Paleontology
Calling All Dino Blogs
Looking over our blogroll the other day I noticed that a number of the blogs have either moved, disappeared, or have not been updated with anything about dinosaurs in ages. It is high time for a blogroll revamp.In order to make sure that our blogroll represents the best of dino bloggers, though, I ...
November 18, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Jingo the Dinosaur -- a World War I Mascot
By the spring of 1916 it seemed inevitable that the United States would enter World War I. This prospect unsettled those opposed to our country's involvement, and there was no better symbol for the military buildup these people feared than the great armored dinosaurs.The papier-mâché Stegosaurus fe...
November 16, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Dinosaur Sighting: Dinosaur Inn
While driving through northern Utah on the way to Dinosaur National Monument this past summer, my wife and I passed through Vernal, Utah. There were dinosaurs everywhere. Big ones, small ones, green ones, pink ones... it was hard to look in any direction and not see a dinosaur.One of the most promi...
November 13, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Introducing Aardonyx, the "Earth Claw"
The sauropod dinosaurs were the largest animals to have ever walked on the earth. They were so incredibly huge, in fact, that they had to move about on four legs—but since the earliest dinosaurs were bipedal, paleontologists have long known that the ancestors of giants like Brachiosaurus and Apatos...
November 12, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Large Dinosaurs Ran Hot
When dinosaurs were first recognized by European naturalists during the early 19th century, they were interpreted as being immense, lumbering reptiles similar to iguanas and crocodiles. Since that time our understanding of dinosaurs has changed substantially; early paleontologists such as Gideon Ma...
November 11, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Dinosaur Sightings: Giddyup!
This week's Dinosaur Sighting comes to us from David Williams, who snapped a shot of a cowgirl riding a rather threadbare dinosaur outside Stewart's Rock Shop in Arizona.Fortunately for her the dinosaur appears to be some sort of narrow-footed sauropod so she doesn't have to worry about being eaten...
November 06, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Why Did Darwin Neglect Dinosaurs?
November 24, 2009 will mark the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, and scientists have already started the celebrations. Last week, for example, the University of Chicago hosted a series of talks by some of the top evolutionary scientists working toda...
November 05, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Terrible Tyrannosaur Teens Bit Each Other on the Face
Humans youngsters often use their hands and arms to push and shove, but young Tyrannosaurus were obviously a bit different than us. It would take a lot of effort for two of the fighting dinosaurs to get close enough to scrabble at each other with their small arms, and so they employed a different t...
November 04, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Dinosaur Sighting: Bedrock, Arizona
When Brian Switek polled readers about the Dinosaur Capital of the World, he included "Bedrock" as a gag answer. It did pretty well—beating out "Other" but losing, as did Liaoning and Glen Rose, to Drumheller. An astute reader pointed out that there is a way to visit Bedrock aside from being a cart...
October 30, 2009 |
By Laura Helmuth
Blog Carnival Unlucky #13: Julia Child, Bad Dino Reporting, Quizzes, Auctions and more...
Croutons Not Recommended: Paleochick points us to this blast from the past: Julia Child turns her kitchen into a biolab and cooks up a batch of primordial soup. (The video played in the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum's now-closed “Life in the Universe” gallery.)Worst. Article. Ever. Th...
October 29, 2009 |
By Mark Strauss
"Bone-Headed" Dinosaurs Reshaped Their Skulls
If you knew nothing at all about dogs, but you were presented with a lineup of the skeletons of a variety of breeds from chihuahua to bulldog to German shepherd to mastiff, you could be excused for thinking they were different species. Their skeletons seem to be so different, yet we know they are a...
October 28, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Paleontologists Announce New Tiny Dinosaur
From movies to museums, the most famous dinosaurs are among the largest. We like superlatives, and want to know what the biggest, fastest, and fiercest dinosaurs are. Yet, just like living animals, dinosaurs came in a variety of shapes and sizes, and a team of paleontologists has just announced, in...
October 26, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Dinosaur Sighting: Tyrannosaurus Asks 'Paper or Plastic?'
Today's Dinosaur Sighting comes to us from reader Cameron, who snapped this photo of a Tyrannosaurus popping out of an IGA grocery store wall in Drumheller, Alberta, Canada. The dinosaur may look mean, but I'm sure he's just enthusiastic about helping shoppers take bags to their cars. Too bad he's ...
October 23, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Scott Sampson Goes on a Dinosaur Odyssey
Given the number of books that are published about dinosaurs, there is bound to be some overlap among them. Most titles fall into a handful of categories: the "menagerie" approach, where a collection of various dinosaurs is prefaced by a few short summaries of paleontology; the "life in the field" ...
October 22, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
How to Make a Dinosaur Bonebed
It is often assumed that dinosaur paleontologists are interested only in getting the fossils they discover out of the ground as quickly as possible. This is not true. Paleontologists generally take great care to document and catalogue every fossil removed from a dig site, because the position and s...
October 21, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
The Allosaurs Make a Comeback
I have always felt a bit sorry for Allosaurus. It was one of the top predators in what would become North America during the Jurassic, but the fearsome tyrannosaurs of the late Cretaceous are much more popular. In fact, the popularity of Tyrannosaurus and its kin has created the impression that the...
October 20, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
How Dinosaurs Got a Grip on Climbing Hills
About 199 million years ago, on a small patch of land that is now preserved in the present-day African nation of Lesotho, there was an inclined slope next to a riverbed. Within hours, days, or even weeks of each other, several different dinosaurs climbed up and down the slope, leaving their footpri...
October 19, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Dinosaur Sighting: A Stegosaurus in Paris
Our latest Dinosaur Sighting comes to us from our very own Sarah Zielinski, who writes for the Surprising Science blog here at Smithsonian. During a recent visit to Paris, Sarah spotted this Stegosaurus outside the Museum National D'Histoire Naturelle, and while she did not see anyone on it while s...
October 16, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Darwinopterus, a Transitional Pterosaur
The discovery of new kinds of feathered dinosaurs regularly makes the news these days, but it is important to remember that modern vertebrate paleontology encompasses much more than the search for the origin of birds. Indeed, this week scientists described an equally-spectacular fossil that fills i...
October 15, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Early Bird Archaeopteryx Grew More Like A Dinosaur
Modern birds grow amazingly fast. After hatching, many species grow to adult size in a matter of days to weeks. But a new study published in the journal PLoS One suggests that birds did not always exhibit the same rapid rate of growth. By looking at chips of bone taken from the legs of some of the ...
October 14, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
