Category Archives: Dinosaurs

Discovery of fossil dino on nest

Scientists are celebrating the first discovery of a dinosaur preserved while sitting on a nest of eggs with fossilized embryos, including at least three that were visible.

The oviraptorosaur fossil was uncovered from rocks that are 70 million years old in Ganzhou City, China, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History (CMNH) said in a news release in January.

Oviraptorosaurs were part of a diverse group of feathered, bird-like dinosaurs that lived during the Cretaceous period.

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New item: Ninjatitan Dinosaur

Paleontologists discover oldest known fossils of Ninjatitan dinosaur in Argentina, confirming a theory that the Titanosaurs may have evolved first in what is now South America.

From Sci-News:

Paleontologists Discover Oldest Known Titanosaur

Mar 1, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Ninjatitan zapatai lived approximately 140 million years ago (Early Cretaceous epoch) in what is now Patagonia, Argentina.

Ninjatitan zapatai. Image credit: Jorge González.

Ninjatitan zapatai. Image credit: Jorge González.

Ninjatitan zapatai belongs to Titanosauria, a diverse group of sauropod (long-necked plant-eating) dinosaurs.

This group includes species ranging from the largest known terrestrial vertebrates to ‘dwarfs’ no bigger than elephants.

“During evolutionary history, sauropods had different moments, different pulses of gigantism, which were not only related to the group of titanosaurs,” said Dr. Pablo Ariel Gallina, a paleontologist at the Fundación Azara in Maimonides University and CONICET.

Read lots more:

http://www.sci-news.com/paleontology/ninjatitan-zapatai-09400.html

New fossil discovery suggests dinosaurs traveled across oceans

New fossil discovery suggests dinosaurs traveled across oceans

Duckbill dinosaurs evolved in North America, spreading to South America, Asia, Europe, and finally Africa.

(CNN)Fossils of a duckbill dinosaur have been discovered in Africa, leading experts to believe the species once traveled hundreds of kilometers across oceans to reach the continent.

The new dinosaur, Ajnabia odysseus, a member of the plant-eating duckbill dinosaur family, was discovered in rocks in a mine in Morocco, dating back some 66 million years to the end of the Cretaceous period.
Though some duckbill dinosaurs could reach up to 15 meters (49 feet) long, experts say that Ajnabia was comparatively tiny, measuring the size of a pony at three meters (10 feet).
Experts were puzzled at how the dinosaur ended up in Africa, which was an island continent and completely isolated by deep sea during the Late Cretaceous.

Dinosaur skeleton found by 12-year-old

Eat your heart out ,  Keith! A 12-Year old has found a dinosaur skeleton that has significant value to the field of paleontology!

Dinosaur skeleton found by 12-year-old

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/dinosaur-bones-drumheller-nathan-hrushkin-hadrosaur-1.5764218

Nathan and his father discovered the bones of a young hadrosaur, otherwise known as a duck-billed dinosaur. (Nature Conservancy of Canada)

Read more here

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Dinosaurs make house calls

From This morning’s Montreal Gazette: Jurassic World: Dominion is almost a year from theatrical release, but you can have a Velociraptor stomp through your house today — and all you need is a smartphone.

Google has launched a feature that renders 3D versions of dinosaurs seen in the 2015 film Jurassic World right in front of you, thanks to augmented reality (AR).

Google a dino’s species on your smartphone and tap “View in 3D” to rotate or zoom in. Then tap “View in your space.”

Viewable species include: Tyrannosaurus rex, Velociraptor, Triceratops, Spinosaurus, Stegosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Ankylosaurus, Dilophosaurus, Pteranodon and Parasaurolophus.

On Android, you can see 3D content with Android 7 and above and AR content with Arcore-enabled devices. On IOS, you can see 3D and AR content with IOS 11 and above.

New species of tyrannosaurus discovered in Alberta

Thanatotheristes — meaning “reaper of death” — is the first tyrannosaur species identified in Canada in 50 years

Canadian Geographic Magazine

An artist’s rendering of how Thanatotheristes might have looked when it ruled the Alberta wilderness 79 million years ago. (Illustration: Julius Csotonyi)

By February 19, 2020

Paleontologists at the University of Calgary and the Royal Tyrrell Museum have discovered a new species of predatory dinosaur in Alberta.

Called Thanatotheristes, which means “reaper of death,” the 79-million-year-old fossil is the oldest known tyrannosaur from North America and the first tyrannosaur species identified in Canada in 50 years.

Jared Voris, study lead author and a PhD student under University of Calgary professor Darla Zelenitsky, says he identified the new species because of unique features such as the ridges along its jawline.

The fragmentary fossil that Voris studied consisted of parts of a skull and jaw bones that were originally found by John and Sandra De Groot in 2010 about 200 kilometres southeast of Calgary.

