Dinosaurs
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Who Pays for Dino Research?
It is not easy being a paleontologist. Even though innumerable museums have dinosaur exhibits and filmmakers are almost constantly calling paleontologists to appear on television documentaries, it is extremely difficult for researchers to find jobs and secure funding for their research. Indeed, the...
March 18, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Dinosaur Sighting: Mini-Golf Dinosaur
Miniature golf can be a lot of fun, and it is even better if the course is decorated with dinosaurs. This week's Dinosaur Sighting, sent to us by Chip Ohlhaver, is of one such dinosaur sculpture that still decorates a now-defunct mini golf course in Maryland. Even better, Chip reports that the cour...
March 17, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Dinosaur Watch Will Take a Bite Out of Your Wallet
For the dinosaur lover who has everything, watchmaker Louis Moinet recently debuted the "Jurassic Tourbillon" watch. Said to contain fragments of "authenticated dinosaur bones," this gold-cased, diamond-encrusted watch is meant for high-class buyers with cash to burn (it costs over $140,000!), but ...
March 16, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Restoring One of New Jersey's Dinosaurs
When I was growing up, New Jersey seemed like the worst place to be for an aspiring paleontologist. If I wanted to go looking for dinosaurs, it seemed, I would have to go out West. It was not until much later that I learned that New Jersey was home to some of the most important dinosaur discoveries...
March 15, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Incisivosaurus, a Dinosaur With an Overbite
Over and over again the same dinosaurs show up in the news: Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, Apatosaurus, Velociraptor, etc., etc., etc. Movies, books and television have made them into superstars, but we should not forget that these dinosaurs represent only a small part of the range of dinosaur diversi...
March 12, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Return of the Dinosaucers?
After two decades, the "Dinosaucers" might be coming back. No, I am not talking about a line of collectible plates with dinosaurs emblazoned on them, but a 1987 cartoon that starred dinosaurs from space. Even though scores of episodes were created only the first season was actually aired, but rumor...
March 11, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Asteroid Strike Confirmed as Dinosaur Killer
Sixty-five million years ago, life on Earth suffered one of the worst mass extinctions of all time. It was an event that killed creatures across the spectrum of life's diversity, from tiny marine invertebrates to the largest dinosaurs, but what could have caused it?A number of hypotheses have been ...
March 10, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Dinosaur Sighting: Sauropod in the Hedgerow
Today's Dinosaur Sighting comes to us from science blogger Mo Hassan ("The Disillusioned Taxonomist"). Mo spotted this topiary brachiosaur while visiting the Van Hage Animal Centre in Ware, Hertfordshire, England, though it was nowhere near as large as some of the real brachiosaurs got millions of...
March 09, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Just When You Thought it Was Safe to Turn on the TV... Dinoshark
I may be completely wrong, but somehow I get the feeling that somewhere on a wall at SyFy Channel headquarters there is a special dartboard. On it are the names of large, predatory animals like "Shark," "Smilodon," "Giant Squid" and "Dinosaur," and when the company executives run out of ideas they ...
March 08, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Spielberg Plans to Create a Different "Jurassic Park"
Steven Spielberg, the director of the first two Jurassic Park films, may not be done with dinosaurs yet. Even though plans for another JP film have only just begun to come together, rumor has it that the famous producer and director will be helming a new television project called "Terra Nova." Lit...
March 05, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
New Fossils Suggest High Diversity Among Close Dinosaur Relatives
What were the very first dinosaurs like? This is one of the most vexing questions in vertebrate paleontology. Even though paleontologists have found a number of early dinosaurs in recent years, details about the very first dinosaurs and their close relatives have been hard to come by, but in a new ...
March 04, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
"Bird" Wrists Evolved Among Dinosaurs
If there is one persistent gripe that paleontologists have with dinosaurs on screen, it is that their hands are usually wrong. From Tyrannosaurus to Velociraptor, predatory dinosaurs are time and again shown with their hands in a palms-down position, something that would have been anatomically impo...
March 03, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Prehistoric Snake Fed on Baby Dinosaurs
When discussing dinosaurs, the topic of what they ate often comes up, but what about the creatures that ate them? Obviously some dinosaurs ate other dinosaurs, but the famous prehistoric archosaurs were not immune to predation from other kinds of hunters, especially when the archosaurs were babies....
March 02, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
New Sauropod From Dinosaur National Monument Gets a Name
Utah's Dinosaur National Monument is best known for the exquisite collection of Jurassic-age fossils that have been discovered there since the beginning of the 20th century, but what is less well known is that more recent Cretaceous critters can be found there, too. When I visited the national park...
March 01, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Blog Carnival #17: New Paleoblog, Sauropod Snow Sculpture, Young Earth Creationists and More...
Welcome a New Paleoblog: Why I Hate Theropods ironically calls our attention to a new site: The Theropod Database Blog. Going for Broke: What do you do if you break a bone? (A dinosaur bone, that is.) Well, once you get over the humiliation of breaking something that has remained intact for several...
February 26, 2010 |
By Mark Strauss
A New Use for Blacklights: Finding Dinosaur Feathers
Since 1996 paleontologists have found so many feathered dinosaurs that it has been impossible to keep up with them all. There are scores of exceptionally preserved specimens that have yet to be fully studied and published upon, but, according to a new study in PLoS One, there is still plenty to le...
February 24, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Dragons of the Past
Dinosaurs as depicted in museums, movies and art today are sleek, brightly-colored and often feathered. This was not always the case. When dinosaurs were first recognized by science at the beginning of the 19th century, naturalists like Gideon Mantell and William Buckland thought they looked like e...
February 22, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Dinolympics
Last week kicked off the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, and as we all know Canada has some really fantastic dinosaur deposits. In fact, one of my favorite dinosaurs, the tyrannosaur Albertosaurus, hails from the province right next door to the one in which this year's Olympics are being...
February 19, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Not Everyone is Happy With Feathered Dinosaurs
Time and again I have used this blog to describe what I think is one of the most fascinating recent discoveries in paleontology: that birds are dinosaurs.Not everyone is happy with this fact, though. The blog io9 recently posted sample images from a feathered dinosaur protest group who prefer their...
February 18, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Jurassic Park IV is Coming... Eventually
It is hard to know what to believe about the Jurassic Park franchise anymore. About 15 months ago the rumor was that the series had been dropped, but half a year later a studio exec stated that the prospect of bringing the dinosaurs back was still on life support. According to Hollywood scuttlebutt...
February 17, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
