Skip to main content

Home/ SciByte/ Group items tagged dinosaur

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
Mars Base

NASA's Nodosaur Track | Dinosaur Tracking - 0 views

blogs.smithsonianmag.com/...nasas-nodosaur-track

scibyte60 dinosaur

shared by Mars Base on 24 Aug 12 - No Cached
  • Last fall, fossil tracker Ray Stanford and paleontologists David Weishampel and Valerie Deleon announced something wonderful–a rare impression of a baby ankylosaur
  • the fossil is even more spectacular given the rarity of dinosaur bones found in the area
  • Paleontologists have discovered teeth and bone fragments over the years–including bones from “Capitalsaurus” in Washington, D.C.–but even partially complete skeletons remain elusive
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • Dinosaur tracks are far more common
  • Stanford may have discovered a footprint of an adult ankylosaur in an unexpected place.
  • the print sits on the property of a NASA‘s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland
  • Stanford stumbled across the lone track earlier this summer and recently led NASA scientists out to the site to show them the fossil depression
  • the track has started to erode, and may have been damaged by a lawnmower, the roughly 112-million-year-old track still shows four toe imprints
  • member of the heavily-armored ankylosaur subgroup that lacked tail clubs but often sported prominent spikes along their sides
  • Officials
  • are already moving to protect the fossil, and they plan to bring in paleontologists to look for other dinosaur tracks
  • it seems that there is more than just a lone track at the spaceflight facility. When Stanford took the NASA scientists out to the site, he and other researchers found several more possible dinosaur tracks. The high-tech NASA facility may have been founded on a Cretaceous dinosaur stomping ground.
Mars Base

Muscle reconstruction reveals how dinosaurs stood - 0 views

phys.org/...n-reveals-dinosaurs-stood.html

scibyte52 dinosaur

shared by Mars Base on 21 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • Much is known about the dinosaurs that walked on 4 legs like Stegosaurus and Triceratops, but their stance has been a topic of debate
  • reconstructed the muscles on dinosaur limb bones and combined this with what is already known about their skeletons to get a truer picture of how they stood.
  • team looked at the horned dinosaurs (ceratopsids), the armoured dinosaurs (stegosaurs), and the duck-billed dinosaurs (hadrosaurs), 3 groups of ornithischian dinosaurs.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • studied more than 200 dinosaur fossil bone specimens, looking at how muscles and soft tissue attach to forelimbs, hind limbs, hip bones and vertebrae
  • results suggest the front limbs of the ceratopsids and the stegosaurs had elbows that were bent and held slightly out from the sides of the body
  • hadrosaurs held their forelimbs quite close together.
  • 'If a muscle is present in birds, and it is also present in crocodiles, then we can be quite sure it was also present in the dinosaurs,' says Maidment. 'By looking at all of the limb muscles in crocodiles and birds through dissection, we can build up a picture of the limb muscles in the dinosaurs.'
  • scientists use data from the dinosaurs' closest living relatives, birds and crocodiles.
  • Although their skeletons were very similar, the team found that the muscles were different
  • more diverse methods of locomotion than previously thought.
  • the shape of the bones alone does not tell the full story
  • We've already begun doing this and are producing 3D computational models of the limbs to look at how the muscles worked as the animals moved
  • Mars Base on 21 Jun 12
     
    The results suggest the front limbs of the ceratopsids and the stegosaurs had elbows that were bent and held slightly out from the sides of the body (as though it was half-way through a press up). In comparison the hadrosaurs held their forelimbs quite close together. Until now, scientists have just used the fossil skeletons to reconstruct what a dinosaur looked like. However, the team says the skeleton alone isn't a good predictor of how the animal stood, and it is crucial to look at the soft tissue as well. This also has implications for scientists who study behaviour an
Mars Base

