Tag: dinosaurs
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Stunning Fossil Discovery Reveals a New Dinosaur With Iridescent Feathers
ScienceAlert has a story about the discovery of a dinosaur with iridescent feathers. The new dinosaur named Caihong juji, which means “rainbow with a big crest” in Mandarin, lived about 161 million years ago in China, during the Jurassic period. The research appeared in the journal Nature. “Iridescent colouration is well known to be linked…
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Discovery of ‘First Giant’ Dinosaur Is a Huge Evolutionary Finding
Livescience has a story about the discovery of the “First Giant” dinosaur in Argentina. This, the earliest sauropodomorph, lived about 215 million years ago in the Triassic period. Ingentia prima, which means “first giant in Latin – weighted about 11 tons and was 32 feed long. All the details were published in a paper in…
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We Have Probably Been Imagining Pterosaurs All Wrong
Atlas Obscura has an article about pterosaurs. Good background information and a discussion of a paper in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. It seems someone(s), Armita R Manafzadeh and Kevin Padian, mapped the ligament constraints on hip mobility of extinct ornithodirans (pterosaurs). It seems that it is very unlikely that pterosaurs flew with…
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PBS Eons: The Weird, Watery Tale of Spinosaurus
The PBS Eons YouTube Channel has a episode about Spinosaurs. Enjoy! In 1912, a fossil collector discovered some strange bone fragments in the eerie, beautiful Cretaceous Bahariya rock formation of Egypt. Eventually, that handful of fossil fragments would reveal to scientists one of the strangest dinosaurs that ever existed — the world’s only known…
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Meet Maximo the Titanosaur!
The Field Museum has revealed the name of the new titanosaur that is being installed in Stanley Field Hall in the next few weeks. His scientific name is Patagotitan mayorum. He lived about 100 million years ago in what is now Patagonia, Argentina. The spanish word maximo translates to “maximum” or “most” in English. This…
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Medium: More than dinosaurs
Roy Plotnick has an interesting article published at Medium. Paleontology is much, much more than dinosaurs. Enjoy! It happened again today. I was asked what it is do and when I said I was a paleontologist, the response was “cool.” This is the common reaction, often followed by (if we are not confused with archeologists),…
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SciAm: Meet “Dracula,” the Largest Pterosaur Found to Date
Scientific American has a story about the largest pterosaur ever found. It has been nicknamed “Dracula”. It lived during the Cretaceous period. At 3.5 meters tall, it was the size of a giraffe. It is on display at the Altmuhltal Dinosaur Museum in Denkendorf, Germany. The bones were discovered by Romanian scientists in 2009 among…
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Palaeocast Episode 87: Archaeopteryx
Palaeocast episode 87 is about Archaeopteryx. Archaeopteryx lived about 150 million years ago, during the Jurassic Period, in what is now southern Germany. Including the first feather, discovered in 1860 or 1861, there are now twelve specimens. All have been found in the limestone deposits near Solnhofen, Germany. The iconic “Berlin” specimen shown above was…
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The dismantling of Sue
The Chicago Tribune has a story about the plans to dismantle at the Field Museum. The Tyrannosaurus rex dinosaur, known as Sue, has been on display in the Field Museum’s Stanley Field Hall since 2000. She was discovered in 1990 in South Dakota by Sue Hendrickson. Beginning this week, she will be disassembled to make…
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CBC Quirks & Quarks – Why extinct creatures fought with their tails, while today animals use their heads
CBC Radio’s Quirks & Quarks has a segment about dinosaurs that fought with their tails. There were quite a few dinosaurs that evolved defence mechanisms centered around their tails. Examples are Stegosaurs, Ankylosaurs, and maybe some Sauropods. Modern animals with powerful weapons, overwhelmingly use their heads instead of their tails, think rams, deer, elk, with…
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Top Fossil Discoveries of 2017
The blog “Letters from Gondwana” has a post entitled “Top Fossil Discoveries of 2017”. The entries include Borealopelta markmitchelli (the ankylosaurian “mummy” discovered in Alberta), Junornis houi (a new bird from the early Cretaceous), Patagotitan mayorum (the largest and most complete titanosaur discovered to date – from Patagonia, Argentina). There’s a few more with some…
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NOVA: Day the Dinosaurs Died
PBS NOVA has a program on the “Day the Dinosaurs Died”. The full episode is available for viewing on the PBS website! Program DescriptionA seven-mile-wide asteroid collided with Earth 66 million years ago, triggering a chain of events that coincide with the end of the dinosaurs. But experts have long debated exactly what happened when…
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National Geographic: Ticks That Fed on Dinosaurs Found Trapped in Amber
National Geographic has a story straight out of Jurassic Park. The story is about the recent discovery of blood-filled ticks trapped in Burmese amber. The amber dates to the Cretaceous period, about 99 million years old. This places the fossil firmly into the age of dinosaurs and implies that these ticks probably feed on feathered…
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CBC Quirks & Quarks – New dinosaur had duck legs, a swan neck and penguin flippers
CBC Radio’s Quirks & Quarks has a segment about a new dinosaur discovery. The new species is called Halszkaraptor and it lived during the Cretaceous Period about 71 to 75 million years ago in what is present day Mongolia. The original paper appeared in Nature. Halskaraptor was somewhere between the size of a chicken and…
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What’s the Point of T-Rex’s Tiny Arms?
