Via Newsweek: … The trove of fossils at Zhucheng is probably the largest single deposit of dinosaur bones in the world. And it’s just the latest in a string of spectacular discoveries by the 42-year-old Xu, who’s arguably helped uncover more important finds than any other dinosaur hunter on the planet. “I am quite certain that Xu Xing has described more new kinds of dinosaurs than anyone in the history of dinosaur paleontology,” says Peter Dodson, professor of paleontology at the University of Pennsylvania and coeditor of the book The Dinosauria…

Found a new blob, Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs, that includes a list of news.

Via PhsyOrg: Lucy Fortson, an astrophysicist and Associate Professor in the College of Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota is part of a collaboration called Ancientlives which has received a grant to apply the analysis tools of astrophysics to help decipher a collection of ancient Egyptian papyri… Using an interface first developed for the Zooniverse collaboration to allow the general public to identify the shapes of galaxies, volunteers will be able to click on places where they think a letter might be. This data should train the algorithms to improve their ability to translate the texts.

From MSNBC via geology.com: The newfound fossil of a 155 million-year-old feathered dinosaur has led scientists to claim that Archaeopteryx, the species long held forth as the “oldest bird,” is no bird at all. Chinese researchers made the claim in Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature, and an outside expert says the study “is likely to rock the paleontological community for years to come.” Ohio University paleontologist Lawrence Witmer noted that the latest research, focusing on a fossil species dubbed Xiaotingia zhengi, comes 150 years after the discovery of Archaeopteryx, which marked a milestone in the study of the origin of birds. “It’s…

Via PhysOrg: New information about how most of the Earth’s crust formed has been uncovered by investigators who utilized the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory to obtain unprecedented, three-dimensional x-ray images of melted rock. Their results, published in the journal Science, offer a more sophisticated picture of rock porosity and a resolution of the discrepancy between permeability and melt velocity.

Scientific American’s web site offers interesting videos – example of interview with illustrator of Dinosaur Death Trap, how to create meteor crater sites in your kitchen, interview with the director of Cave of Dreams …

Via Science Daily – Surprising new research shows that, contrary to conventional belief, remains of chitin-protein complex — structural materials containing protein and polysaccharide — are present in abundance in fossils of arthropods from the Paleozoic era. Previously the oldest molecular signature of chitin-protein complex was discovered in 25-million-year-old Cenozoic fossils and remnants of structural protein have also been discovered in 80 million-year-old Mesozoic fossils…

Via geology.com : Hundreds of earthquakes have occurred near the communities of Greenbrier and Guy, Arkansas. The earthquakes started to occur when wastewater from Fayetteville Shale drilling operations was injected into deep rock formations and their frequency immediately declined when injection activities were halted. Now the state is considering a ban on injection wells in that area….

From the ESCONI Yahoo Group, Dave Carlson posts: Ancient Source of Earth’s Biggest Eruptions Found See http://news. discovery. com/earth/ ancient-earth- volcanoes- 110728.html Dave Researchers believe that several of the largest volcanic eruptions in Earth’s history were fueled by magma from a primitive reservoir in the mantle that has remained unchanged for 4.5 billion years, a remnant of the material that formed the early Earth…  

The Micromount Corner is a blog on micromounting.

Via David Hone’s Archosaur Musings blog: … it looks rather like this animal was buried and tried, and failed, to get out. The formation is apparently made up of aeolian (wind deposited) sediments, so this is not something that drowned or was buried in a river channel etc., but was trapped in a sandstorm, collapsing sand dune or something similar. The head is up and the body down, implying that it survived long enough to try and make an escape but never succeeded. There are, apparently (I’ve not seen them) a number of specimens like this in other collections, and…

Interesting article from Scientific American about their expedition findings.

Via NYTIMES: … But to the bone hunters who stalk the Ocucaje Desert each day, the punishing winds here have exposed a medley of life and evolution: a prehistoric graveyard where sea monsters came to rest 40 million years ago. These parched lands, once washed over by the sea, guard one of the most coveted troves of marine fossils known to paleontology…