High-School Student Finds Bumpy-Headed Baby Dino | LiveScience - 0 views

www.livescience.com/2-baby-dinosaur-discovery.html

scibyte107 dinosaur

shared by Mars Base on 27 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • A dinosaur skeleton discovered by
  • d high-school student turns out to be the smallest, youngest and most complete duck-billed dinosaur of its kind ever found.
  • This Cretaceous-era herbivore, Parasaurolophus, walked the Earth some 75 million years ago.
  • ...31 more annotations...
  • dinosaurs in this genus are best known for their impressive tube-shaped head crests, which may have been used for display or perhaps to amplify the animals' calls
  • specimen
  • was so young that its crest was a mere bump on its head.
  • Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology in Claremont, Calif
  • is affiliated with The Webb Schools, a private high-school campus outside of Los Angeles
  • The students at the schools participate in paleontology fieldwork as part of their coursework
  • in 2009
  • a group of students were prospecting for fossils in Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, surveying ground
  • already covered
  • spotted a little sliver of bone sticking out from under a boulder and alerted
  • thought it looked like a piece of dinosaur rib — nice, but not really worth the trouble of excavating.
  • the other side of the boulder
  • what looked like a large cobblestone
  • . A dinosaur skull
  • The team had to line up permits to excavate on the public land
  • returned in 2010 to dig the bones from the ground
  • 800-pound (363 kilograms) armor of rock, the bones had to be airlifted out of the rugged backcountry by helicopter
  • After 1,300 painstaking hours of cleaning, chiseling and picking, technicians revealed the fossil buried in all that stone
  • paleontologists realized they had an amazing example of a baby Parasaurolophus
  • they were able to sample the baby's leg bone. As dinosaur bones grow, they develop ring patterns, much like trees
  • didn't have any rings at all
  • that this animal was under a year old when it died
  • The infant dinosaur was already 6 feet (1.8 meters) long
  • duck-billed dinos hatched at about the same size as a human infant
  • "Joe" was already sprouting a crest bump so young suggests that Parasaurolophus started growing its crest earlier than other duck-billed dinosaurs.
  • "Joe" will go on display at the Alf museum beginning
  • Oct. 22
  • A digital exploration of the skeleton will also be available at dinosaurjoe.com.
  • the student who found the little duck-bill,
  • now in college, studying geology
  • understand how Parasaurolophus evolved that big crest, just by shifting around events in its development
Mars Base

Scarred Duckbill Dinosaur Escaped T. Rex Attack - 0 views

news.nationalgeographic.com/...us-dinosaur-wound-scar-science

scibyte85 dinosaur

shared by Mars Base on 01 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • A scar on the face of a duckbill dinosaur received after a close encounter with a Tyrannosaurus rex is the first clear case of a healed dinosaur wound, scientists say.
  • A teardrop-shaped patch of fossilized skin about 5 by 5 inches (12 by 14 centimeters) that was discovered with the creature's bones and is thought to have come from above its right eye
  • The lucky dinosaur was an adult Edmontosaurus annectens, a species of duckbill dinosaur that lived
  • ...27 more annotations...
  • about 65 to 67 million years ago
  • The skull
  • also showed signs of trauma
  • from the size and shape of the marks on the bone
  • paleontologist at the Palm Beach Museum of Natural History
  • speculate the creature was attacked by a T. rex
  • , though still unproven, that both the skin wound and the skull injury were sustained during the same attack,
  • . The wound "was large enough to have been a claw or a tooth,"
  • also compared the dinosaur wound to healed wounds on modern reptiles, including iguanas, and found the scar patterns to be nearly identical.
  • Phil Bell, a paleontologist with the Pipestone Creek Dinosaur Initiative in Canada
  • not convinced, however, that it was caused by a predator attack
  • The size of the scar is relatively small
  • , and would also be consistent with the skin being pierced in some other accident such as a fall.
  • certainly the marks that you see on the skull, those are [more consistent] with Tyrannosaur-bitten bones,"
  • Prior to the discovery, scientists knew of one other case of a dinosaur wound.
  • But in that instance, it was an unhealed wound that scientists think was inflicted by scavengers after the creature was already dead
  • It's very likely that this particular
  • wasn't the only dinosaur to sport scars, whether from battle wounds or accidents
  • Just how Edmontosaurus survived a T. rex attack is still unclear
  • . "Escape from a T. rex is something that we wouldn't think would happen,"
  • Duckbill dinosaurs
  • were not without defenses.
  • , for example, grew up to 30 feet (9 meters) in length, and could swipe its hefty tail or kick its legs to fell predators.
  • Furthermore, they were fast
  • had very powerful [running] muscles, which would have made them difficult to catch once they'd taken flight,"
  • Duckbills were also herd animals, so maybe this one escaped with help from neighbors
  • Figuring out the details of the story is part of what makes paleontology exciting
Mars Base

