Tag: Jurassic
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PBS Eons: Did Ancient Storms Kill These Pterosaurs?
PBS Eons has a new episode. This one is about the pterosaur diversity of the Solnhofen formation in Germany.
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Natural History Museum: New dinosaur species on display in our Earth Hall
The Natural History Museum in London has a new video on Youtube about their new dinosaur, Enigmacursor mollyborthwickae. Meet Enigmacursor mollyborthwickae, our new dinosaur! Now on display in our Earth Hall, Enigmacursor is a species new to science and would have roamed North America in the Late Jurassic 145-150 million years ago. Measuring only 1.5…
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The Conversation: Why Dippy the dinosaur remains beloved, 120 years after arriving at the Natural History Museum
The Conversation has an interesting piece about Dippy the Diplodocus carnegiei, who is the star of the Natural History in London. Dippy first went on display in 1905 at the Natural History Museum in London. Dippy arrived in London as part of a campaign for public education by the Scottish-American millionaire Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919). At that…
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150-Million-Year-Old Stegosaurus Skull Rewrites Dinosaur Evolution
SciTechDaily has an article about a stegasaur skull discovered in Spain. Stegasaur skulls are rarely found due to the extreme fragility of their bone. This new speciec, Dacentrurus armatus, was found near Villar del Arzobispo Formation and is nearly complete. The rock formation dates to the late Jurassic about 150 million years ago. The research…
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New Species of Jurassic Herbivorous Dinosaur Discovered in China
SciNews has a story about the discovery of a new species of eusauropod. Jinchuanloong niedu lived during the Middle Jurassic Period some 165 million years ago. The fossil bones were found near Jinchang city, Gansu province, northwestern China. The specimen includes of a nearly complete skull with mandible, five cervical vertebrae and 29 caudal vertebae. …
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Jurassic Sea Monster Resurfaces: Rare Fossil Unveils Secrets of Plesiosaur Evolution
SciTechDaily has a story about the discovery of a new plesiosaur in Gernany. The fossil specimen is a remarkably preserved Plesiopterys wildi from Holzmaden’s Posidonienschiefer Formation. It sheds light on the diversity of plesiosaurs during the early Jurassic Period about 180 million years ago. The research was published in the journal PeerJ Life and Environment.…
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‘This is a crisis’: A southern Utah city is set to build a power station on top of a premier dinosaur fossil site
The Salt Lake Tribune has a story about the potential loss of a “paleontological jackpot” in Utah. St. George, Utah has an amazing dinosaur locality that dates to the beginning of the Jurassic Period about 200 million years ago. Unfortunately, the city of St. George plans to build a new electric substation on one of…
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Chimaeropsis paradoxa Zittel, 1887 (Myriacanthoidei, Holocephali) from the Late Jurassic of Solnhofen
Bruce and Rene’ Lauer of the Lauer Foundation have co-authored another research paper, with lead author Christopher J. Duffin from the Natural History Museum in London – Department of Earth Sciences as the lead author. The study looked at Chimaeropsis paradoxa which is a holocephalian, a lesser-known group of ancient sharks. The paper was recently…
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Fossils Preserve Both Skin and Scales from an Ancient Sea Monster
The New York Times’ Trilobites column has news of a breathtaking plesiosaur specimen. The animal lived about 183 million years ago during the Jurassic Period. The fossils were found in the legendary Posidonia Shale of southern Germany and excavated in from a quarry near Holzmaden in 1940. The specimen was prepared in 2020. At that…
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‘Dinosaur highway’ dating back 166 million years discovered in England
PBS News has a story about the discovery of a special dinosaur trackway in England. While digging up clay in a imestone quarry in southern England, a worker found nearly 200 dinosaur tracks that date to the Jurassic Period about 166 million years ago. There are four sets of sauropod tracks, thought to be Cetiosaurus…
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New Pterosaur Species Unearthed in Argentina is Earliest of Its Kind
SciNews has a story about an early pterosaur from Argentina. Melkamter pateko lived between 184 and 174 million years ago in what is now Patagonia in Argentina. It is the earliest known member of Monofenestrata, a large clade of pterosaurs consisting of the Darwinoptera, Anurognathidae and Pterodactyloidea. The discovery of Melkamter pateko is reported in a paper in the…
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Paleontologists Discover a New Pterosaur, Filling a Key Gap on the Evolutionary Timeline for These Flying Reptiles
Smithsonian Magazine has highlighted the recent discovery of Skiphosoura bavarica, a Jurassic pterosaur from Germany. This research was led by David Hone a paleontologist at Queen Mary University of London. Long-time ESCONI members Bruce and Rene’ Lauer were co-authors on the study. The paper was published in the journal Current Biology. The paper introduces a…
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A new and large monofenestratan reveals the evolutionary transition to the pterodactyloid pterosaurs
Bruce and Rene Lauer have done it again… groundbreaking paleontological research. This time it’s a new pterosaur, Skiphosoura bavarica, from the Jurassic of Germany. The lead author is David Hone with Adam Fitch, Stefan Selzer, and the Lauers. The paper is Open Access and was published in the journal Current Biology.
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Fossil Reveals Oldest Known Tadpole That Grew to the Size of a Hot Dog
The New York Times Trilobite column has a story about what may be the largest tadpole species ever discovered. Notobatrachus, an ancient relative of modern frogs, lived around 161 million years ago in present-day Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. In 2020, a team of paleontologists from Argentina and China uncovered hundreds of adult fossils of Notobatrachus,…
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New dinosaur species reconstructed for display in Los Angeles
ABC News has a video of a new dinosaur display being constructed in Los Angeles. Nicknamed “Gnatalie”, it’s thought to be a new speces of sauropod dinosaur that lived around 150 million years ago in the late Jurassic. The display will open November 2024. National Geographic has an article in the September edition of its magazine.…
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Fossil Hints That Jurassic Mammals Lived Slow and Died Old
A life reconstruction of Krusatodon. Not only are the specimens remarkably complete, but one belongs to a juvenile — making it the oldest known juvenile mammal fossil.Credit…Maija Karala The Trilobites column at the New York Times has a post about some unexpected discovery in some Jurassic mammals. Small mammals usually live fast and die young. …
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NPR: A stegosaurus fossil could fetch $6 million at Sotheby’s. Should they be auctioned?
