dinosaurs
edyong | November 10, 2009The question of whether dinosaurs were warm-blooded or cold-blooded is one of the most enduring in palaeontology. Did they generate their own body heat like today's mammals; was their temperature more influenced by their environment like today's reptiles; or did they use a mixture of both strategies? Scientists have put forward a slew of arguments for all of these alternatives, but Herman Pontzer from Washington University has a new take on things which suggests that many dinosaurs were indeed warm-blooded.
Based on our knowledge of living animals, Pontzer worked out the energy that 14…
laelaps | October 31, 2009Dinosaur National Monument, Utah. The glass building houses the famous fossil wall and will soon be replaced with a new permanent visitor center.
laelaps | October 30, 2009A reconstruction of the skull of Torvosaurus based upon the few parts of skull material that have been recovered so far. Photographed at the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point, Utah.
laelaps | October 28, 2009A restoration of Utahraptor in the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point, Utah.
edyong | October 6, 2009At 13 metres in length, Tyrannosaurus rex had little to fear from other predators. But it was occasionally attacked by an enemy far smaller than itself. In a wonderful piece of forensic palaeontology, Ewan Wolff from the University of Wisconsin has shown that the tyrant lizard king was often infected by a microscopic parasite, whose relatives still infect the birds of today. Potentially transmitted through bites from other tyrannosaurs, the parasite could have starved the infected animals to death.
Many of the large meat-eating dinosaurs have wounds on their heads that were clearly inflicted…
laelaps | October 3, 2009A trio of dinosaurs at the Utah Museum of Natural History in Salt Lake City, Utah. An Allosaurus (left) attacks a Camptosaurus (right) while another Allosaurus looms in the background.
edyong | September 17, 2009
Meet Raptorex, the "king of thieves". It's a new species of dinosaur that looks, for all intents and purposes¸ like the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex, complete with large, powerful skull and tiny, comical forearms. But there's one very important difference - it's 100 times smaller. Unlike the ever-shrinking world of music players and phones, it seems that evolution crafted tyrannosaur technology with much smaller specifications before enlarging the design into the giant predators of the late Cretaceous.
Raptorex is a new species of meat-eating dinosaur, discovered in northwest China by Paul…
edyong | September 12, 2009This article is reposted from the old Wordpress incarnation of Not Exactly Rocket Science.
In Jurassic Park, the role of Velociraptor was played by computer-generated reptilian actors, that bore little resemblance to the real deal. The actual dinosaur was smaller, slower and used its infamous claw to stab (or possibly climb) rather than disembowel. And in 2007, scientists found good evidence that it was covered in feathers.
Since Jurassic Park aired, dinosaurs like Velociraptor have received something of a makeover. It began in the late 1990s when Chinese palaeontologists found a…
laelaps | August 15, 2009The skull of a restored Tyrannosaurus skeleton (cast), photographed at the Maryland Science Center.
laelaps | August 14, 2009The skull of a restored Tarbosaurus skeleton (cast), photographed at the Maryland Science Center.
laelaps | August 13, 2009The skull of a restored Giganotosaurus skeleton (cast), photographed at the Maryland Science Center.
laelaps | August 12, 2009The skull of a restored Albertosaurus skeleton (cast), photographed at the Maryland Science Center.
laelaps | August 7, 2009Over at Dinosaur Tracking I have an interview with paleontologist extraordinaire David Hone. Among other things he talks about working in the field, science blogging, and why large predatory dinosaurs might have preferred tasty young herbivores at mealtime. This interview has been a long time coming, and I appreciate David's enthusiasm and patience during the process. Go check it out!
edyong | June 21, 2009
There is a reason why there are no dinosaur geneticists - their careers would quickly become as extinct as the 'terrible lizards' themselves. Bones may fossilise, but soft tissues and molecules like DNA do not. Outside of the fictional world of Jurassic Park, dinosaurs have left no genetic traces for eager scientists to study.
Nonetheless, that is exactly what Chris Organ and Scott Edwards from Harvard University have managed to do. And it all started with a simple riddle: which came first, the chicken or the genome?
Like almost all birds, a chicken's genome - its full complement of DNA…
edyong | April 30, 2009These cells look like fairly typical bone cells. They appear to be connected to each other by thin branch-like projections and are embedded in a white matrix of fibres. At their centres are dark red spots that are probably their nuclei. But it's not their appearance that singles out these extraordinary cells - it's their source. You're looking at the bone cells of a dinosaur.
They come from an animal called Brachylophosaurus, a duck-billed dinosaur that lived over 80 million years ago. By looking at one of its thigh bones, Mary Schweitzer from North Carolina State University has managed to…
laelaps | April 30, 2009The news has already broken at SV-POW! and Tetrapod Zoology, but in case you haven't heard Mike Taylor has successfully defended his Ph.D.! This is wonderful news. I am sure that the study of sauropods will benefit from his continued work in the field.
My only regret is that I can't buy him a drink since I am not going to be able to make it to SVP in England this year. (I actually owe quite a few people a drink or two. At this rate I had better hope I win the lottery to cover the bar tab I will surely build up...) Earning a Ph.D. merits a few rounds alone, but Mike (among others) has provided…
edyong | March 18, 2009What happens when you find a feathered dinosaur that really isn't meant to have feathers? That's the question set by a spectacular new fossil that adds a confusing dimension to the origin of feathers.
The concept of dinosaurs with feathers is no longer surprising. Birds certainly have them and they are now considered to be living dinosaurs. The infamous Velociraptor and its relatives were covered in plumes, which ranged from the simple quills of Sinosauropteryx to the flight-capable plumes on Microraptor's four wings. We know about these prehistoric feathers through the beautiful fossil…
edyong | February 2, 2009It's snowing pretty heavily in London.
I have therefore built a snow tyrannosaur.
That is all.
Also credit to Julia the Ethical Palaeontologist for her mighty effort.
And yes, I know the posture's all wrong, but it wouldn't stand up otherwise.
edyong | January 27, 2009Thanks to its trinity of horns, Triceratops has become of the most recognisable of dinosaurs. The sight of two bulls charging at each other and jousting with their horns must have been an incredible one - geeky palaeontologists might get a small thrill just thinking about it. But did it ever really happen? Did Triceratops ever use its unmistakeable horns in combat, or were they simply for show?
Both theories have been put forward, but Andrew Farke from the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Palaeontology (who blogs at the Open Source Palaeontologist) thinks that both were probably right. By looking at…
laelaps | January 22, 2009When I was a finalist in the annual blogging scholarship contest a few months back Amanda was one of the many people who supported me. (Thank you, again, to everyone who voted for me.) Now it is my turn to give something back.
Amanda is one of the brightest, not to mention kindest, people I know and I would hate to see her struggle to fund her college education. You can help her pay her college fees, though, by voting for her in the "My Favorite Toy" contest being held by Brickfish. She has fittingly chosen a "Brontosaurus" as her most beloved toy.
You can vote every two hours. Please give…