New dinosaur found in Portugal, largest terrestrial predator from Europe -- ScienceDaily - 0 views

www.sciencedaily.com/...140305191427.htm

scibyte123 dinosaur

shared by Mars Base on 06 Mar 14 - No Cached
  • new dinosaur species found in Portugal may be the largest land predator discovered in Europe, as well as one of the largest carnivorous dinosaurs from the Jurassic
  • Scientists discovered bones belonging to this dinosaur north of Lisbon
  • They were originally believed to be
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • a dinosaur species from North America
  • Closer comparison of the shin bone, upper jawbone, teeth, and partial tail vertebrae suggest
  • a new species name
  • had blade-shaped teeth up to 10 cm long, which indicates it may have been at the top of the food chain in the Iberian Peninsula roughly 150 million years ago
  • scientists estimate that the dinosaur could reach 10 meters long and weigh around 4 to 5 tons
  • The number of teeth, as well as size and shape of the mouth, may differentiate the European and the American
  • the mouth bones have a different shape and structure
  • is not the largest predatory dinosaur we know
  • With a skull of 115 cm, Torvosaurus gurneyi was however one of the largest terrestrial carnivores at this epoch
  • an active predator that hunted other large dinosaurs, as evidenced by blade shape teeth up to 10 cm
  • evidences of closely related dinosaurs suggest that this large predator may have already been covered with proto-feathers
Mars Base

A 'chicken from hell' dinosaur: Large feathered dinosaur species discovered in North Am... - 0 views

phys.org/...-dinosaur-large-feathered.html

scibyte125 dinosaur

shared by Mars Base on 20 Mar 14 - No Cached
  • Scientists
  • unveiled the discovery, naming and description of a sharp-clawed, 500-pound, bird-like dinosaur
  • that roamed the Dakotas with T. rex 66 million years ago
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • 11 ½-foot-long
  • "It was a giant raptor, but with a chicken-like head and presumably feathers
  • stood about 10 feet tall
  • Three partial skeletons of the dinosaur – almost making up a full skeleton – were excavated from the uppermost level of the Hell Creek rock formation in North and South Dakota
  • The new dinosaur was 11 ½ feet long, almost 5 feet tall at the hip and weighed an estimated 440 to 660 pounds
  • Anzu is the largest oviraptorosaur found in North America
  • Oviraptorosaurs are a group of dinosaurs that are closely related to birds and often have strange, cassowary-like crests on their heads
  • The researchers believe Anzu, with large sharp claws, was an omnivore, eating vegetation, small animals and perhaps eggs while living on a wet floodplain
  • One appears to have a broken and healed rib, and the other has evidence of some sort of trauma to a toe
  • Like many "new" dinosaurs, Anzu wyliei fossils were discovered some years ago, and it took more time for researchers to study the fossils and write and publish a formal scientific description
Mars Base

Scientists study rare dinosaur skin fossil to determine skin colour for first time - 0 views

phys.org/...rare-dinosaur-skin-fossil.html

shared by Mars Base on 04 May 13 - No Cached
  • this is only the third three-dimensional dinosaur skin specimen ever found worldwide
  • One of the only well preserved dinosaur skin samples ever found is being tested at the Canadian Light Source (CLS) synchrotron to determine skin colour and to explain why the fossilized specimen remained intact after 70-million years.
  • the hadrosaur, a duck-billed dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous period (100-65 million years ago), was found close to a river bed near Grande Prairie, Alberta.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • One question is whether the hadrosaur skin was green or grey, like most dinosaurs are portrayed, or was it a completely different colour
  • the CLS to look at unique structures called melanosomes, cellular organelles the contain pigments that control the color of an animal's skin.
  • "If we are able to observe the melanosomes and their shape, it will be the first time pigments have been identified in the skin of a dinosaur
  • There has been research that proved the colour of some dinosaur feathers, but never skin
  • Using light at the CLS mid-infrared (Mid-IR) beamline, Barbi and CLS scientists are also looking for traces of organic and inorganic elements that could help determine the hadrosaur's diet and why the skin sample was preserved almost intact
  • the sample is placed in the path of the infrared beam and light reflects off of it.
  • , chemical bonds of certain compounds will create different vibrations
  • For example, proteins, sugars and fats still found in the skin will create unique vibrational frequencies that scientists can measure
Mars Base

