Paleontology
A Terrifying Iguanodon
Outside of Hollywood films, dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops never coexisted with humans, and no case can be made that The Flintstones is an accurate depiction of prehistory. That has not stopped young-earth creationists from maintaining otherwise, though, and this has led to some rathe...
May 20, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Pterodactyls Buzz St. Louis Community College
Studying dinosaur fossils can be hard work, but imagine building a dinosaur from scratch. That was the task given to St. Louis Community College art student Nicki Conaway, who created a 12-foot-tall Tyrannosaurus skeleton (nicknamed "Lola") for a production of the play Pterodactyls at her school. T...
May 19, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
A Tyrannosaurus With a Bad Case of Freezer Burn
If late night B-movies have taught me anything, it is that radiation makes things grow very big really, really fast. This is not true, of course, but it is a standard convention of cheesy science fiction, and it is a theme carried on by Leigh Clark's novel Carnivore.The story unfolds at a remote An...
May 18, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
All Aboard the Dinosaur Train!
Dinosaurs and trains might not seem to have much in common, but the television network PBS will soon be mashing them together in a new children's show called "Dinosaur Train." Right now details are scant, but it looks like the show will be set in a computer animated world where characters will teac...
May 15, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
An Ichthyosaur Found at a Rest Stop
You never know when you might stumble across a prehistoric creature. Earlier this month Australian news services picked up the story of a "grey nomad," as retirees who travel the country extensively are known, who found fossils of an ichthyosaur when he stopped to use the toilet in northwest Queens...
May 13, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Texas Gets a New State Dinosaur
A few months ago my colleague Mark Strauss mentioned the controversy surrounding the state dinosaur of Texas. Previously the state's patron dinosaur was the sauropod Pleurocoelus, but this has turned out to be a mistake. Pleurocoelus was initially named for bones found in Maryland and the same name...
May 08, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Swimming Proto-Birds?
During the past decade, numerous discoveries have been made that have confirmed the hypothesis that birds evolved from dinosaurs. These fossils have given paleontologists important insight into how adaptations like feathers evolved, but one of the most hotly debated topics in paleobiology is how bi...
May 07, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
What's New About Hadrosaur Goo
One of the first things I learned about dinosaur fossils was that soft tissues are never preserved. Impressions of skin, hair, and even internal organs can leave their mark in the fossil record, but no one is ever going to find an intact, non-fossilized Tyrannosaurus heart. Like many of the things ...
May 06, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Five Dinosaurs I Would Love to See
It may never be possible to create a real-life Jurassic Park, but if I were given the task of picking which dinosaurs to bring back to life, there are a few that would be at the top of my list. I would love to be able to see all dinosaurs in the flesh, of course, but here are five (in no particular...
May 05, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
A History of Paleontology Illustration
Since its inception, the science of paleontology has been closely tied to art. Be it illustrations of bones or restorations of what extinct animals might have looked like, art has been essential to this science. That is why Jane Davidson's A History of Paleontology Illustration is such a valuable b...
May 01, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Dino Blog Carnival #7 -- Dinosaur Valley, Free Tattoo Designs, More Museum Reviews
Down in the Valley: In the 1930s, residents near the Berkshire Mountains in Massachusetts named a strip of land “Pioneer Valley” in a bid to attract tourists with imagery of colonial frontier life. But, I guess with everyone struggling in a tough economy, settler life doesn’t quite hold the escapis...
April 30, 2009 |
By Mark Strauss
Much Ado About Chicxulub
Mass extinction is an extremely difficult subject to study. It is one thing to identify a mass extinction in the fossil record, but it is quite another to be able to fully explain its cause. It is not surprising, then, that the triggers for the great mass extinctions in earth's history are hotly de...
April 29, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
So You Want to Be a Paleontologist?
Of all the people who have said they wanted to be paleontologists someday, how many have actually realized their dream? Probably very few. Some people develop other interests or find a career that they feel better suits them, but of the pool of "would-be" paleontologists there are quite a few who s...
April 28, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Xiongguanlong: A New, Long-nosed Tyrannosaurid
Even though Tyrannosaurus has been a dinosaur celebrity for a century, we have only recently begun to understand how it evolved. For many years it seemed to be a larger and deadlier version of earlier carnivorous dinosaurs like Allosaurus, but recent discoveries have placed Tyrannosaurus and its re...
April 27, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
No Time for Protohadros
Time is running out for paleontologists studying a Cretaceous fossil site in North Arlington, Texas. As reported by CBS 11, paleontologists from the University of Texas only have about five months to finish their work before they will have to make way for a huge development project. This is unfortu...
April 23, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
A Paleontologist's Long-Lost Lunchbox
Digging up fossils can be hard work, and it is important for any fossil hunter to pack a hearty lunch to keep their strength up. Apparently that is what the 19th century amateur paleontologist William Parker Foulke did. As reported in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Foulke's lunchbox has recently been f...
April 22, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Discovering the Titanoboa
As part of a multi-organizational team, Smithsonian scientist Carlos Jaramillo uncovered the fossils of a gigantic snake
April 20, 2009 |
By Bruce Hathaway
Dinosaurs and Cavemen (sigh) to Invade Binghamton in 2010
Right about this time in 2007, the creationist cartoonist Johnny Hart, creator of the "The Wizard of ID" and "B.C.," passed away. While many people have placed cavemen and dinosaurs together out of ignorance or artistic laziness, Hart truly believed that his cartoon B.C. contained at least a minor...
April 17, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Plaster Your Walls With Paleo-Art!
There are a lot of great paleo-artists these days, but one of my favorites is Douglas Henderson. His illustrations transcend the medium used to create them and look like snapshots from deep time. I'm not kidding—Henderson's art really looks like photos from a paleo-safari.Many times such beautiful ...
April 16, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Christopher Lee Doesn't Know Much About Dinosaurs
I can't say I am a huge fan of British actor Christopher Lee, but he has done some good work. From his role as Lord Summerisle in the original Wicker Man to his more recent appearances as Saruman in the Lord of the Rings, he has brought a number of challenging roles to life. In his gig hosting the ...
April 15, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
