Spiclypeus shipporum (shown here in an artist’s illustration) would have plodded along a 76 million years ago in what is now the Judith River Formation of Montana.Credit: copyright Mike Skrepnick Livescience has yet another story about a new ceratopsian dinosaur.  That’s two on the same day.  This one is called Spiclypeus shipporum,  and lived around 76 million years ago in Montana.  The scientific name comes from the latin words for “spiked shield” combined with the surname Shipp, after Bill Shipp, a retired physicist who discovered the bones more that a decade ago.  The animal was nicknamed Judith, from the Judith…

An artist’s interpretation of Machairoceratops cronusi, a newly identified horned dinosaur discovered in southern Utah.Credit: Mark Witton Livescience has a story about a new ceratopsid dinosaur.  It’s named Machairoceratops cronusi and lived about 77 million years ago in prehistoric Utah.  Pieces of it’s skull were first discovered in 2006.  At 1 to 2 tons, it measured about 20 to 26 feet long.  The original paper appeared on May 18th in the journal PLOS ONE. Each curved head spike measured about 4 feet (1.2 meters) long, and though their function isn’t clear, they may have been used to attract mates, said…

CBC’s Quicks & Quarks has a segment on the evolutionary connection between dung beetles and dinosaurs.  Dung beetles first appeared in the lower Cretaceous, 115 to 130 million years ago.  The timing of their emergence and diversification coincides with the rise of the flowering plants, or angiosperms. In a new study by Dr. Nicole Gunter, the Invertebrate Zoology Collections Manager at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, she hypothesizes that the incorporation of flowering plants in the diet of herbivorous dinosaurs resulted in the first dung source that provided nutrition for the beetles, allowing them to diversify into thousands of…

AtlasObscura has a fascinating story about a recent Roman villa discovered hiding under a British backyard.  The villa dates back to 175 to 220 C.E.  And, it probably still stood up to around 1400 years ago.  The villa was probably 3 stories tall and had 20 or more rooms. Sometimes there really is a secret world hiding in the backyard, just underneath the ground. In Wiltshire, in the south of England, one family decided to install some electric cables in the ground to light their converted barn. Just 18 inches under the soil, their work crew found mosaic stones in…