Dinosaur News Thread!

[Raph's Girl]

Originally Posted by Warhorse

Wow, are you one of those kids that is alergic to sunlight?

No. Not alergic to daylight. Im alergic to high temperatures. Generally anything higher than 80 degrees. Im fine in the summer as long as Im in a cool area and have a fan on me. But the heat can get to me really easily.

If I was rich I'd skip summer all together and go south for a couple months.

Anyways.. back to Dakota.

There was a report on Dakota tonight on ABC News w/ Charles Gibson. The report showed some of the documentary that's gonna be airing Sunday.

Also the kid who found Dakota will be on Good Morning America tomarrow (wednesday)!

They're really going all the way with this discovery.

[Machias Banshee]

Well, with the combination of the increasing discoveries of dinosaur species, PLUS the insane pace of genetics, we're getting getting frighteningly close to a real life Jurassic Park situation.

We're cloning human parts on rats. Who knows how long it will be before we start making other things. Science has no conscience. They ask 'could we' when it ought to be 'should we?"...

[Raph's Girl]

Saw the GMA interview with the British Paleontologist and the guy who found Dakota when he was 16 (he's now in his final year at Yale...).

The 2 books out in regards to Dakota are:

"Dinomummy" (about Dakota herself) and "Grave Secrets of Dinosaurs"

I know what I want for Christmas now!

[Machias Banshee]

Absolutely!

I took a gander at the National Geographic website, and they have LOTs of sneak peeks and footage of the specimens they've discovered...

http://channel.nationalgeographic.co...eath-trap.html

I started looking at it last night. There's everything from video clips to profiles of the dinosaurs and proto-mammals... Really great stuff for anyone to check out.

[Raph's Girl]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071204/...toric_reptiles

Remains of a bus-sized prehistoric "monster" reptile found on a remote Arctic island may be a new species never before recorded by science, researchers said Tuesday.

Initial excavation of a site on the Svalbard islands in August yielded the remains, teeth, skull fragments and vertebrae of a reptile estimated to measure nearly 40 feet long, said Joern Harald Hurum of the University of Oslo.

"It seems the monster is a new species," he told The Associated Press.

The reptile appears be the same species as another sea predator whose remains were found nearby on Svalbard last year. His team described those 150-million-year-old remains as belonging to a short-necked plesiosaur measuring more than 30 feet — "as long as a bus ... with teeth larger than cucumbers."

The short-necked plesiosaur was a voracious reptile often compared to the Tyrannosaurus rex of the oceans.

Mark Evans, a plesiosaur expert at the Leicester City Museums in Britain, said he not know enough about the Norwegian find to comment on it specifically. But he said new types of the sea reptiles are being found regularly.

"We are regularly seeing new species of plesiosaurs popping up — in a way because, in the past 10 or 15 years, there has been what we call a renaissance in plesiosaur research," Evans said by telephone.

Hurum said the team had only managed to excavate a 3-meter (yard) area of the find. The Norwegian-led team plans to present more detailed findings early next year, and return to Svalbard, 300 miles north of Norway's mainland, to excavate further next year.

The official website of the excavation. They seem to update with more info alot and you can contact the team (just not when they're on site). There's also numerous images of the site that show which bones are what.

http://www.nhm.uio.no/pliosaurus/english/index.html

[Buslady]

for a moment I was okay what kind of bus size...would that be a 45' coach or a 22' mini-bird... hahah

they're really doing alot lately reporting new dinos...how many in the past year??

[Raph's Girl]

Going to Amazon.com I looked up the 2 books and it seems Grave Secrets of Dinosaurs isn't out yet. But it comes out on my birthday (Jan 8th) so all's good.

But Dinomummy is out now (and on sale on Amazon.com! )

[AquaParade]

It seems like in the last few years there have been plenty of dinosour related news. I'm pretty glad, dinosours are soooo exciting to me. Just to think that these big Monster like things ruled the earth before us...insane to say the least.