Eggs of enigmatic dinosaur discovered - 0 views

phys.org/...4-eggs-enigmatic-dinosaur.html

scibyte42 dinosaur

shared by Mars Base on 11 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • reported a 70 million years old pocket of fossilized bones and unique eggs of an enigmatic birdlike dinosaur in Patagonia.
  • unique are the two eggs preserved near articulated bones of its hindlimb. This is the first time the eggs are found in a close proximity to skeletal remains of an alvarezsaurid dinosaur
  • The dinosaur represents the latest survivor of its kind from Gondwana, the southern landmass in the Mesozoic Era
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • belongs to one of the most mysterious groups of dinosaurs, the Alvarezsauridae, and it is one of the largest members, 2.6 m, of the family
  • The two eggs found together with the bones during the expedition might have been inside the oviducts of the Bonapartenykus female when the animal perished
  • numerous eggshell fragments later found show considerable calcite resorption of the inner eggshell layer
  • suggest that at least some of the eggs were incubated and contained embryos at an advanced stage of their development.
  • analyzed the eggshells and found that it did not belong to any known category of the eggshell microstructure-based taxonomy
  • a new egg-family, the Arraigadoolithidae
  • using the electron scanning microscopy I observed unusual fossilized objects inside of the pneumatic canal of the eggshells
  • the first evidence of fungal contamination of dinosaur eggs
Mars Base

Dinosaur Debate Gets Cooking - Science News - 0 views

www.sciencenews.org/...Dinosaur_debate_gets_cooking

scibyte53 dinosaur

shared by Mars Base on 28 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • Annual growth lines etched in the femurs of 115 wild warm-blooded mammals such as giraffes, reindeer and gazelles are similar to those previously seen in the bones of reptiles and dinosaurs
  • People always said that mammals do not show these lines
  • like a myth that’s going around; you read it everywhere
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • people haven’t really studied mammals
  • In dinosaurs and reptiles, yearly cycles of growth and nutrition are stamped in the bones like the rings of a tree
  • months, animals pack on blood vessel-rich bone tissue
  • lean months they skimp, laying down only thin sheets
  • Under a microscope, the slender sheets of bone look like dark lines
  • “lines of arrested growth” or “rest lines” stripe the bones of both dinosaurs and reptiles, some scientists assumed that dinosaurs, like reptiles, were cold-bloode
  • new work shows that warm-blooded mammals have banded bones, too
  • Every mammal Köhler’s team examined showed cyclical growth
  • their specimens looked just like those seen in dinosaur fossils.
  • probably not going to close the debate whether dinosaurs were warm-blooded or not
  • the argument that [rest lines] mean cold-blooded is certainly not valid any longer
  • analyzed bone slices — as thin as strands of human hair — from 41 species of ruminants — mammals with four-chambered stomachs
  • Institute of Zoology at the University of Hamburg donated most of the skeletal specimens from its Oboussier collection
  • vast bunch of now-endangered and protected African animals gathered in the 1950s through the 1970s
Mars Base

T. Rex Has Another Fine, Feathered Cousin - Science News - 0 views

www.sciencenews.org/...other_fine%2C_feathered_cousin

scibyte41 dinosaur

shared by Mars Base on 05 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • From 125-million-year-old rocks, scientists have unearthed the remains of a new species of extensively feathered dinosaurs that weighed up to about 1,400 kilograms and stretched 9 meters from nose to tail.
  • fossils, from one adult and two younger dinos, were unearthed in northeast China
  • region known for keeping soft tissues of ancient animals well-preserved
  • ...17 more annotations...
  • Based on the shapes of the jaw and skull bones found in the fossils, the team concluded that the three animals belonged to the same species and were tyrannosaurs
  • broader classification of two-legged meat-eaters called theropods
  • biggest of the newly described creatures — the largest extensively feathered dino known to date — was about one-quarter the weight of its relative, Tyrannosaurus rex
  • smaller dinosaur is named Yutyrannus hauli, which translates to “beautiful feathered tyrant
  • new species had feathers that were at least 15 centimeters long and look as if they covered the dinosaur’s skin
  • might have given the dinosaur a shaggy appearance
  • the full extent of this covering is difficult to confirm because the specimens aren’t complete.
  • For the vast majority of dinosaurs we only have bone. We don’t have feathers or featherless skin
  • Full-feathered dinosaurs that have been discovered so far have been much smaller
  • much more likely to lose body heat because of their size
  • scientists thought these petite creatures used a fluffy layer to stay warm
  • study authors think that the newfound dinos might have also needed some insulation
  • But Norell is not convinced
  • Many large animals that live in warm climates, such as modern giraffes and wildebeests, have external covering but don’t need it for insulation, he says.
  • feathers might also have helped the dinosaurs show off and attract mates.
  • Other traits the new dinos had include a high, bumpy nose plate, known as a midline crest
  • unclear what type of posture the animals maintained, Sullivan estimates that the full-grown dino stood about 2.5 meters tall.
Mars Base

