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'Mother Lode' of Fossils Discovered in Canada - Scientific American - 0 views

www.scientificamerican.com/...f-fossils-discovered-in-canada

scibyte120 fossils

shared by Mars Base on 12 Feb 14 - No Cached
  • A treasure trove of fossils chiseled out of a canyon in Canada's Kootenay National Park rivals the famous Burgess Shale, the best record of early life on Earth, scientists say.
  • The Burgess Shale refers to both a fossil find and a 505-million-year-old rock formation made of mud and clay
  • Burgess Shale fossil quarry, a UNESCO World Heritage site located in Yoho National Park, is in a glacier-carved cliff in the Canadian Rockies.
  • ...18 more annotations...
  • The fossils were discovered in 1909. Since then, several other fossil sites have been found in the Burgess Shale, but none as rich as the original.
  • The fossils are extraordinary because they preserve soft parts of ancient animals in exceptional detail
  • soft parts are less likely to be imprinted in stone than harder parts, like bones
  • More than 200 animal species have been identified at the 1909 fossil site
  • The new site is also in the Burgess Shale formation, and seems to rival the 1909 original in fossil diversity and preservation
  • In just two weeks, the research team collected more than 3,000 fossils representing 55 species. Fifteen of these species are new to science.
  • there is a high possibility that we'll eventually find more species here than at the original Yoho National Park site, and potentially more than from anywhere else in the world
  • The new fossils were spotted in a mountain cliff, in Marble Canyon, about 26 miles (42 kilometers) southeast of the original Burgess Shale site
  • The newly discovered rocks are probably about 100,000 years younger than those at the first Burgess Shale site
  • Many of the fossils at the new site are better preserved than their quarry counterparts
  • The new fossils reveal the internal organs of several different arthropods, the most common type of animal in both the new and old Burgess Shale locations.
  • Retinas, corneas, neural tissue, guts and even a possible heart and liver were found.
  • the first time we're seeing these details
  • About half of the 55 species discovered at Marble Canyon so far are also found at the original Burgess Shale site
  • Some of the original site's rare species are more abundant in the canyon
  • Some species at Marble Canyon are also found in China's Chengjiang fossil beds, which are 10 million years older than the Burgess Shale
  • Until now, researchers thought these Cambrian animals went extinct by the time the Burgess Shale formed.
  • Their discovery in Canada means that many Cambrian life forms were more widespread and longer-lived than previously thought
Mars Base

True colors of some fossil feathers now in doubt (w/ Video) - 0 views

phys.org/...rue-fossil-feathers-video.html

scibyte88 Fossil-Feather

shared by Mars Base on 29 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • evidence for the colors of feathers—especially melanin-based colors—can be altered during fossilization
  • past reconstructions of the original colors of feathers in some fossil birds and dinosaurs may be flawed
  • In modern birds, black, brown, and some reddish-brown colors are produced by tiny granules of the pigment melanin
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • These features—called melanosomes—are preserved in many fossil feathers, and their precise size and shape have been used to reconstruct the original colors of fossil feathers.
  • had no idea whether melanosomes could survive the fossilisation process intact
  • experiments show that this is not the case. Our results cast a cautionary light on studies of fossil feather color and suggest that some previous reconstructions of the original plumage colors of fossils may not be accurate
  • experimental technique pioneered in the group's recent study on the colors of fossil insects
  • simulated high pressures and temperatures that are found deep under the Earth's surface
  • team used feathers of different colors and from different species, but the geometry of the melanosomes in all feathers changed during the experiments
  • This study will lead to better interpretations of the original plumage colors of diverse feathered dinosaurs and fossil birds
Mars Base

Amber discovery indicates Lyme disease is older than human race - 0 views

phys.org/...covery-lyme-disease-older.html

scibyte133 LymeDidease

shared by Mars Base on 31 May 14 - No Cached
  • Lyme disease is a stealthy, often misdiagnosed disease that was only recognized about 40 years ago
  • new discoveries of ticks fossilized in amber show that the bacteria which cause it may have been lurking around for 15 million years
  • The findings were made
  • ...13 more annotations...
  • studied 15-20 million-year-old amber
  • that offer the oldest fossil evidence ever found of Borrelia, a type of spirochete-like bacteria that to this day causes Lyme disease
  • In a related study
  • scientists announced the first fossil record of Rickettsial-like cells, a bacteria that can cause various types of spotted fever
  • it's worth considering that these tick-borne diseases may be far more common than has been historically appreciated
  • Those fossils from Myanmar were found in ticks about 100 million years old.
  • plant and animal life forms found preserved in amber
  • are very efficient at maintaining populations of microbes in their tissues, and can infect mammals, birds, reptiles and other animals
  • "In the United States, Europe and Asia, ticks are a more important insect vector of disease than mosquitos
  • A series of four ticks from Dominican amber were analyzed in this study
  • In a separate report, Poinar found cells that resemble Rickettsia bacteria, the cause of Rocky Mountain spotted fever and related illnesses
  • This is the oldest fossil evidence of ticks associated with such bacteria
  • Evidence suggests that dinosaurs could have been infected with Rickettsial pathogens
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