The Daily Beast has an article about T-Rex’s tiny arms. What were they used for, grabbing, slashing, mating? Steven Stanley, a geologist at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, presented a paper at the Geological Society of America’s annual meeting. The conventional wisdom, as far as T. rex arms go, is that they atrophied over…
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New analysis of Chicxulub asteroid suggests it may have struck in vulnerable spot
Phys.org has a story about the Chicxulub asteroid that took out the dinosaurs. A paper published in the journal Scientific Reports suggests that had the asteroid struck the Earth in a different location it is possible the non-avian dinosaurs may have survived the event. The researchers from Tokohu University analysed multiple data sources about the…
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PLOS Paleo: Vote for the Top 10 Taxa of 2017
On the PLOS Paleo blog, you can vote for the top 10 taxa of 2017. There’s many interesting choices, both vertebrate and invertebrate, dinosaurs (Burianosaurus augusta and Borealopelta markmitchelli), fish (Babelichthys olneyi), cats (Anatoliadelphys maasae), and beetles (Antarctotechus balli) are just a few of the possible selections. Have fun and tell all your friends! Hurry…
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NatGeo: Why Pterosaurs Were the Weirdest Wonders on Wings
National Geographic Magazine has a interesting story in their November 2017 issue. Large and small pterosaurs are some of the strangest animals to ever live. They went extinct 65 million years ago during the end Cretaceous mass extinction event. This article has many details and great pictures which describe what and who pterosaurs were during…
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Meet the giant dinosaur that roamed southern Africa 200 million years ago
Lara Sciscio, University of Cape Town Globally at around 200 million years ago, in what’s known as the Early Jurassic, small and agile two-legged carnivorous dinosaurs called theropods roamed the ancient landscapes. In southern Africa, we know of their existence from their rare body fossils but also, importantly, from their fossil footprints. Now our team’s…
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Heavily armoured dinosaur had ginger camouflage to deter predators – study
The Guardian has a story about a recent paper that studied coloring in the best-preserved armoured dinosaur ever discovered. The specimen of Ankylosaur named Borealopelta markmitchelli, was discovered back in 2011 at the Suncor Millennium Mine in Canada. The discovery was a surprise as the site had previously only revealed fossils of ancient marine reptiles. …
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Move over, Sue: World’s largest dinosaur taking center stage at Field Museum
The Chicagoist has a great story about changes at the Field Museum. Sue is moving to her own space up inside Evolving Planet, and a new cast of the largest dinosaur every discovered will be installed in Stanley Field Hall. The new dinosaur, Patagotitan mayorum, a titanosaur from South America, will be installed in the…
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CBC Quirks & Quarks – This armoured and spiky dinosaur still had to hide from predators
CBC Radio’s Quirks & Quarks Show has a segment about an amazing fossil dinosaur specimen. It’s one of the best preserved dinosaur fossils ever found and was discovered in Alberta, Canada. The animal is a nodosaur that lived about 110 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period. The detail is such that researchers can determine…
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Dinosaur Giants at the Main Elgin Library
“Dinosaur Giants” from the Sereno Fossil Lab will be on exhibit in the main Elgin library (Gail Borden Public Library) from May 15 to September 24, 2017. On exhibit will be Jobaria, Suchomimus and a pterosaur. This will include fossils, dinosaur bones you can touch and expedition images, as well as activities for kids. The Chicago Tribune has…
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BBC: Legendary Dinosaurs That We All Imagine Completely Wrong
BBC earth has a post about common misconceptions of various popular dinosaurs. Velociraptor, Archaeopteryx, Triceratops, and yes, Tyrannosaurus rex are just a few of the ones listed. Like many children, I had a severe dinosaur phase. There was a period of my life when I cared more about prehistoric reptiles than pretty much anything else.…
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MinuteEarth: Why Did T Rex Have Such Tiny Arms?
MinuteEarth on YouTube has a neat little video about T Rex and it’s tiny arms. Enjoy!
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The February 2017 General Meeting is “An examination of a historic collection of hadrosaurid dinosaur material from the San Juan Basin, New Mexico”
The program at the next ESCONI general meeting (Feb 10 at 8 PM TEC 1038B at COD) will be “An examination of a historic collection of hadrosaurid dinosaur material from the San Juan Basin, New Mexico” by Dr. Merrilee Guenther of Elmhurst College. Come out and join us for an interesting night!
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The February 2017 General Meeting is about historic hadrosaurid material from the San Juan Basin, New Mexico
Our February program will be presented by Dr. Merrilee Guenther, Associate Professor, Department of Biology Elmhurst College. The title of her talk is “An examination of a historic collection of hadrosaurid dinosaur material from the San Juan Basin, New Mexico” It should be a good one, come on out!
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Speaker Change for the September 2015 Meeting, Jamie Fearon, Wheaton College on Burrowing Dinosaurs
There is a speaker change for the September General Meeting. The new speaker will be Jamie Fearon of Wheaton College. He will be speaking on a new find of burrowing dinosaurs.
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Dinomania: the story of our obsession with dinosaurs
The Guardian has a story about our ongoing obsession with dinosaurs. It’s all there from the beginning in the 1840s to the present. Enjoy! Deep in the bowels of the world’s greatest palaeontological museum, a hitherto unknown species of dinosaur has been waiting to be unveiled. Concealed behind a black cloth, it has spent the…
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Brontosaurus Is Back!
Science Daily has an article about a peer reviewed paper that shows that Brontosaurus (the ‘thunder lizard’) is distinctly different than Apatosaurus. The authors, a group of paleontologists from Portugal and the UK, think they have conclusive evidence. The history of Brontosaurus is complex, and one of the most intriguing stories in science. In the 1870s, the Western…