NPR has a story about a Stegasaurus going up for auction at Sotheby’s on Wednesday, July 17th, 2024. The animal has been named “Apex”. At 11 feet tall and 27 feet long, it’s considered one of the most complete specimens of Stegosaurus ever found. The specimen was discovered in Colorado and is expected to fetch…
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PBS Eons: When The Atlantic Ripped Open A Supercontinent
There’s a new PBS Eons. This one is about the breakup of Pangea and the formation of the Atlantic Ocean. While the eruptions of the volcanoes along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge usually don’t trouble us, their birth was once responsible for ripping a supercontinent apart and creating the Atlantic Ocean that we know today.
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Fossil found in Germany shows starfish relative engaged in clonal fragmentation 150 million years ago
Phys.org has an article about starfish. In 2018, workers with the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart discovered a brittle star fossil in a 150 million year old Jurassic limestone from a German deposit. The animal was named Ophiactis hex. It was preserved while in the process of regenerating three of its arms. Many species…
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Field Museum: The Chicago Archaeopteryx!
The Field Museum is debuting its latest blockbuster specimen, the Chicago Archaeopteryx! With its first appearance in the Jurassic period 151 million years ago, Archaeopteryx is immensely significant due to it being the first “missing link” or transitional fossil that supported the Theory of Evolution. This small fossil also forged the link connecting dinosaurs and…
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You Can Visit the World’s Largest Continuous Dinosaur Trackway, Now on Protected Public Land
Smithsonian Magazine has an article about a dinosaur trackway in Colorado. The track dates to about 150 million years ago during the Jurassic Period. 134 consecutive footprints trace out a sauropod dinosaur walking for a bit and then changing direction in a loop. The West Gold Hill Dinosaur Track site dates is located just west of…
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New Jurassic Shuotheriid Species Sheds Light on Early Evolution of Mammaliaforms
Live Science has a story about a new Jurassic mammaliaform. Feredocodon chowi lived during the Jurassic in what is now China. It’s a Shuotheriid, which is a group of mammal-like animals that have long been problematic as to where they fit into the mammalian family tree. Their unique dental characteristics make them hard to classify. …
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Attenborough and the Jurassic Sea Monster
Nature on PBS have posted quite a few of their videos to Youtube. "Attenborough and the Jurassic Sea Monster" was just posted! Follow Sir David Attenborough and a team of forensic experts as they unearth the fossil of a giant Pliosaur, the largest Jurassic predator ever known. Attenborough and the Jurassic Sea Monster premieres on…
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Dinosaur World Thrilled Over Allosaurus Found In Wyoming’s Jurassic Mile
Cowboy State Daily has a story about the discovery of an Allosaurs. Paleontologists from the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis have been digging in the Jurassic Mile near Shell, WY since 2017. Back in 2020, while clearing overburden from a quarry that had bones from two giant long-necked sauropods, they discovered a chunk of dinosaur bone…
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BBC: Pliosaur discovery: Huge sea monster emerges from Dorset cliffs
The BBC has the fascinating story of the discovery of a truly massive pliosaur. A fossil collector, searching the cliffs of Dorset, England, found the tip of the snout of huge pliosaur skull last year. The animal, a pliosaur, lived anount 150 million years ago during the Jurassic Period. The full skull, recovered from the…
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Unraveling the surprisingly complex history of crocodiles
Some ancient crocodiles, like Simosuchus, were doing things vastly different to surviving species, such as eating plants. Credit: Smokeybjb/Wikimedia Commons Phys.org has a story about the history of crocodiles. There are 28 species of living crocodiles, but this represents a small fraction of the the many types that have lived in the past. The ancestors…
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Recent fossil discovery suggests the first dinosaur egg was leathery
Comparison of fossil eggs (c) with existing soft-shelled, leathery, and hard-shelled eggs . Credit: IVPP Phys.org has a story about dinosaur eggs. A paper in the journal National Science Review suggests that the first dinosaur eggs were leathery not hard as we see in modern day birds. The study looked at three skeletons from adult…
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Giant dinosaur carcasses might have been important food sources for Jurassic predators
Photograph of the skeletal mount of Allosaurus specimen AMNH 5753, from William Diller Matthew’s 1915 Dinosaurs. Credit: Project Gutenberg e-book, Wikimedia Commons, CC0 (creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) Phys.org has a story about Jurassic dinosaurs and the ecosystem they lived in. A paper published in the journal PLOS One looks at the ultimate fate of giant dinosaur carcasses. The…
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Jurassic pliosaur ‘megapredator’ was a giant ‘sea murderer’
Live Science has a story about a “megapredator” of the Jurassic. The new pliosaur species, Lorrainosaurus, lived about 170 million years ago. Pliosaurs ruled the oceans during the Jurassic. This animal was found in the former region of Lorraine (now part of Grand Est) in northeastern France. A paper in the journal Scientific Reports reexamined…
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Rare Jurassic fossils discovered near Lake Powell
Phys.org has a story about the discovery of some rare fossils new Lake Powell in Utah. Tritylodontid mammaliaforms are rare animals that lived during the Jurassic Period about 180 million years ago. The fossils were discovered in an area that would ordinarily be covered in water… you might say that the paleontologists were in the…