Hot-spring fossils preserve complete Jurassic ecosystem - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...ossils-jurassic-ecosystem.html

scibyte36 fossils

shared by Mars Base on 03 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • Scientists are uncovering a beautifully-preserved ecosystem from around a Jurassic hot spring, helping fill a gap in the fossil record of more than 300 million years.
  • Patagonia in southern Argentina, the San Agustin geothermal deposits include animals, plants, fungi and bacteria, preserved in three dimensions and with their internal structure largely intact.
  • date from around 150 million years ago
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • formed around an area where water heated deep underground rose to the surface
  • first time a hot-spring habitat from the Mesozoic era (from about 250 to 65 million years ago) has ever been discovered
  • Hot springs
  • are treasure troves for palaeontologists
  • the dissolved silica in their waters quickly penetrates and preserves the bodies of living things that die there
  • preserved in three dimensions rather than crushed into a two-dimensional film
  • It's a near-intact ecosystem that's beautifully preserved
  • We have the remains of everything from the bacteria living right around the hot spring vents all the way to the plants, crustaceans and insects living in wetlands further away and the trees and ferns from the forests around the margins. We also have evidence of how all these organisms interacted
  • The discovery of a rich assemblage of fossils from between these extremes could transform scientists' understanding of a vital stage in life's development
Mars Base

ScienceShot: Printing a Dinosaur | Science/AAAS | News - 0 views

news.sciencemag.org/...scienceshot-printing-dinosaur

scibyte111 dinosaur

shared by Mars Base on 02 Dec 13 - No Cached
  • The target fossil for the new study was a specimen that had been dug up from a German clay pit in the early 1900s
  • The object, still encased in much of the rock that had entombed it, had been slathered in concrete and then transported back to a museum in Berlin
  • struck by a bomb during World War II, sending the specimen and hundreds of others into a jumbled heap of rubble
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • Most of the fossils that weren’t blasted to dust had had their labels burned, so no one could identify what the remaining concrete jackets held or where they had been dug up
  • A CT scan of one such lump
  • revealed that it held a vertebra
  • from a Plateosaurus
  • the researchers report
  • That, in turn, allowed the researchers to determine where the fossil had originally been unearthed, among other details
  • Scientists have long used CT scans to peek inside fossil-bearing rocks, but the increasing use of 3D printers now enables them to make endless numbers of exact copies of those relics
  • The technique might even help museum folk speed up their analyses: By knowing what’s inside a lump of rock, researchers can determine which fossils are worth extracting, and which ones can wait
Mars Base

Paleontologists discover new fossil organism -- ScienceDaily - 0 views

www.sciencedaily.com/...140509172917.htm

scibyte130 fossils

shared by Mars Base on 10 May 14 - No Cached
  • Paleontologists have discovered a fossil of a newly discovered organism from the Ediacara Biota
  • Plexus ricei was a broadly curving tube that resided on the seafloor
  • Individuals range in size from 5 to 80 cm long and 5 to 20 mm wide
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • disappeared from the fossil record around 540 million years ago, just around the time the Cambrian Explosion of evolutionary history
  • "Ediacaran fossils are extremely perplexing: they don't look like any animal that is alive today, and their interrelationships are very poorly understood," said Lucas V. Joel
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

Pristine reptile fossil holds new information about aquatic adaptations - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...ne-reptile-fossil-aquatic.html

scibyte22

shared by Mars Base on 17 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • Extinct animals hide their secrets well, but an exceptionally well-preserved fossil of an aquatic reptile, with traces of soft tissue present, is providing scientists a new window into the behavior of these ancient swimmers
  • from the mosasaur family, a group of reptiles that lived between 65 and 98 million years ago
  • found in Western Kansas, and was submerged under a shallow sea at the time of the mosasaur's existence.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • analysis of mosasaur locomotion had been limited by a lack of soft tissue fossils, which was crucial for the scientists to truly understand the degree of aquatic adaptation that the creature had achieved
  • new findings, which include scales and skin impressions, suggest that the mosasaur was able to minimize its frictional drag in the water.
  • features suggest that it held the front of its body somewhat rigid during swimming, leading it to depend on the rear of its body and tail for propulsion
Mars Base

