Paleontology
Dino Day Care
When paleontologists Jack Horner and Bob Makela named a large hadrosaur that had been found among eggshells and nests in 1979, they called it Maisaura, the “good mother reptile.” The name suggested that the young of this genus were raised with motherly love. Producing eggs would be energetically ex...
December 22, 2008 |
By Brian Switek
Austroraptor: A giant, sickle-clawed killer
When Jurassic Park was released into theaters, scientists were quick to point out that the film featured super-sized Velociraptor. Even the largest of the dromaeosaurs then known, like Deinonychus, were puny compared to their on-screen cousins. The same year that the film was released, however, the...
December 19, 2008 |
By Brian Switek
Taking a Closer Look at Archaeopteryx
Ever since the first skeleton was found in 1861, the remains of the feathered dinosaur (and earliest known bird) Archaeopteryx have been highly prized for their potential to shed light on the origin of birds. There are about eight specimens presently known, many of which possess feather impressions...
December 17, 2008 |
By Brian Switek
From the Comic Books: The Secret Dinosaur War
They don’t make comics like The War That Time Forgot anymore, and after reading the complete run of the series, I can see why!Published by DC comics from 1960 to 1968, the series followed the exploits of American World War II soldiers as they faced dinosaurs and other prehistoric monsters. With tit...
December 15, 2008 |
By Brian Switek
Best Paleo Music Video Ever: Tap Your Toes to Tiktaalik
Oh, this will make you smile. Do you remember a fossil called Tiktaalik roseae that was discovered a few years ago? It's an important transition between aquatic and terrestrial animals; it probably lived in shallow water but had shoulders and wrists that allowed it to walk on land. Now a band call...
December 12, 2008 |
By Laura Helmuth
A New Discovery: Skorpiovenator, the Scorpion Hunter
A group of snub-nosed theropods called the Abelisauridae aren't as famous as predators such as Allosaurus or Tyrannosaurus, but they were every bit as scary. Aucasaurus, Rajasaurus, Rugops, and Kryptops lived in what is now South America and Africa, often alongside other predatory dinosaurs such as...
December 10, 2008 |
By Brian Switek
Is It Curtains for Jurassic Park IV?
When I know I’m in the mood for a movie but don’t know what I want to watch, I often put Jurassic Park III in the DVD player. Not because it’s a good movie—quite the contrary—but because I love seeing the digital dinos create havoc on-screen. The story might have been silly and the acting sub-par, ...
December 08, 2008 |
By Brian Switek
The International Dinosaur Illustration Contest
For as long as scientists have been studying dinosaurs, illustrators have been drawing them. Whether it's precise depictions of their bones or imaginative restorations of what dinosaurs might have been like in life, paleo-illustration has been a diverse and popular field for over 150 years.In honor...
December 05, 2008 |
By Brian Switek
Dinosaur Death Trap
About 90 million years ago, in what is now Mongolia, the ground collapsed beneath a group of immature Sinornithomimus that had been walking on the edge of a drying lake bed. The ostrich-like dinosaurs struggled to free themselves, clawing at the thick mud and calling out in desperation, but to no a...
December 04, 2008 |
By Brian Switek
Blog Carnival Edition #2, Part 2
Some Assembly Required: Dinochick has posted some very amusing, time-elapsed videos of replica dinosaur skeletons being put together at the Tellus Museum in Cartersville, Georgia.Fossil Fuel Initiative Fuels Controversy Over Fossils: The federal government recently opened tens of thousands of acres...
December 03, 2008 |
By Mark Strauss
The Dinosaur Vanishes
At many excavation sites, paleontologists find more material than they are able to dig out during one field season. Large skeletons, in particular, may require years of work, and there is always the risk that when the scientists return next year, the precious bones will be missing. Sometimes this i...
December 02, 2008 |
By Brian Switek
Dinosaur Blog Carnival Edition #2, Part I
New Blogs on the Block: The paleosphere offers a hearty welcome to Jeffrey Martz, a self-described “underemployed vertebrate paleontologist” who has started blogging over at Paleo Errata. (Originally, he wanted to call his website Bonerific, until he was wisely advised about the “complications” thi...
December 01, 2008 |
By Mark Strauss
Annual Dinosaur Dissection Day
According to paleontological lore, the 19th century naturalist T.H. Huxley was carving a goose for a holiday feast when he noticed something peculiar. The anatomy of the cooked bird was very similar to that of some dinosaurs, and soon afterwards Huxley proposed that dinosaurs were the animals from ...
November 27, 2008 |
By Brian Switek
T. Rex: The other white meat?
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! The Smithsonian staff will be taking the day off tomorrow to gather with family and eat our preferred turkey variant (turkey, tofurkey, turducken, etc.).So, with food on everyone’s minds, now seemed as good a time as any to address the inevitable question: What did din...
November 26, 2008 |
By Mark Strauss
Recommended Dinosaur Books
In response to my recent post “Dinosaurs Ain’t What They Used to Be,” reader romunov asks:
I remember one of my friends having a stack of dinosaur magazines, probably a translation from an American magazine (I was around 10 at the time) and found “dinosaurs” quite interesting. I’ve been studying fo...
November 21, 2008 |
By Brian Switek
What Good are Dinosaurs?
Among paleontologists, there is sometimes a feeling that dinosaur research is overhyped. Later this month at the Grant Zoology museum of University College London, paleontologist Mark Carnall will deliver a talk called “Dinosaurs are Pointless.” The description of the lecture describes dinosaur doc...
November 20, 2008 |
By Brian Switek
How Long Could You Survive Chained to a Bunk Bed with a Velociprator?
I could survive for 1 minute, 13 seconds chained to a bunk bed with a velociraptor Created by Bunk Beds.netLike many children, I was sometimes scared of monsters lurking in the closet or under the bed when I was young. What I would have done if one came after me, I don’t know, but thankfully the i...
November 19, 2008 |
By Brian Switek
Long Before Pepto-Bismol -- Dinosaur Poop, Revisited
At the beginning of the 19th century, paleontology was a new branch of science. People had been picking up fossils and trying to determine their significance for as long as anyone could recall, but the study of organic petrifactions was something new. Shells and teeth laid down in ancient marine en...
November 17, 2008 |
By Brian Switek
A Kerfuffle Revisited, and an Update on Tracks
The past few weeks have been busy for paleontologists; it's hard to keep up with all the new discoveries and announcements! Even "old" stories are still making waves on the web and in the media.Last week I wrote about the controversy over the new PLoS paper describing the dinosaur Aerosteon. In the...
November 14, 2008 |
By Brian Switek
Dinosaurs Ain’t What They Used to Be
I grew up with very different dinosaurs than the ones familiar to us today. The names might have been the same—Tyrannosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Triceratops, Stegosaurus—but they looked very different. The drab-colored, tail-dragging creatures looked at home in the steaming primeval swamps they stomped...
November 13, 2008 |
By Brian Switek
