dinosaur

When I was first becoming acquainted with dinosaurs during the latter half of the 1980's, the standard "rule" for theropod dinosaurs was that as they grew bigger through the course of time their heads became more robust and their arms grew smaller. Just comparing the Jurassic predator Allosaurus with the Cretaceous Tyrannosaurus rex (numerous pictures of both filling the books I constantly begged my parents to purchase for me) seemed to confirm this, but there was always one very special set of fossil remains that seemed to contradict the prevailing trend. Hung up in the corner at the…
tags: researchblogging.org, velociraptor, Dromaeosauridae, dinosaur, feathers, paleontology, evolution Velociraptor skull. Velociraptors were small dinosaurs, weighing only about 15kg and approximnately 1.5m long. Image: M. Elison, AMNH. [larger view] According to a research paper that was published late last week, the Velociraptor probably had feathers. A closer look at a fossil Velociraptor ulna (forearm) that was found in Mongolia in 1998 revealed a series of small bumps along its length. These bumps are known as "quill knobs" because they are found in most modern birds where they…
tags: researchblogging.org, dinosaur, bird, fossil, Gigantoraptor erlianensis, China An artist's painting of the newly discovered Gigantoraptor dinosaur, depicted with other smaller dinosaurs. Fossilized bones uncovered in the Erlian Basin of northern China's Inner Mongolia region show the Gigantoraptor erlianensis was about 26 feet in length and weighed 3,000 pounds. The discovery of the giant, birdlike dinosaur indicates a more complicated evolutionary process for birds than originally thought. Image: Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology & Paleoanthropology (Beijing, China) [larger]…