Paleontology
Ancient Archosaur Arthritis
When we envision prehistoric life, we often picture long-extinct animals in the most healthy state possible. Each restored individual is the acme of its particular species—be it Allosaurus or a woolly mammoth—but we know that things in the natural world are never so clean and neat. Not only do indi...
October 21, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Tracking a Dinosaur to the NJSM
The New Jersey State Museum (NJSM), where I am a research associate, has a new dinosaur exhibit, and it has been placed outside for all passers-by to see. It's an enormous chunk of rust-red rock recently removed from a quarry in Woodland Park, New Jersey, and on its top is the track of a predatory ...
October 20, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Dino B-Movie Alert: Triassic Attack
Regular readers know that I can't resist cheesy dinosaur movies, and a new SyFy feature set to debut late next month will be the latest stinker to be heaped on the pile of bad dino cinema.Called Triassic Attack, this direct-to-video schlock features the reanimated skeletons of a pterosaur and a Tyr...
October 19, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Tyrannosaurus the Cannibal
For a Tyrannosaurus rex, there was nothing more dangerous than another Tyrannosaurus rex. From a relatively young age these dinosaurs tussled by biting each other on the face—possibly spreading parasitic microorganisms as they did so—and a few fossil scraps have suggested that some tyrannosaurs may...
October 18, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
SVP Dispatch, Part 3: Raptorex—To Be, or Not to Be?
One of the biggest dinosaur stories of 2009 was the discovery of a pint-sized tyrant called Raptorex. Described by a team of paleontologists led by Paul Sereno and dated to about 126 million years ago, the dinosaur showed that many definitive tyrannosaur characteristics—such a puny forearms—evolved...
October 14, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
SVP Dispatch, Part 2: Did Sea Level Influence Dinosaur Diversity?
Paleontologists are constantly reminding themselves of the incompleteness of the fossil record. What has been preserved is only a small fraction of all the organisms and environments that have ever existed. This makes detecting evolutionary patterns a bit of a challenge. In a presentation given at...
October 13, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Dispatch, Part 1
The first day of the 70th annual Society of Vertebrate Paleontology meeting was chock-full of dinosaur talks. Fans of ornithischian dinosaurs—the hadrosaurs, ankylosaurs, stegosaurs, pachycehpalosaurs, horned dinosaurs and their kin—had a lot to cheer about. There is a flood of new species, and ne...
October 12, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Sarahsaurus Helps Revise Ideas of Dinosaurian Success
Compared to some of its later, gargantuan cousins, the 190-million-year-old sauropodomorph dinosaur Sarahsaurus aurifontanalis was a rather tiny herbivore. Only 14 feet long, this dinosaur lived in the early days of the Jurassic, and, according to a team of paleontologists led by Jackson School of...
October 08, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
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