[Raph's Girl]

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/1...nosaur-02.html

It's bad enough to misplace a finger, much less have it lost for 65 million years. But after decades of searching, paleontologists at Montana's Hell Creek have found the missing third finger of one of Tyrannosaurus rex's undersized "hands."

The finger suggests that T. rex had a powerful wrist and its hands were probably able to hold onto chunks of flesh while the monster's gnarly jaws did all the killing.

The newfound bone is a right metacarpal, equivalent to one of the long bones in the palm of a human hand, explains T. rex investigator Elizibeth Quinlan of Fort Peck Paleontology, Inc., in Fort Peck, Montana. She plans to present the discovery on Oct. 28 at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Denver.

"It's unquestionably the metacarpal," Quinlan told Discovery News. No previous T. rex remains have ever been found with a third metacarpal, despite the fact that the other bones suggested its presence. "There is a notch in the side of the second metacarpal that was just begging to have something fit into it."

The revised anatomy of the hand suggests there was a very strong tendon that attached to second metacarpal, giving the hand a pretty decent grip, she said. Still, the puny limbs were almost certainly not used by T. rex to grapple with prey or kill.

"We were thinking that T. rex did use its upper appendages not so much in hunting but in feeding," said Quinlan. That means ripping off pieces of flesh from corpses and clutching the stuff to keep it from other hungry predators. "We don't think their table manners were very good."

"I would strongly support (the hand) being used for carrying a piece of meat away," said paleontologist Scott Hartman, science director of the Wyoming Dinosaur Center in Thermopolis. "There is a reason that carrying meat away would be useful."

One reason is that the T. rex head is already so large and heavy that adding the weight of a large slab of meat between its teeth would make it unable to tip back and stand up, Hartman said. Holding meat with the arms, which are lower, avoids that overloaded teeter-totter effect.

Another possibility is that the hands were parenting tools. They would have made it possible for a T. rex to carry yummy slabs of dino flesh to its carnivorous babies, Hartman said.

That said, the new finger bone is not going to cause much change to reconstructions of T. rex, says Hartman. Throughout the evolution of meat-eating dinosaurs there was a trend towards fewer fingers, with the earliest having five fingers and the T. rex having two. This newfound nubbin of a third finger was already on its way out, and did not stick out much, he said.

"In another 10 million years they would have lost (the third finger) completely," said Hartman. Unfortunately for them, however, the age of dinosaurs ended before that could happen.

Three?! But but....er....all my T-rex figures are wrong now.....course they're probably now worth something with the 2 fingers. Hrm....They'd better make T-Rex toys that have 3....I mean yea I have a Godzilla doll that has 4....and an Allosaurus with 3...but darnit...now I need a more accurate T-Rex. *looks at her T-Rex toys....*

[Sewer Bull]

Oh my God. Things will never be the same again.

[Raph's Girl]

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/1...-dinosaur.html

Canadian paleontologists have unearthed the world's largest known horned dinosaur with the discovery of an early relative of Triceratops that measured around 30 feet in length, or the size of an enormous SUV.

The previous record-holder was Pentaceratops sternbergi, which hailed from what is now New Mexico.

The new dinosaur, Eotriceratops ("early Triceratops") xerinsularis, is the earliest known confirmed relative of the rhino-like Triceratops, which was slightly smaller in size, with the largest specimens measuring just over 29 feet in length.

"The skull of Eotriceratops alone was as big as a car," said David Eberth, who co-authored a paper on the find in a recent Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences.

Eberth, a senior scientist at Alberta's Royal Tyrrell Museum, collaborated with other Royal Tyrrell scientists and researchers from the Canadian Museum of Nature to unearth the horned beast, which lived 68 million years ago.

With much heaving and hauling, they excavated its bones at Horseshoe Canyon Formation in Dry Island Buffalo Jump Provincial Park in central Alberta.

Eberth told Discovery News that another paleontologist had spotted the skeleton in 1910, but he decided not to dig it up.

"At the site the skeleton looked like road kill," Eberth said. "Really, it looked like it had been run over by a Cretaceous Hummer."

After extensive analysis and bone assembly, the Canadian team now knows what the new dino looked like when it was alive.

