dinosaurs
edyong | January 12, 2009Beipaiosaurus was among the strangest of dinosaurs. It looked like a fusion of body parts taken from several other species and united in the unlikeliest of proportions. It had a stocky body, long arms adorned with massive claws, a long neck topped by an incongruously small head, and a beaked mouth. Bizarre as this cocktail of features is, it's the animal skin that has currently warrants attention.
Fossils of Beipaiosaurus include impressions of its skin and these clearly show long, broad filaments clumped around its head, neck, rump and tail. They are feathers, but most unusual ones. Traces…
edyong | December 18, 2008In 1995, a palaeontologist called Mark Norrell reported an amazing discovery - the fossilised remains of a dinosaur called Troodon, sitting on top of a large clutch of eggs. The fossil was so well-preserved and its posture so unmistakeable that it provided strong proof that some dinosaurs incubated their eggs just as modern birds do. And since then, two other small predatory species - Oviraptor and Citipati - have been found in brooding positions on top of egg clutches.
But a subtler look at these fossils reveal much more about dinosaur parenting than the simple fact that it existed. To…
laelaps | November 20, 2008... and Traumador, it's host, has something special in mind;
So my thinking for this themed boneyard is for anyone and everyone out on the innerweb to put up a post about their favourite museum... it doesn't have to be a really "smart" or sciencey one, cause afterall it's me the archosaur without enough grey matter to fill a walnut running the show! rather i'd like to get to know other museums of the world through the eyes and words of other palaeo lovers who have been to them.
Other posts about paleo will be accepted, of course, but it would be fun if everyone could contribute something…
laelaps | October 10, 2008Two days ago I mentioned some good news I had to share with all of you, and I have been impatiently keeping it under my hat. Now I can finally let the cat out of the bag. I am proud to say that Smithsonian magazine has just launched a new dinosaur blog called Dinosaur Tracking, and I am one of the contributing authors!
At the new blog I'll be covering everything from the latest peer-reviewed dinosaur research to campy comic books and b-movies (so long as they feature some Mesozoic monsters, of course). There are only a few posts up at the moment, including one I wrote about Albertonykus, but…
edyong | October 8, 2008Many of us believe dinosaurs to be extinct but in truth, they surround us every day. All the world's birds, from the pigeons of our cities to the gulls of our seasides, are descended from dinosaurs, and modern science now classifies the birds with their long-dead kin. The gulf between dinosaurs and modern birds may seem huge, but the discovery of several feathered dinosaurs are seriously blurring the line between the two. And now, new research on the feathered dinosaur Microraptor reveals that birds may have evolved from dinosaur ancestors that flew not on two wings, but on four.
The link…
laelaps | October 7, 2008
The Great Tyrannosaurus:
A Fossiliferous Fable
The Great Tyrannosaurus
Lived centuries ago;
Through marshes wet and porous
He rambled to and fro.
The most tremendous Lizard
That ever browsed on meat,
His length from A to Izzard
Was forty-seven feet.
The Great Tyrannosaurus
In habitude was not
What one would call decorous --
He ate an awful lot.
Lamellibranchs in sixes,
Iguanodons to spare
And Archaeopteryxes
Comprised his bill of fare.
The Great Tyrannosaurus
Of all the world was king;
With trumpetings sonorous
He swallowed everything.
When everything was swallowed
Beneath the azure…
laelaps | October 1, 2008
A reconstruction of Megalosaurus from Life in the Primeval World.
Dinosaurs were in ample supply when I was a kid. There were enough documentaries, cartoons, books, trading cards, and misshapen plastic toys to keep me occupied for all my days. They were the ultimate brand; freely available to be printed on anything by anyone, and they most certainly were. (Why eat just any cereal when you can eat dinosaur-shaped cereal?) This prehistoric popularity is so widespread that it is not unusual for children to go through a "dinosaur phase," in which they master Greek & Latin terminology and…
laelaps | September 30, 2008This Sunday, October 5th, Drexel University paleontologist Ken Lacovara will be giving a lecture on Patagonian dinosaurs called "Giants at the End of the World." It will be at the recently re-opened New Jersey State Museum in Trenton, and it starts at 4 PM (and is free!).
I don't know whether I'm going to be able to make it or not, but if you're in the area I definitely would recommend checking it out. Maybe he will even have something to say about Aerosteon!
laelaps | September 27, 2008Whatever the hell it wanted. A few years ago, though, there were plenty of shows that played up the debate over whether the famous dinosaur was a scavenger or a predator, and below is one such program. Called "T-rex: Warrior or Wimp?" the show is full of dramatic music cues and interviews with paleontologists like Peter Larson, Ken Carpenter, Chris Brochu, Jack Horner, and others. (A few months ago Horner answered a few questions about his work, which you can see here. For a good, critical look at the scavenging vs. hunting debate, though, see Thomas Holtz's contribution to the new…
laelaps | September 26, 2008
A Ceratosaurus attacks a Stegosaurus.