“They’re vertical ridges that run the whole length of the jaw that we have, and there’s only a single row of them,” says Voris.

What makes these ridges unique is that only one other group of tyrannosaurs have similar ridges, but they weren’t in North America at the time, Voris adds.

Thanatotheristes

A closeup rendering of Thanatotheristes’ head, showing the vertical jaw ridges that helped scientists confirm it as a new species of tyrannosaur. (Illustration: Julius Csotonyi)

According to Zelenitsky, the discovery of this species tells us a lot about the ecosystem of the time as well. She says the differences in size, shape and other physical features among tyrannosaurs may be a result of adaptations to different geographical regions and environments, available prey and hunting strategies.

Alberta in the time of Thanatotheristes would likely have had a subtropical, temperate climate, similar to Louisiana today.

“This discovery is significant in that it adds to what we know about this poorly-known ecosystem in the Late Cretaceous of Alberta,” says Zelenitsky.

In this lush, biodiverse environment, Thanatotheristes would have been the apex predator, says Caleb Brown, study co-author and a curator at the Royal Tyrrell Museum.

“It would have been the big carnivore at the time. It would have fed on things like duck-billed dinosaurs and horn dinosaurs,” he says.

Darla Zelenitsky and Jared Voris with Thanatotheristes
University of Calgary professor Darla Zelenitsky and PhD student Jared Voris with fossil fragments of Thanatotheristes. (Photo: Royal Tyrrell Museum)

Citizen scientists essential to further discoveries

According to Brown, the most intriguing thing about the research is what more could have been known about Thanatotheristes had the fossils been better preserved.

“The specimen De Groot found obviously came from a skull that would have been completely put together at some point,” he says.

“What intrigues me is what would have happened if the specimen was found 20, 50 or 100 years ago. How much more complete would it have been, and how much more of the animal would we have known?”

Zelenitsky says the only way to know more is to keep looking.

“The issue is that a lot of these animals or species just aren’t preserved or haven’t been found yet by a paleontologist,” she says.

Brown agrees, adding that ordinary citizens can contribute by keeping an eye out for what they think could be fossils.

“A lot of our really important scientific discoveries in the last several decades have been made by members of the public and this is no exception,” he says.

“For every paleontologist, there are millions of people around, walking their dog, going for hikes, fishing in the river. If you find something you think is interesting, it probably is, so take a picture and report that to a museum because you might end up finding a new species of dinosaur like John De Groot.”

New Species of Dinosaur discovered in Brazil

National Geographic reports on the finding of a new dinosaur that walked on one toe like a horse. The full article, with a video, is here.

 

When Neurides Martins brushed the sediment from the tiny tooth, she knew she had found something special.

That tooth was the first piece of a new species of dinosaur, and an unusual one. Roughly the size of a Great Dane, the carnivore would have roamed the desert some 90 million years ago, walking upright on two legs and resting its weight on just one long clawed toe, the middle toe of three.

Almost 50 years ago, paleontologists found mysterious one-toed footprints in the region, but until now, no one knew what creature had made them. While its three functioning toes make the new species a theropod dinosaur like Tyrannosaurus rex, this rare anatomy makes it function essentially as if it were monodactyl, or one-toed, an adaptation that had not yet been recorded among Brazil’s dinosaurs.

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Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous on Netflix

Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous posts first teaser

There have been rumors for a “Jurassic World” series bubbling up for a while now and Netflix has made it official by releasing a teaser trailer for the animated ‘Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous!’ The return to the world created by “Jurassic Park” is a combined effort from DreamWorks Animation, Amblin Entertainment, and Universal.

Little is known about the series so far, but it will be set within the timeline from the 2015 release of ‘Jurassic World.’ The plot will have the show follow “a group of six teenagers chosen for a once-in-a-lifetime experience at a new adventure camp on the opposite side of Isla Nublar. But when dinosaurs wreak havoc across the island, the campers are stranded. Unable to reach the outside world, they’ll need to go from strangers to friends to family if they’re going to survive.”

 

Brontosaurus Had An Older, Massive Cousin In South Africa

Bones Reveal The Brontosaurus Had An Older, Massive Cousin In South Africa

An artist’s reconstruction of Ledumahadi mafube, which means “a giant thunderclap at dawn,” foraging during the early Jurassic in South Africa. Viktor Radermacher, University of the Witwatersrand

Millions of years before the brontosaurus roamed the Earth, a massive relative was lumbering around South Africa.

Scientists think this early Jurassic dinosaur was, at the time, the largest land creature ever to have lived. And unlike the even bigger creatures that came later, they think it could pop up on its hind legs.

They’ve dubbed the newly discovered dinosaur Ledumahadi mafube, which translates in the Sesotho language to “a giant thunderclap at dawn.” And the discovery sheds light on how giants like the brontosaurus got so huge.

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