Dinosaurs
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The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs
Keeping up with the latest dinosaur discoveries is no easy task. New species are announced at such a rapid rate that it is difficult to keep track of them all, and new analyses of old bones are rapidly changing our understanding of how dinosaurs lived. Given the vibrant state of dinosaur science, a...
October 07, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Earth’s Worst Extinction May Have Been Key to Dinosaur Origins
From the emergence of the first of their kind about 228 million years ago to the modern abundance of birds (their living descendants), dinosaurs have been one of the most successful groups of organisms on the planet. Why they originated in the first place, however, has been a much trickier subject ...
October 06, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Gorosaurus—That Other Giant Monster Dinosaur
The trailer for Destroy All Monsters, featuring Gorosaurus (mistakenly called Baragon due to a change in filming plans).Without a doubt, Godzilla is the most famous giant monster dinosaur around, but among the many supporting monsters that appeared alongside Big G over his long career was another ...
October 04, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
It's All in the Hips: the Feathered Dinosaur Microraptor
Ever since the announcement of an exquisitely-preserved specimen of the feathered dinosaur Microraptor gui in 2003, paleontologists have been debating how it might have flown and what relevance it might have to the origin of birds. How did it hold its legs? Could it really fly, or just glide? Is is...
October 01, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Jurassic Park: Redemption, Part 3
When we last left IDW's new Jurassic Park: Redemption comic series, things were quickly getting out of hand. A rogue Carnotaurus was tearing up the Texas countryside, some kind of crocodile-like creature had taken up residence near a nuclear facility, and the family-friendly, all-herbivore dinosaur...
September 30, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Blog Carnival #24: Pink Dinos, Fossil Auctions, Transylvanian Finds and More...
In the Pink: October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and ArtEvolved is doing its part by organizing a Pink Dinosaur fundraiser to benefit medical research. Be sure to check out the gallery of brightly colored dinosaurs, and, if you wish to make a donation, visit the Pink Dinosaur Event Page.A Disc...
September 29, 2010 |
By Mark Strauss
Dinosaur Sighting: Star-Spangled Theropod
Today's Dinosaur Sighting comes to us from David Rice, who spotted this star-spangled theropod dinosaur in the vicinity of Beloit, Wisconsin. As David pointed out in his e-mail, the top half of the dinosaur is reminiscent of a tyrannosaur, but the feet have weird lumps which look like the sickle cl...
September 28, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Get Fuzzy on the Extinction of the Dinosaurs
What killed off the non-avian dinosaurs? Over the years climate change, mammals with a taste for dinosaur eggs, the laziness of dinosaurs, and even hungry, hungry caterpillars have been blamed, with the current favored culprit being an asteroid that struck in the vicinity of today's Yucatan peninsu...
September 27, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
The Many Layers of Cretaceous China
In order to understand the ecology of any environment, past or present, you must be able to change the scale of your perspective. Large animals are readily apparent, but what about the interactions between the plants they eat, the insects on those plants, the pollen on those insects, the many micro...
September 24, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Dinosaur Sighting: A High-Class Triceratops
I never would have thought of Minnesota as a hot spot for dinosaurs, but reader Mark Ryan keeps sending in sightings from the Gopher State. His latest submission is of one of several metallic dinosaurs that once graced the lawn of a mansion in uptown Minneapolis. The question is, what dinosaur was ...
September 23, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
New Horned Dinosaurs From America's Lost Continent
At the height of the golden era of dinosaur science, it takes something special for a newly described dinosaur species to stand out. Dinosaurs with dual sickle claws, humps, or unexpected bristles more readily grab the attention of the public than more familiar-looking forms, but looks aren't eve...
September 22, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Dinosaur Drive-In: When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth
If paleontologists have said it once, they have said it a hundred times: non-avian dinosaurs and humans never coexisted. Most people who insist otherwise are creationist cranks who believe that evidence of a living dinosaur would somehow undermine evolutionary theory, but I understand that Hollywoo...
September 21, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
The Making of a Tyrant
Tyrannosaurus rex was an obligatory inclusion in every book and documentary about dinosaurs I saw as a kid. It was the tyrant king of all dinosaurs, the supreme predator of the end-Cretaceous, but for all its majesty no one could explain where it had come from. Along with its kin—such as Albertosa...
September 20, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Stegosaurus Week: Playing the Stegosaur Name Game
Measuring diversity in the fossil record can be a tricky task. Short of inventing time travel, there will be always be some uncertainty about how many species of dinosaur existed at any one place and time, and as we learn more about the fossil record it may turn out that what we once thought to be ...
September 17, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Stegosaurus Week: The Many Postures of Kentrosaurus
Since the early days of paleontology, the posture of dinosaurs and the range of motion they were capable of have been contentious subjects for paleontologists. During the 19th century, especially, the general view of what dinosaurs would have looked like changed no less than three times, and inves...
September 16, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Stegosaurus Week: Tracking Cryptic Stegosaurs
The first trace of the plated, spiky stegosaurian dinosaurs was found in Early Cretaceous rock near Grahamstown, South Africa. Uncovered by W. G. Atherstone and A. G. Bain in 1845, the dinosaur was represented by a partial skull and several limb bones. The naturalists felt unqualified to study the...
September 15, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Stegosaurus Week: The Weak Bite of Stegosaurus
In discussions of dinosaur bite mechanics, the heavy forces generated by predatory species often dominate, but it is important to understand how the jaws of herbivores worked, too. The jaws of Stegosaurus might not be as immediately impressive as those of Tyrannosaurus rex, but it is still importan...
September 14, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Stegosaurus Week: A Rare Look at Soft Tissue
Dinosaur skin impressions are pretty rare, and, even among the known collection of these soft-tissue traces, not all dinosaurs are equally well-represented. There are plenty of skin impressions from hadrosaurs, but stegosaurs are among the dinosaurs in which the skin texture is still largely unkno...
September 13, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
A Strange Sail-Backed, Bristly-Armed Dinosaur
When I logged on to Facebook Wednesday morning, one of the first things I saw was a cryptic status update from University of Maryland paleontologist Thomas Holtz. He speculated that the paleo community at large would be "duly impressed" by something set to debut later in the day, but what was it? ...
September 10, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
The Dinosaurs of Industry
Since the time of their discovery in the early 19th century, dinosaurs have been pop-culture superstars. Beyond their scientific identities, they have a celebrity that has remained strong from decade to decade, and given their notoriety it is no wonder that they have been so often used as metaphors...
September 09, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