"Beautiful" Squirrel-Tail Dinosaur Fossil Upends Feather Theory - 0 views

news.nationalgeographic.com/...urs-fossil-science-proceedings

scibyte53 dinosaur

shared by Mars Base on 03 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • Previously, paleontologists have found feathers only on coelurosaurs—small, birdlike dinosaurs that evolved later than so-called megalosaurs suchas Sciurumimus.
  • the oldest known meat-eating dinosaur with feathers
  • hatchling had a large skull, short hind limbs, and long, hairlike plumage on its midsection, back, and tail.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Because Sciurumimus is from a completely different branch of the dinosaur family tree from the coelurosaurs, the new fossil suggests feathered dinosaurs were the norm, not the exception
Mars Base

Last meal found in stomach of fuzzy dinosaur | Fox News - 0 views

www.foxnews.com/...ound-in-stomach-fuzzy-dinosaur

scibyte61 dinosaur

shared by Mars Base on 30 Aug 12 - No Cached
  • The predator was roughly the size of a wolf, about 6 feet (2 meters) long, and had feathers or hairlike fuzz covering its body to help keep it warm
  • quintessential dinosaur environment, with lots of volcanic activity that periodically inundated the landscape and buried things within it with exquisite preservation
  • apparently dined on a birdlike, cat-size feathered dinosaur known as Sinornithosaurus
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • remains uncertain whether the dinosaurs actively hunted or scavenged these meals
  • the fact that Sinocalliopteryx gobbled at least two birds of the same species at about the same time "says chances are very good it was actively selecting its prey; that makes it a predator
Mars Base

Dinosaur fossils from China help researchers describe new 'Titan' -- ScienceDaily - 0 views

www.sciencedaily.com/...140129184853.htm

scibyte118

shared by Mars Base on 30 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • paleontologists has characterized a new dinosaur based on fossil remains found in northwestern China
  • The species, a plant-eating sauropod named Yongjinglong datangi, roamed during the Early Cretaceous period, more than 100 million years ago
  • At roughly 50-60 feet long, the Yongjinglong individual discovered was a medium-sized Titanosaur
  • ...19 more annotations...
  • Anatomical evidence, however, points to it being a juvenile; adults may have been larger.
  • Until very recently, the United States was the epicenter for dinosaur diversity, but China surpassed the U.S. in 2007 in terms of species found
  • The anatomical features of the bones bear some resemblance to another Titanosaur that had been discovered by paleontologists in China in 1929
  • the team was able to identify a number of unique characteristics
  • The shoulder blade was
  • nearly 2 meters, with sides that were nearly parallel, unlike many other Titanosaurs whose scapulae bow outward
  • an unfused portion of the shoulder blade indicated to the researchers that the animal under investigation was a juvenile or subadult
  • The scapula was so long, indeed, that it did not appear to fit in the animal's body
  • if placed in a horizontal or vertical orientation
  • Instead
  • suggest the bone must have been oriented at an angle of 50 degrees from the horizontal.
  • a full-grown adult might be larger than this 50-60 foot long individual
  • The ulna and radius were well preserved, enough so that the researchers could identify grooves and ridges they believe correspond with the locations of muscle attachments in the dinosaur's leg
  • the vertebrae had large cavities in the interior that the team believes provided space for air sacs in the dinosaur's body
  • It's believed that dinosaurs, like birds, had air sacs in their trunk, abdominal cavity and neck as a way of lightening the body
  • the longest tooth they found was nearly 15 centimeters long
  • the discovery point to the fact that Titanosaurs encompass a diverse group of dinosaurs,
  • it was once thought that sauropods dominated herbivorous dinosaur fauna during the Jurassic but became almost extinct during the Cretaceous
  • n other parts of the world, particularly in South America and Asia, sauropod dinosaurs continued to flourish in the Cretaceous
Mars Base

