the bone was picked up along with similar-sized rocks and used as a cobble, or pot boiler, for cooking.

"The Native Americans cooked in clay pots. But if you put a clay pot on the fire it would crack as it heated up," he said.

"So they would put their meat, vegetables and water in the pot, then heat up these small rocks in the fire and drop them in the pot to cook their food," Luckenbach said.

He said archaeologists find pot remnants with similar stones, or pot boilers, in them.

The dog skeleton was found on the upper tract of the Pig Point site.

"The dog was elderly, its teeth were quite worn," Luckenbach said. Many of the dog's bones could not be recovered, but most of the skull was preserved.

"We have not run a C14 (carbon isotope) test on it to determine its age, but we estimate the dog was buried in the Late Woodland Period, roughly from 1000 to 1300 A.D."

Dogs were the only domesticated animals Native American tribes had, but few dog burials from the period have been found in Maryland.

The animals were used for hunting and as guard dogs.

"Anything approaching the village, the dogs would provide a good warning," Luckenbach said.

Sometimes dogs were sacrificed, perhaps to go along with their masters into the afterlife.

"There was a lot of religious ritual and mythology associated with dogs," he added. "Dogs had a special place in the lives of Native Americans."

He doesn't know whether the dog died of old age or was sacrificed, but it was buried a few feet from a wigwam, "perhaps to guard the place from the next life," Luckenbach said.

He said it was heartening to see man's best friend from 900 years ago. "He had a special burial."

Where Dinosaurs Roar Back

From the New York Times: Where Dinosaurs Roar Back
YOU might not expect to find dinosaurs moving in the marshy wilderness between the Hackensack River and the New Jersey Turnpike.

But then, you would not have met Guy Gsell. The founding director of Discovery Times Square and a living example of what happens when that kid obsessed with dinosaurs grows up and doesn’t lose the obsession, Mr. Gsell, 51, wanted to build an outdoor dinosaur exhibition. Not the kind of cartoonish dinosaurs you might see at a mini-golf course, but life-size dinosaurs that move when you go near them. 

And because he wanted his dinosaurs near a train station and a highway, he decided to plunk them down on 20 acres in the Meadowlands here in New Jersey, under a looming 150 million-year-old rock face on the former site of an old mental hospital. 

The result is Field Station: Dinosaurs, which opens to school groups May 14 and the public on Memorial Day weekend. Mr. Gsell spent a year and a half exploring dinosaur shows in this country and abroad before contracting with a company in Zigong, China (“the dinosaur capital of China,” he said) to build 31 animatronic creatures with sensors and facial-recognition technology that make them move as visitors come close. A gigantic Tyrannosaurus rex will even recoil if the crowd around it gets big enough, and if you yell, Mr. Gsell promised, T. rex will roar back.

 Mr. Gsell said this would be the only permanent exhibition of its kind (though smaller shows of animatronic dinosaurs have toured this country). The dinosaurs were being unloaded this week with the help of five artists and engineers who had accompanied them from China. They will be set along a three-quarter-mile trail where the foliage has been left largely as it is, to give the sense that the dinosaurs are in their natural environment. The effect is more sculpture garden than theme park.

But Mr. Gsell has also worked with paleontologists at the New Jersey State Museum to set up other exhibits along the paths suitable for children from 2 to 11, including puppet shows, game shows and a dig site where groups can scrabble for fossils. (While dinosaurs did once roam New Jersey, the fossils are reproductions.)

Tents set up along the paths give the feeling of a base camp and exploration sites. At the highest point of the site is a 90-foot Argentinosaurus, with a view of the Empire State Building in the distance. Mr. Gsell said this dinosaur would be visible from Manhattan. Do not be alarmed.

PA: Dorney Park previews new dinosaurs exhibit and its latest roller coaster, the 55-mph Stinger

From the Morning Call: Dorney Park previews new dinosaurs exhibit and its latest roller coaster, the 55-mph Stinger 

After you enter Dinosaurs Alive!, a new attraction at Dorney Park, you head down a path marked with imprints of ferns and giant footprints. Animatronic dinosaurs loom among the trees in the distance. The sound of snapping tree branches — as if something huge is approaching — echoes through the woods. A 34-foot-tall meat-eater lets out a roar and turns its head. Nearby, an 80-foot-long plant-eater thrashes its tail. The 32 dinosaurs, which move continually, are fun to watch. And the exhibit is educational for families. For little ones, the beasts are realistic but not too scary because they stay safely behind fencing and don't jump out.

Reporters and photographers had a chance to experience Dinosaurs Alive! and a new coaster Tuesday before they open to the public Saturday at the South Whitehall Township park.

The new ride is Stinger, a scorpion-themed suspended boomerang steel roller coaster.

Stinger is the only coaster of its type with face¿to¿face seating on the East Coast, according to Dorney. Riders' legs dangle.

The train is pulled up a 138¿foot lift. Once at the top, the car is released and flies 55 mph down the hill and through a boomerang — a 180¿degree turn with double inversions — followed immediately by a 72¿foot¿high vertical loop. The train goes up the second lift and then the whole ride is repeated in reverse for a total of six inversions.