Most everyone who is interested in dinosaurs has either seen images of or heard of the famous Crystal Palace Dinosaurs in England, but not as many are familiar with the "antediluvian monsters" reconstructed at Carl Hagenbeck's Zoological Park at Hamburg. I certainly had not, at least not until I just happened to be flipping through a copy of J.W. Gregory's 1915 book Geology of To-Day.
Triceratops, with a Mastodontosaurus in the foreground.
When I first saw the images, like the one of the Ceratosaurus nibbling a Stegosaurus above, I wasn't sure if I…
laelaps | September 23, 2008
This is an illustration of the skull of Ceratosaurus, as included in O.C. Marsh's famous volume The Dinosaurs of North America. The book has been notoriously difficult to find, often fetching high prices from booksellers, but now you can download a scan of it from the O.C. Marsh archives for free. There's plenty of other treasures there, too, although it does make me think that we at least need archives for E.D. Cope and Joseph Leidy to compliment it.
[And while you're at it, why not have a look at Gilmore's monograph on the osteology of carnivorous dinosaurs?]
laelaps | September 23, 2008Even though discussions of it on the web has generally dwindled (it seems some people just can't bear to watch it anymore), Jurassic Fight Club is still generating a few comments and critiques. Over at his recently-minted blog, Sean Craven has posted a series of his thoughts on the show (parts 1, 2, and 3), including ideas about what could have been done better. For those of you frustrated with the show, it is edifying reading.
[Update: Sean has posted an update based upon some responses to his review. Have a look.]
laelaps | September 22, 2008Here's a short video about the famous Edmontosaurus specimen named "Dakota," focusing on how NASA technology was used to look inside the slabs containing the skeleton. There are a few things about Dakota that have been taken a little bit too far (i.e. just because Edmontosaurus had a deep tail does not mean that all hadrosaurs did, and it will be interesting to see how the Brachylophosaurus specimen "Leonardo" differs from Dakota), but the video is a good general overview of what has been released about the fossil to date;
laelaps | September 19, 2008
H.F. Osborn and Barnum Brown's vision for "dueling" Tyrannosaurus.
Dawn glows along the shore of a lagoon near the sea three millions of years ago in Montana. The landscape is of low relief; sycamores and ginkgo trees mingle with figs, palms and bananas. There are few twittering birds in the tree-tops and no herds of grazing animals to greet the early sun. A huge herbivorous dinosaur Trachodon, coming on shore for some favorite food has been seized and partly eaten by a giant Tyrannosaurus. Whilst this monster is ravenously consuming the carcass another Tyrannosaurus draws near determined…
laelaps | September 17, 2008
"Leonardo," the mummy dinosaur, courtesy of the HMNS.
Although it got a brief treatment in the book Horns and Beaks, many people have been waiting for more information on the exceptionally-preserved Brachylophosaurus skeleton named "Leonardo." Due to be unveiled next week at the Houston Museum of Natural Science (the date was pushed back due to Hurricane Ike; the museum and Leonardo were unharmed), the fossil provides a unique look at the soft tissues of this particular dinosaur.
Dinosaur "mummies" have been found before, dating back to the 19th century, but in many cases little more than…
laelaps | September 14, 2008I haven't seen this one yet, but here's the BBC Horizon program "Mystery of the Jurassic" about discoveries made in Jurassic-age rocks in Agentina by Oliver Rauhut and others;
laelaps | September 13, 2008Tyrannosaurus might be the most famous dinosaur, but its sleeker evolutionary relatives Albertosaurus and Gorgosaurus have always had a special place in my heart. Here's a brief spot about Albertosaurus from the series Jurassic Fight Club (which is about as much as I can handle without becoming frustrated over something or other in the show), featuring (among other tyrannosaur experts) Thomas Holtz, who is celebrating a birthday today;
laelaps | September 11, 2008Here's another paleo video by the Houston Museum of Natural Science, this time about gluing fossils. The hadrosaur featured in it is "Peanut," a skeleton found in the same area as "Leonardo" (who we'll see more of this weekend on the Discovery Channel). Now they just have to make a video about all-purpose paleontological paper...
edyong | September 11, 2008Some 230 million years ago, giant reptiles walked the Earth. Some were large and fearsome predators; others were nimble and fleet-footed runners; and yet others were heavily armoured with bony plates running down their backs. Their bodies had evolved into an extraordinary range of shapes and sizes and they had done so at a breakneck pace. They were truly some of the most impressive animals of their time. They were the crurotarsans.
Wait... the who and what now? Chances are you've never heard of the crurotarsans and you were expecting that other, more famous group of giant reptiles - the…
laelaps | September 9, 2008A few years ago I got the chance to see the Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries exhibit at the AMNH before it hit the road. I wish I could see it again now that I know a little bit more, but if you're in the Denver area you're in luck; the exhibition is opening there later this month. Here are some nifty advertisements for it at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science;