Warm and fuzzy T. rex? New evidence surprises - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...012-04-fuzzy-rex-evidence.html

scibyte41 dinosaur

shared by Mars Base on 05 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • Artists' depiction of Yutyrannus huali. Artwork by Lida Xing and Yi Liu.
  • discovery of a giant meat-eating dinosaur sporting a downy coat has some scientists reimagining the look of Tyrannosaurus rex.
  • making it the largest feathered dinosaur ever found.
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • Scientists have long debated whether gigantic dinosaurs lost their feathers the bigger they got or were just not as extensively covered.
  • this is the first direct sign of a huge, shaggy dinosaur
  • name is a blend of Latin and Mandarin, which translates to "beautiful feathered tyrant."
  • recovered from a quarry in China's Liaoning province by a private fossil dealer
  • Most striking were the remains of down-like feathers on the neck and arm
  • coverage was patchy, scientists suspected the species had feathers over much of its body
  • would have felt like touching "long, thick fur
  • compared it to the feathers of an emu.
  • Y. huali would have reached T. rex's chest.
  • dino-fuzz likely provided insulation, though camouflage or showing it off like a peacock could not be ruled out.
  • Since T. rex is related to this newfound feathery species, chances are good that T. rex was feathered as well
Mars Base

Nest Full Of Baby Dinosaurs Discovered | Fox News - 0 views

www.foxnews.com/...full-baby-dinosaurs-discovered

scibyte22

shared by Mars Base on 18 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • A 70-million-year-old nest of the dinosaur Protoceratops andrewsi has been found with evidence that 15 juveniles were once inside it
  • finding multiple juveniles in the same dino nest is quite rare
  • analyzed the dinosaur remains along with the nest, which measured about 2.3 feet in diameter and was round and bowl-shaped
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • found at Djadochta Formation, Tugrikinshire, Mongolia,
  • researchers conclude that the 15 dinosaurs all show juvenile characteristics
  • At least 10 of the 15 fossil sets are complete
  • nest further implies that parental care was provided.
  • Mongolia was, at the time, a place with a variety of theropod dinosaurs, some of whom likely ate babies such as these
  • The most obvious of these, found in the same deposits, is the (in)famous Velociraptor
Mars Base

Four-winged dinosaur's feathers were black with iridescent sheen - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...feathers-black-iridescent.html

scibyte37 dinosaur

shared by Mars Base on 09 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • team of American and Chinese researchers
  • color and detailed feather pattern
  • Microraptor, a pigeon-sized, four-winged dinosaur that lived about 130 million years ago
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • fossilized plumage, which had hues of black and blue like a crow
  • earliest record of iridescent feather color
  • Although its anatomy is very similar to birds, Mircroraptor is considered a non-avian dinosaur
  • placed in the group of dinosaurs called dromaeosaurs that includes Velociraptor
  • color displayed by many modern birds is produced partially by arrays of pigment-bearing organelles called melanosomes
  • t a hundred of which can fit across a human ha
  • melanosome's structure is constant for a given color
  • imaging power of scanning electron microscopes, paleontologists recently started analyzing the shape of melanosomes in well-preserved fossilized feather imprints
  • comparing these patterns to those in living birds, scientists can infer the color of dinosaurs that lived many millions of years ago
  • Iridescence is widespread in modern birds and is frequently used in displays
  • Statistical analysis of the data predicts that Microraptor was completely black with a glossy, weakly iridescent blue sheen.
  • researchers also made predictions about the purpose of the dinosaur's tail
  • Once thought to be a broad, teardrop-shaped surface meant to help with flight
  • researchers think that the tail feather was ornamental and likely evolved for courtship and other social interactions, not for aerodynamics
  • actually much narrower with two elongate feathers
  • findings also contradict previous interpretations that Microraptor was a nocturnal animal because dark glossy plumage is not a trait found in modern nighttime birds.
Mars Base