The ride is smooth, fast and breathtaking as you fly through the loops — and over in 90 seconds. If you like Dorney coasters Talon and Hydra, you'll like this ride.

Stinger is next to Possessed on the site of the old Laser looping coaster.

It's the eighth roller coaster for the park and the 12^th ride to earn Dorney's top thrill rating of 5 for "aggressive thrills." Other top thrill rides include Talon and Hydra as well as non-coaster rides such as Revolution and Hangtime.

"We are excited to be able to have two major new projects opening in the same season," said Jason McClure, Dorney Park's vice president and general manager.

Dorney is continuing to court the family audience with Dinosaurs Alive! Last year the park opened Planet Snoopy, a 31/2 -acre children's themed area with 16 children's rides.

"We hope to hit a family home run with Dinosaurs Alive!" McClure said.

The 3-acre dinosaur exhibit is behind the Steel Force coaster. It fills an area that Dorney had been unable to use for other rides, McClure said.

Dorney will charge $5 to tour Dinosaurs Alive!, in addition to regular park admission. McClure said the charge will ensure that only those who are interested in dinosaurs will visit, making it less crowded for families.

Families can easily spend 30 minutes or more in the exhibit.

The highlight is the world's largest animatronic dinosaur, the Ruyang Yellow River dinosaur, which measures 72 feet long and 30 feet high. It anchors the park's impressive opening scene, a re-creation ofChina'sDashanpu area. Also adding a huge presence is the 80-foot-long Mamenchisaurus.

Other features include Carnotaurus, a predator featured in the Dinosaur ride at Disney's Animal Kingdom; a Herrerasaurus, one of the oldest dinosaurs in the attraction at 231.4 million years old; and a final scene featuring familiar giants, a 30-foot-tall Triceratops and a 40-foot-tall Tyrannosaurus rex.

Visitors can use consoles to control three of the prehistoric giants, moving their arms, tails, necks, mouths and even make their sides rise and fall as if breathing.

Dorney's parent company, Cedar Fair LP, opened it first dinosaur park last year at King's Island near Cincinnati. With 60 dinosaurs, it is the world's largest animatronic dinosaur park. The venture was popular enough to prompt Cedar Fair to install the attraction at four other parks this year, including Dorney Park.

The dinosaurs are designed to be scientifically accurate. Signs explain what the dinosaurs ate, when and where they lived, how they protected themselves and how they adapted to their world.

Near the end of the exhibit, kids can take part in their own paleontological excavation and dig in the sand for dinosaur bones.

The park, off Hamilton Boulevard, is open weekends only through May 25, when Dorney and Wildwater Kingdom open daily for the season.

This weekend's hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Dinosaurs Alive! is open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Info: http://www.dorneypark.com.

Adventurer hopes to find and capture a living dinosaur and dog-sized tarantula on expedition in the Congo

From the Daily Mail Online: Adventurer hopes to find and capture a living dinosaur and dog-sized tarantula on expedition in the Congo
An American explorer is hoping to find dog-sized tarantulas, man0eating fish, and a living dinosaur.

Stephen McCullah, a young zoology enthusiast based in Beaumont, Texas, is raising money for a multi-month expedition to the far-off parts of the Republic of Congo.

Mr McCullah hopes to head to Africa in order to find and capture a living sauropod, or water-dwelling dinosaur similar to the myth-like Mokèlé-mbèmbé.

The legend of the so-called Mokèlé-mbèmbé is a long one, which alleges that the animal has a long neck like an elephant's trunk, that is a brown-gray color, and has some uncertain similarities to a rhinoceros.

The creature, which is often likened to the Loch Ness monster, has been the prize of adventure seekers who have travelled to Lake Tele in the Congo repeatedly over the past two centuries but none have ever produced any true evidence of its existence.

Mr McCullah hopes to break that pattern. Prize: The team hopes to find the legendary Mokèlé-mbèmbé, an animal thought to have a long neck like an elephant's trunk

Having studied biology at Missouri State University and having been passionate about zoology since his teens, the adventurer has grand plans for the trip.

'Our hope is to discover a wide variety of new species along the way. The Congo Basin is a region of Central Africa larger than the state of Florida,' he writes on the Kickstarter page for the project.

All told, he is hoping to crowd source $26,700 to fund the project within the next 18 days and, to date, he has raised under half that amount.

The trip, which will be dubbed The Newmac Expedition, is planned to 'be a preliminary three month (or as long as our health allows) four man venture'.

Undeterred by failed attempts that date back as far as 1776 and as recently as 2011, he writes: 'We'll launch on June 26th and we anticipate discovering hundreds of new insect, plant, and fish species during the course of our research and work in the area.'

There is also the legitimate hope of discovering many reptile and mammalian species as well.'

In addition to potentially capturing the Mokèlé-mbèmbé once they find it- with the help of a tranquillizer gun according to Life's Little Mysteries- the group will also be filming a documentary about their search.

Dinosaurs come to Morris Museum in Morris Twp.