Team reveals oldest fossilized forest - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...-oldest-fossilized-forest.html

scibyte36

shared by Mars Base on 01 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • research team has now unearthed and investigated an entire fossil forest dating back 385 million years
  • dating back about 385 million years ago
  • For decades scientists did not know what the trees connected to the stumps looked like
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • found fossils of the tree's intact crown in a nearby location in 2004, and a 28-foot-long trunk portion in 2005
  • named one of the "100 top Science Stories of 2007" by Discover Magazine
  • They were able to determine that these trees actually resembled modern-day cycads or tree ferns, but interestingly enough, were not related to either one
  • how much we don't know but need to understand about our ancient past
  • forest began to emerge -- during the Middle Devonian period, about 385 million years ago – Earth experienced a dramatic drop in global atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and the associated cooling led ultimately to a period of glaciation.
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

Missing Piece of Long-Neck Dinosaur Finally Discovered: Scientific American - 0 views

www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm

scibyte110 dinosaur

shared by Mars Base on 14 Nov 13 - No Cached
  • The enamel is too thin and th
  • are way too long and skinny
  • The fossil teeth were embedded in a loose boulder that had eroded out of the hillside
  • ...22 more annotations...
  • evidence that passersby were chipping away at the exposed dinosaur bones in the rock, taking souvenirs.
  • Morrison sandstone surrounding the fragile fossils was so hard that Mossbrucker and his colleagues were afraid that trying to remove the rock would irreparably damage the bone.
  • in 2011, the museum acquired some state-of-the-art pneumatic tools that can remove hard rock without transmitting damaging vibrations to fossils embedded insid
  • cheeckbone nestles against the Apatosaurus maxilla and premaxillae, the bones of the snout, and tiny specks of fish bone surround the larger assemblage
  • snout is highlighting unknown anatomical features
  • including a large
  • hollow space in the skull, which would have influenced the tone of the Apatosaur's calls
  • Other long-necks had this space
  • but A. ajax's was particularly large
  • The discovery also reveals that Lakes' long-ago excavations were close to discovering yet another Apatosaur
  • Teeth found
  • were declared by Marsh in 1884 to belong to Diplodocus lacustris, another long-neck species
  • But those teeth, now held in Yale's collections, look just like Kevin's
  • , Diplodocus lacustris didn't exist — instead, Lakes found part of Kevin and missed the rest.
  • a slew of museum volunteers are still working to coax more of Kevin from its boulder
  • The specimen got its name simply because museum staff and guests found it amusing
  • The current plan is to cleave the block in half so that the pieces can be scanned with micro-CT (computed tomography
  • s technology would allow paleontologists to see inside the block and even to 3D-print a perfect copy of the bones inside without having to remove them physically
  • don't have to put the specimen at any more risk
  • and we still get the data we need
  • The process is slow going, however, in part because the team keeps finding bones in what they expected to be just rock
  • expects to publish his findings in about a year
Mars Base

Crow-Size Pterosaur Named After 9-Year-Old Fossil Hunter -- National Geographic - 0 views

news.nationalgeographic.com/...aurs-dinosaurs-science-animals

scibyte87 dinosaur

shared by Mars Base on 22 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • A new species of crow-size pterosaur has been named in honor of the nine-year-old fossil hunter who discovered it
  • While exploring the U.K.'s Isle of Wight (map) in 2008, the then-five-year-old Morris came across blackened "bones sticking out of the sand
  • The Morris family brought the fossil to paleontologist Martin Simpson at the University of Southampton, who, with the help of colleagues, identified it as a new species
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • In pterosaurs, certain parts of the skeleton, especially the skull and the pelvis, are really distinct between different [species
  • The newfound creature also belonged to a group of pterosaurs called the azhdarchoids
  • All are from the Cretaceous, all are toothless, and many—perhaps all—were especially well adapted for life in terrestrial environments like woodlands, tropical forests, and floodplains
  • From the size of the pelvis
  • estimate
  • had a wingspan of about 2.5 feet (75 centimeters) and was just over a foot (35 centimeters) from snout to tail, making it about the size of a gull or large crow.
  • also inspired study co-author Simpson to write a children's book entitled Daisy and the Isle of Wight Dragon.
  • V. daisymorrisae lived in 145 to 65 million years ago
  • it probably had a head crest, was a reasonably good walker and runner on the ground, and could expertly fly through dense forests.
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

"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

All Dinosaurs May Have Had Feathers - Science News - 0 views

www.sciencenews.org/...inosaurs_may_have_had_feathers

scibyte53 dinosaur

shared by Mars Base on 03 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • A newly discovered, nearly complete fossilized skeleton hints that all dinosaurs may have sported feathers.
  • Eventually, the study’s authors hope to figure out the color of the dinosaur’s feathers. But because color tests require fossil snippets, scientists would have to clip bits from the dinosaur’s remains. And since this specimen is one of a kind, researchers aren’t quite ready to disturb it.
  • So far, nearly all of the feathered dinosaurs ever discovered have come from eastern Asia. But excavators unearthed this fossil in southern Germany
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

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

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.
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