Like Triceratops, it possessed two orbital bone horns that jutted out above its eyes. Each would have been 5 feet long. A smaller, pyramid-shaped, horn stuck out from its nose.

The beast also had what Eberth described as "a standard issue Triceratops frill" at the back of its head. The Triceratops frill, however, had little toothy spikes that poked out on top. These spikes were "more flattened and spindle-like" in Eotriceratops.

The new dino preceded its more famous relative by a million years. Until its discovery, not much was known about dinosaurs from Alberta and North America 69 to 67 million years ago, so it fills an important gap. Just a few million years later, all dinosaurs went extinct.

Before the find, scientists theorized that dinosaurs gradually became bigger over time. Now that theory is under question, since size changes -- probably induced by environmental and climactic conditions -- didn't always follow distinct patterns.

Eric Lund, a University of Utah paleontologist, thinks the new dino is "really cool."

Lund told Discovery News, "If this specimen is truly an early relative of Triceratops, it gives us insight into how this group of animals evolved over time."

He agreed that it "fills an information gap" between early and late chasmosaurines, an animal group that included both long and short frilled species. Members of this group typically were plant eaters that probably used their frills for mating and territorial displays.

Eotriceratops xerinsularis is now on display for human onlookers in the Royal Tyrrell Museum's new gallery, "Ceratopsians: the Horned Herbivores."

*starts planning a trip to Alberta NOW*

[ThirdMarioBro]

Originally Posted by Sewer Bull

Oh my God. Things will never be the same again.

LMAO!!!!!!!!

[Peanut]

Were two threads about dinosaurs within the same hour really needed? Couldn't you just edit one so it was like "EXCITING DINOSAUR NEWS!" or something like that?

[Ecto Jedi]

Aw come on, lay off the girl. Dinosaurs are cool.

[Shredder]

Just so all the dino news doesn't get lost in the shuffle, and since I'm a huge dinosaur fan myself, I figured it would be easier for us to have one big thread dedicated to dinosaur discoveries and discussion.

[Raph's Girl]

Thanks Shredder for making it all one thread.

Anybody see Dino Death Trap and Dino Autopsy on National Geographic last night??? Both were pretty good. Both also confused the heck out of the folks (the tv in the living room is the only one with access to NGC *lol*).

Anyways... National Geographic has a whole website devoted to Dino discoveries now (and of course they plugged it for all it was worth with a little add in the corner *lol* )

This website is cool in that it has a timeline of the Dino mummy discoveries, plus TONS of other stuff (like detailed listings of the newest dinos).

The mummy timeline doesn't show all the mummies. Mostly the Sternberg one from 100 years ago, Willo (discovered in 1993 with a fossilized heart), a Sinosauroptryx (discovered in 1994 with...feathers!), A Titanosaur nexting ground (1995), and of course Dakota (hmm...no love for Leonardo I guess).

Now Willo's heart has 4 chambers. Which means he was warm blooded and not cold blooded!

Now Dino Death Trap was cool cuz of all the new species mentioned. Including the earlieast known ancestor of the Ceratopsians (it walked on 2 legs!! ) called Yinlong (Hidden Dragon). There's also the earliest T-rex ancestor. A turkey sized thing called Guanlong (crowned Dragon). Yea all the dinos in Dino Death Trap are out of the Gobi Desert.

http://www.ngcdinos.com

I also found a Which Dino are you quiz on that site....Im apperantly an Edmontosaurus (a Hadrosaur/Duck Billed), Would have prefered Parasauralophus but ah well. I like Hadrosaurs
http://ngcblog.nationalgeographic.co...r_are_you.html

[Raph's Girl]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080105/...mummy_dinosaur

A mummified dinosaur discovered on the Hi-Line is heading to the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences, where it will be studied and displayed for more than a year.

The 77 million-year-old duckbill, complete with fossilized skin and organs, was discovered in the badlands north of Malta during the summer of 2000.

