Tag: sauropods
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PBS Eons: The Dinosaurs Too Big to Be Dinosaurs
There’s a new episode of PBS Eons on Youtube. This one is about big dinosaurs… really BIG dinosaurs. How did sauropods, uniquely large land animals, actually live, with their anatomy and physiology pushed to such extremes? Well, their unprecedented gigantism came with some equally massive costs…
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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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The Oldest Plant-Eating Dinosaur Has Been Found in India
The New York Times’ Trilobite column has a story about a new dinosaur from India. The animal, called Tharosaurus indicus, is an early member of the dicraeosaurids, which are sauropods. It lived about 167 million years ago during the Jurassic Period. The fossils were discovered in the Thar Desert, located in the northwest of India. …
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Weird Tracks in Texas Indicate Giant Sauropods Walking on Their Front Feet Only
Nature Science Alert has a story about sauropods. Some strange footprints, found near Bandera, Texas back in the 1930’s, could show swimming behavior in sauropods. That theory dates to a letter written by Roland T. Bird in 1940 about front foot only prints made by sauropods. A paper in 2019 reexamined the question, but at…
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“Cold Bone”: New Dinosaur Species Discovered That Lived on Greenland 214 Million Years Ago
SciTechDaily has a story about a new dinosaur. Called Issi saaneq, which means “Cold Bone”, this animal lived about 214 million years ago during the late Triassic Period in what is now Greenland. Believed to be an ancestor to sauropods, it was medium sized with a long neck, however, it walked on its hind legs. …
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NYT: New Dinosaur Species Is Australia’s Largest, Researchers Say
The New York Times has a story about a new dinosaur… from Australia. Australotitan cooperensis is a titanosaur, which is a type of sauropod. It weighted about 70 tons and lived about 90 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period. It’s the largest dinosaur known from Australia. The dinosaur was described in a paper in…
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We’ve Rarely Seen a Dinosaur Brain Like This Before
The New York Times Trilobites column has a story about a dinosaur brain. The dinosaur in the article is Buriolestes schultzi. It lived about 230 million years ago in what is now modern-day Brazil. This small bipedal animal is distantly related to the large sauropod dinosaurs of the Jurassic. In the paper, which was published…
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Smithsonian: Why This ‘Unicorn Baby Dinosaur’ Is the ‘Cutest,’ ‘Weirdest’ Ever
Smithsonian Magazine has a piece about the “cutest”, “weirdest” baby dinosaur ever. The embryo dinosaur is thought to be a Tapuiasaurus, a sauropod that grew to about 43 feet long. The egg was smuggled illegally out of Argentina about 20 years ago. Research published in the journal Current Biology has revealed some insights into the…
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PBS Eons: A Short Tale About Diplodocus’ Long Neck
PBS Eons has a new episode up over on Youtube. This one is about Diplodocus and its long neck. Long necks gave sauropods a huge advantage when it came to food, but not in the way you think. And this benefit would allow them to become the biggest terrestrial animals of all time!
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New sauropod dinosaur species unearthed in Argentina – Lavocatisaurus agrioensis
The Guardian has a story about a new sauropod dinosaur discovered in Argentina. It lived about 110 million years ago and was found by a team of Spanish and Argentinian paleontologists. Lavocatisaurus agrioensis was described in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. A team of Spanish and Argentinian paleontologists have discovered the remains of dinosaurs that…
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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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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…
