Dino-Eating Snake Makes Hiss-tory

(NEWSER) - A 45-foot, 1.25-ton snake stalked the jungles of South America in the period shortly after dinosaurs went extinct, the Times of London reports. Researchers have found 28 individual “Titanoboas” in Colombia’s Cerrejon Coal Mine; with every specimen at least 40 feet long, scientists say it’s likely some of the snakes could’ve reached much larger sizes. More»

Heritage Auctions ignores Mongolia's restraining order

(NEWSER) - A New York auction house sold off a dinosaur skeleton for $1 million yesterday despite a restraining order from the Mongolian government, which said the find had been illegally exported, New Scientist reports. Heritage Auctions kept mum about the seller and winning bidder, and said it had "legal assurances" that the near-complete tyrannosaurus "was obtained legally." A lawyer for Mongolia, however, said the auction house planned to hold back the sale until courts settled the dispute. More»

How a single horn could cement a theory

(NEWSER) - It’s just one horn, not quite a foot and a half long, but scientists say a newly discovered fossil could clinch the theory that a falling asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs. Skeptics of the scenario have always pointed out that we’ve found no dinosaur fossils dated within the 3 million years before the meteor hit, the Telegraph explains. Until now, that is. More»

Aquatic dinosaur had 8-foot skull

(NEWSER) - The 50-foot monster was the terror of the Earth's oceans some 150 million years ago, with its giant head packing a crocodile-esque jaw and razor sharp teeth that savaged anything in its way. Or at least that's the picture that's emerging of the pliosaur, as imaging scientists and paleontologists use a powerful CT scanner to paint a 3D image of the beast, the BBC reports. The fossil being examined, an 8-foot skull, would have dwarfed other pliosaurs. "This creature had an enormously powerful bite, it could have bitten a car in half," says a paleontologist. More»

Mystery dinosaur offers link to first birds

(NEWSER) - It had a mysterious hump over its pelvis and feather-attachment bumps on its forearms: Meet the newly discovered Concavenator corcovatus, a dinosaur scientists hope will offer clues about the emergence of the first birds. Paleontologists unearthed the dino, a member of the theropod family, in central Spain. And while its feather-attachment bumps closely resemble those found in modern birds, it is not closely related to any previously known birds or feathered dinosaurs. More»