The brachylophosaurus, dubbed "Leonardo," is currently being housed in a former automotive shop in Malta called the Dinosaur Field Station. After its stint in Texas, the fossil will return to be the main attraction at the new dinosaur museum opening in Malta in June.

Malta dinosaur fans are disappointed that Leonardo will miss the museum's grand opening but say researchers can learn more about the well-preserved fossil in Houston.

Until now, scientists have been able to use X-ray technology only on Leonardo's tongue, beak and stomach — since much of the dinosaur is encapsulated by thick rock. The Houston museum has access to a NASA CT scan machine large enough to examine Leonardo's organs.

"It'll be hard for Leonardo to be gone," said Dixie Stordahl, field station manager. "A lot of people come to the field station just to see Leonardo. ... We feel it'll be a good thing in the long run."

Carolyn Schmoeckel, president of the Judith River Foundation, leaves for Houston on Monday to work out final contract details. The fundraising board wants to ensure that Leonardo returns by September 2009 and that the Great Plains Dinosaur Museum will have a replica to display for its June 6 grand opening.

Leonardo will travel to Texas in March via an air-sealed semi tractor-trailer with special hydraulic shocks and a specially made sarcophagus. The Houston museum has agreed to cover the transportation costs, which include $7,000 for the truck, Schmoeckel said.

The Discovery Channel is planning to film the process as part of a documentary on Leonardo and what high-tech research has revealed about how dinosaurs lived. The Judith River Foundation is working on a deal to show the film at the Malta museum opening.

Once Leonardo returns to Malta, the replica will begin a tour of the country.

"I think it's great," said foundation board member Jack Millar. "It'll give the Malta community and museum a lot of favorable publicity. It'll help bring people here when (Leonardo) returns."

Millar said the Great Plains Dinosaur Museum should be finished by April, giving organizers roughly a month to assemble the exhibits. The museum will display many of Murphy's Malta-area discoveries, including a family of stegosauruses.

A $500,000 allocation from the state Legislature paid for the first phase of the project. The county and area economic development groups are working to raise roughly $3 million in grants and donations to complete the next two phases.

A bit of an FYI. Malta in this case is not the small country but a town in Montana. Im a bit surprised they're only NOW doing all this stuff on Leonardo considering there's been a book on him out since 2003.. *blinks* I guess all the hype about Dakota braught back the interest on Leonardo.

[Raph's Girl]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080116/...nt_fossil_dc_2

Scientists in Uruguay have found the fossil remains of a 2,000 pound (1,000 kg) rodent that lived 2 million to 4 million years ago -- the largest rodent ever found.

The giant creature probably ate soft food such as fruit or tender plants, Andres Rinderknecht and Ernesto Blanco of the National Museum of Natural History in Montevideo reported on Wednesday.

"We report the discovery of an exceptionally well preserved fossil skull of a new species of rodent, by far the largest ever recorded," they wrote in a report in Britain's Proceedings of the Royal Society.

"Rodents are a very successful group of mammals living almost worldwide and with small body masses (generally less than 1 kg or 2.2 pounds)," they wrote.

"However, our work suggests that 4 million years ago in South America, rodents with 1,000 kg (2,200 pounds) of body mass (a 'mouse' larger than a bull) lived with terror birds, saber-toothed cats, ground sloths and giant armored mammals among others."

They have named the fossil Josephoartigasia monesi. They dug it out of rock along the Rio Plata and said they were amazed at its size.

But it had small teeth and weak jawbones.

"These features suggest that J. monesi had weak masticatory muscles for grinding food and probably did not have the abrasive diet typical of other (similar) rodents," they wrote.

"Palaeobiologically this could imply a diet composed of soft vegetation and perhaps fruit."

The largest living rodent is the carpincho or capybara found in parts of South America. They can grow to about 125 pounds (60 kg).

A rat that weighs as much as an elephant?!

This is a pic of the skull compared with that of a modern rodent.

[Warhorse]

Hmmm.

Rat Burgers anyone?

[Raph's Girl]

Originally Posted by Warhorse

Hmmm.

Rat Burgers anyone?

Rat Burger is a common food in Vietnam actually. *lol*