From Morris News Bee: Dinosaurs come to Morris Museum in Morris Twp.

MORRIS TWP. - The whole family will enjoy “boning up” on dinosaur fossils and learning about life in prehistoric New Jersey, at the Morris Museum’s Dino Day, Saturday, April 28, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. A special visit from Field Station: Dinosaurs brings a dinosaur extravaganza to the museum’s Bickford Theatre at 12:30 and 2:30 pm with performances by the Dinosaur Troubadour and the fifteen-foot long Mighty T-Rex. These performances and all dino-related activities are included with museum admission: $7/child; $10/adult; children under 3 free.

Activities all day:

Visit the permanent exhibition Digging Dinosaurs

Search for fossils in the dinosaur dig pit

Climb inside a model of a dinosaur nest

Touch an authentic Hadrosaur egg (NJ’s state dinosaur)

Reconstruct a dinosaur skeleton

Create a dinosaur puppet to take home

Examine real amber in the Fossil Lab

See dinosaur dung

Follow dinosaur footprints throughout the exhibition

About Digging Dinosaurs
In the museum’s permanent Digging Dinosaurs exhibition, hands-on interactive stations throughout the gallery encourage visitors to learn about the lives of dinosaurs, and characteristics such as their claw movements and crest trumpeting for communication. The exhibition focuses on dinosaur themes: Nesting and Growth, Tracks and Movement, Paleo-environmental Reconstruction (using paleontology to reconstruct the landscape of a specific time and place), Predator and Prey, and What’s for Dinner. In the laboratory area, children and families will have the opportunity to examine fossils and other specimens, using tools such as electric magnifiers and magnifying glasses. The exhibition features Hadrosaurus foulkii, the New Jersey State dinosaur.

About the Morris Museum
The Morris Museum is an award-winning, community-based arts and cultural institution which serves the public through the presentation of high caliber permanent and changing exhibitions in the arts, sciences and humanities. The Museum also offers educational programs, family events, and is home to the Bickford Theatre and its wide range of performing arts offerings. Continuously serving the public since 1913, the Morris Museum has been designated a Major Arts Institution and has received the New Jersey State Council on the Arts’ Citation of Excellence, among other awards. In 2013 the museum will celebrate its Centennial Anniversary.

The Morris Museum, located at 6 Normandy Heights Road (at the corner of Columbia Turnpike) in Morristown, NJ, is open Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.; and Sunday, 1-5 p.m. Admission to the museum is $10 for adults and $7 for children, students and senior citizens. Admission is free for museum members and is free to the public every Thursday between 5 and 8 p.m. For more information, call 973-971-3700, or visit www.morrismuseum.org.

The Lost Dinosaurs of Egypt, by William Northdruft with Josh Smith

I recommend this book highly. It can be purchased at Amazon, or can be ordered, via interlibrary loan if your own library doesn't carry it.


Here's the table of contents:

MAP OF EGYPT

Prologue: Death and Ressurection
1. Reaping the Whirlwind
2. The Bone-hunting Aristocrat
3. Unearthing a Legend
4. Dragomen, Follsils and Fleas
5. The Road to Bahariya
6. Finds and Losses
7. Sand, Wind and Time
8. The Hill Near Death
9. Solving Stromer's Riddle
10. Lost World of the Lost Dinosaurs

Epilogue: Memorials
Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index

In 1911, German paleontologist Dr. Ernst Stromer found bones of 3 new dinosaurs in Egypt. The bones were excavated and sent to Germany. Irreplaceable, they were destroyed in 1944 when British bombers bombed Munich, and a stray bomb destroyed the museum where they were housed.

No casts of these bones had ever been sent anywhere else - so the bones were gone.

In 2000, a group of paleontologists traveled to Egypt to find the site where Stromer had dug, and try to see if they could find anything he had missed (which was possible, as there'd been only 3 excavating seasons before WWI, and after WWI Germany was too poor to sponsor any scientists to continue the work, and after WWII, they had other priorities.)

This book tells the story of that ultimately successful quest.



If I were to rank this on ascale of one to ten T-rex skulls, I'd give it a 7 and a half.

This is because the beginning chronology of the book irks me. I like things to be covered in chronological order, but the first few chapters alternate between 1911-14, and the 2000 expedition, as if the writer didn't trust his material to keep the reader fascinated all on its own.

Stromer is a tragic figure. A German aristocrat, he defied Hitler and the Nazis. To pay him back, when his 3 sons joined the army they were all sent to their deaths on the Russian front. (One did survive the war, and lived for five years in a Russian prison camp after war's end, as a few million German soldiers were also - used as slave labor in payback for how their compatriots had treated the Russians.)

Stromer lived to see his life's work destroyed, but also lived long enough to learn that his third son had indeed survived the war, gotten married, and presented him with a grand daughter.

Excavating in Egypt in 2000 was a difficult process (and worse now, no doubt), and we learn a great deal about excavating practices then and now, and about the world the Egyptian dinoasurs lived in back then. (No grass, just plants. And so on.)

Highl recommended.