LiveScience Nov 14, 08 2:00 PM CST
(Newser)
-
The contents of a fossilized dinosaur nest may help resolve the age-old chicken-and-egg question, LiveScience reports. That birds evolved from dinosaurs is no secret, but the new discovery shows that the pointy-ended bird egg developed before the bird itself, paleontologists say. The nest is believed to have belonged to one of two small, carnivorous dinosaur species.
More »
glossies
Travelers can unearth lost treasures from Colo. to Easter Island
Travel Leisure Sep 9, 08 3:06 PM CDT
(Newser)
-
Travelers seeking more than a beach and a Daiquiri on their next trip can try digging up ancient civilizations. Travel + Leisure lists the trips that let you uncover lost worlds: Ica Desert of Peru: Hikers can discover preserved shark teeth, fossilized whales, and even extinct creatures on this ancient former seafloor. Costs no more than the price of a local guide.
More »
Study says birds are dinosaurs' closest living descendants
Washington Post Apr 24, 08 8:01 PM CDT
(Newser)
-
Dinosaurs are more closely related to birds than reptiles, protein extracted from a Tyrannosaurus rex bone suggests. T. rex collagen, the main protein in bones, is similar to chicken and ostrich collagen but much different than material from alligators and lizards, scientists say. The findings could remap the evolutionary tree according to molecular data rather than bone structure, the Washington Post reports.
More »
'Beelzebufo' munched on baby dinosaurs
Daily Telegraph (UK) Feb 19, 08 3:15 AM CST
(Newser)
-
Fossil hunters digging in Madagascar have discovered a 70 million-year-old, 10 pound ancestor of the horned frog. Over twice as large as its modern-day descendants, the "slightly squashed beach-ball" shaped creature probably lunched on small lizards and baby dinosaurs, and has earned the charming nicknames "frog from hell" and "Beelzebufo," reports the Daily Telegraph .
More »
New find reveals crested duckbill hunted by cousin of T. rex
Reuters Feb 13, 08 12:08 PM CST
(Newser)
-
A newly discovered duck-billed dinosaur lived on a "very Mediterranean-like" Mexican beach 72 million years ago, paleontologists say. A fossilized skeleton of Velafrons coahuilensis was found in the north-central state of Coahuila—the most complete dinosaur ever found in Mexico, Reuters reports. "Velafrons was probably a beach bum," says one paleontologist. The dino would have been about 30 feet long.
More »
Disease-carrying insects may have contributed to dinosaur extinction
Guardian (UK) Jan 9, 08 1:07 PM CST
(Newser)
-
Disease-carrying insects may have contributed to the extinction of the dinosaurs around 65 million years ago, entomologists write in a new book. Scientists found malaria and other parasitic pathogens in insects preserved in amber, and the same parasites were found in fossilized dinosaur waste, the Guardian reports. New plants, pollinated by insects, forced the herbivores to adapt their diets or starve, the book also suggests.
More »
'Breathtaking' rare find reveals well-preserved soft tissue, skin
Washington Post Dec 3, 07 10:05 AM CST
(Newser)
-
A remarkably well-preserved hadrosaur discovered in North Dakota offers valuable clues about the appearance of dinosaurs, paleontologists say. Soft tissue such as skin and muscle were effectively "mummified" after the dinosaur died near a river, the Washington Post reports. "It's a dinosaur that was turned into stone, essentially," says the grad student who discovered it when he was in high school.
More »
Study finds plant-eater munched on ferns
National Geographic Nov 16, 07 2:44 AM CST
(Newser)
-
The long-necked plant-eating dinosaur Nigersaurus ate its meals off the ground rather than reaching into trees, National Geographic reports. Fossils of the 30-foot-long creature reveal that the animal probably nibbled on plants such as ferns and horsetails. “We have seen nothing like this dinosaur,” said a paleontologist at the University of Chicago.
More »
Research shows extinction resulted from not only an asteroid but volcanoes too
LiveScience Nov 13, 07 2:42 PM CST
(Newser)
-
Not one but two catastrophic events may have spelled destruction for the Age of Dinosaurs, previously thought to have ended when an asteroid or comet struck the earth. New research suggests the prehistoric giants died off in “an unfortunate coincidence of a one-two punch—of Deccan volcanism and then a hit from space," said a Princeton paleontologist.
More »
Footprints reveal Jurassic Park-style dinos with nasty claws
New Scientist Oct 29, 07 8:06 PM CDT
(Newser)
-
The dinos depicted in Jurassic Park really were big and nasty and hunted in packs, and fossilized footprints show where they did it: in China, about 100 millions ago. Standing 1.2 meters tall at the hip, the dromeosaurs ran in packs of six and held up big killing claws—just like in the movie. They weighed about 200 pounds, experts say, like a big cougar or jaguar.
More »
More about:
China
•
dinosaur
Reuters Oct 15, 07 4:45 PM CDT
(Newser)
-
The recently discovered fossil of a giant dinosaur that roamed South America 80 million years ago is not only remarkably complete but also represents a new species, Brazilian and Argentine paleontologists announced today. Futalognkosaurus dukei, a four-legged, long-necked herbivore, measured about 110 feet from head to tail and was four stories tall at the shoulder.
More »
Duck-billed plant-eater boasted 800 teeth
New Scientist Oct 3, 07 2:11 PM CDT
(Newser)
-
A mysterious dinosaur skull found in the Utah desert in 2004 is a new species, scientists say, and was "the Arnold Schwarzenegger of duck-billed dinosaurs." Gryposaurus monumentensis had such powerful jaws it could have chomped straight through tree branches, the New Scientist reports of the dinosaur, thought to have lived 75 million years ago in southern Utah.
More »
More about:
Utah
•
dinosaur
Computer projection shows 6-ton carnivore was fleet of foot
BBC Aug 22, 07 6:47 AM CDT
(Newser)
-
If a professional soccer player raced a T-Rex, chances are the athlete would wind up a dino snack, according to a new computer model projection. The simulation, which is the first to rely mainly on data from fossils rather than modern descendants of prehistoric beasts, showed the 6-ton carnivore steaming to a top speed of 18mph, the BBC reports.
More »
Associated Press Jul 4, 07 7:48 AM CDT
(Newser)
-
Chinese villagers in Henan province dug up a ton of fossilized dinosaur bones, using them to make traditional medicines, including soup and poultices. The villagers, not entirely inaccurately, believed that they were ‘dragon bones’ from flying dragons. Once they learned of their value to paleontologists, the villagers donated the uneaten bones to the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
More »
Spearfishing birds waddled the earth 36 million years ago
National Geographic Jun 26, 07 4:54 AM CDT
(Newser)
-
Penguins haven't always lived on ice, scientists have concluded after unearthing fossils of giant penguins in Peru's Atacama desert. The penguins, nearly human-sized at 4.5 feet tall, had extraordinarily long beaks apparently used for spearfishing, and waddled the earth some 36 million years ago, the National Geographic News reports .
More »
Fossil unearthed in Gobi desert reveals record of 26-foot-long 'gigantic chicken'
San Francisco Chronicle Jun 14, 07 2:27 PM CDT
(Newser)
-
The largest birdlike creature on record stood over 16 feet tall, weighed a ton and a half, and had sharp claws but no teeth. The Chinese paleontologist who unearthed the creature's thigh bone wasn't sure what it was, he tells the San Francisco Chronicle, but as he listed the possibilities for a colleague he realized: "We have a gigantic chicken!"
More »