Dinosaur Bone Damaged in WWII Revealed with 3D Printing | LiveScience - 0 views

www.livescience.com/-dinosaur-bone-3d-printed.html

scibyte111 dinosaur

shared by Mars Base on 02 Dec 13 - No Cached
  • belongs to the Museum of National History in Berlin
  • During World War II, a bomb fell on the museum's east wing, collapsing the basement where dinosaur fossils were stored
  • Making matters worse, bones from two separate expeditions had been housed in the same area
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • One expedition, in Tanzania, ran from 1909 to 1913 and brought back 235 tons of fossils, labeled with letters based on their locations.
  • The other fossils came from a 1909 discovery in Halberstadt, Germany. Those bones also used a letter-based label system
  • individual animals
  • By comparing the scans to sketches of the long-ago digs, the researchers determined that the vertebra came from the Halberstadt dig in Germany
  • The scans showed a fractured bone. Some of the cracks were no doubt from fossilization
  • But one crunched-up corner was likely the result of the bombing
  • To recreate the bone as it was before the bombing, the researchers took data from the CT scan and built a blueprint to 3D print the fossil
  • When the process was done
  • The researchers were even able to print the bone chip from the bombing damage, which fit into the rest of the vertebra like a puzzle piece.
  • Mars Base on 02 Dec 13
     
    Dinosaur Bone Damaged in WWII Revealed with 3D Printing
Mars Base

Baby Mammoths & Feathered Dinosaurs | SciByte | Jupiter Broadcasting - 0 views

www.jupiterbroadcasting.com/...feathered-dinosaurs-scibyte-41

scibyte42 dinosaur

shared by Mars Base on 12 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • Baby Mammoths & Feathered Dinosaurs | SciByte 41
  • April 10, 2012
  • More Fine Feathered Dinosaurs
Mars Base

North America's Biggest Dinosaur Unearthed In New Mexico | Fox News - 1 views

www.foxnews.com/...nosaur-unearthed-in-new-mexico

scibyte25

shared by Mars Base on 09 Dec 11 - No Cached
  • North America's biggest dinosaur has been unearthed
  • it once called New Mexico home.
  • titanosaurus was documented in a recent issue of Acta Palaeontologica Polonica published on Dec. 6.
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • Alamosaurus sanjuanensis
  • A cousin of the Diplodocus
  • stumbled upon the bones during a dig in the New Mexico desert back in 2004
  • after the full bone had been freed, Fowler said the trip back to the truck was the hardest part of the entire process
  • There was only two of us out there, and it was about 1.2 miles
  • Alamosaurus vertebra that Fowler and Sullivan found puts the dinosaur in the same category as other Titanosaurus sauropods discovered in South America
  • Argentinosaurus and the Puertasaurus which both could weigh up to 80 – 100 metric tons
  • the Alamosaurus they discovered could potentially be the same size.
  • new questions have emerged as to the behavior of sauropods in North America
  • These dinosaurs are found primarily in the south, only getting as far north as Utah, leading Fowler and other researchers to wonder about their preferred environment
  • Perhaps they actually emigrated in from South America during this time, and maybe they just haven’t got as far north quite yet
Mars Base

Dinosaurs were lighter than previously thought, new study shows - 0 views

phys.org/...ighter-previously-thought.html

scibyte50 dinosaur

shared by Mars Base on 06 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • Scientists have developed a new technique to accurately measure the weight and size of dinosaurs and discovered they are not as heavy as previously thought.
  • biologists used lasers to measure the minimum amount of skin required to wrap around the skeletons of modern-day mammals, including reindeer, polar bears, giraffes and elephants
  • discovered that the animals had almost exactly 21% more body mass than the minimum skeletal 'skin and bone' wrap volume, and applied this to a giant Brachiosaur skeleton
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • Previous estimates of this Brachiosaur's weight have varied, with estimates as high as 80 tonnes
  • Manchester team's calculations – published in the journal Biology Letters – reduced that figure to just 23 tonnes
  • new technique will apply to all dinosaur weight measurements
  • One of the most important things palaeobiologists need to know about fossilised animals is how much they weighed
  • surprisingly difficult
  • laser scanned various large mammal skeletons, including polar bear, giraffe and elephant
  • This has the advantage of requiring minimal user intervention and is therefore more objective and far quicker
1 - 20 of 69 Next › Last »
Showing 20▼ items per page