dinosaurs

It is often accepted that science and the humanities have long been in conflict with each other, science providing a cold, objective look at the world while having read the entire works of Shakespeare (or similar equivalent) represents the true hallmark of a cultivated mind in the humanities. This disjunction was identified in 1959 by C.P. Snow in his book The Two Cultures, and in a 1963 follow-up he described the idea of a "third culture" in which science and the humanities could support each other and no longer be seen as entirely opposing forces. The development of a Snow's idea of a…
By now most of you are probably familiar that this blog takes its name from a tyrannosauroid dinosaur originally named Laelaps by E.D. Cope but changed to Dryptosaurus by O.C. Marsh when it was discovered that the name Laelaps was preoccupied by a kind of mite. According to a taxonomic note in the latest issue of the Journal of Paleontology, a similar change-up is now in order, this time involving the ceratopsian dinosaurs Diceratops (Lull, 1905) and Microceratops (Bohlin, 1953). As it turns out, both Diceratops and Microceratops were originally applied to insects in the order hymenoptera (…
I hope someone records this and puts it up on YouTube; tonight Bill O'Reilly is going to have a special "Factor Investigation" report asking "Did global warming kill the dinosaurs?" Who they hell did they get to do this "investigation"? I know I shouldn't watch (I don't have the brain cells to spare), but I just won't be able to look away... Terry "Bucky" Gates, lead author on last year's paper describing Gryposaurus monumentensis, is the paleontologist that is going to be interview on O'Reilly's show. That doesn't clear things up very much, although I have to say I'm enjoying the speculation…
It's times like this I wish I still had television; tonight the PBS show NOVA will have a special called "The Four-Winged Dinosaur" all about Microraptor. You can see a few brief clips from the show and some behind-the-scenes shots in this promotional video; As with any show involving puppets, though, there were plenty of shenanigans that didn't make the cut for the final program; More information about the show can be found at this website, and hopefully some of you who can tune in can blog it for the rest of us.
Henry de la Beche's "Duria Antiquior," an image of the carnage that must have taken place on the shores of the ancient Dorset.Years ago, when touring dino-mation exhibits were all the rage, my parents took me to "see the dinosaurs" at the Morris Museum. I was terrified. I had seen dinosaur skeletons before, but the moving, roaring beasts sent me scurrying around the corner, peeking around it as if from a blind. My father walked up to a Triceratops and touched it to show me I was safe, but even though I was so excited about seeing dinosaurs I could not contain my fear when confronted with them…
John Martin's 1838 depiction of an Iguanodon attacked by a Megalosaurus.[source]The other day I received a review copy of Ralph O'Connor's fantastic book The Earth on Show, and it has quickly become one of my most favorite tomes. (I know I'm a bit behind on reviews; I hope to get some done this weekend.) Reading it has definitely sparked plenty of thoughts about dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures as monsters, a post on which I'm working on presently (I'm away from my library at the moment, though, so I won't be able to dig into my bookshelves until later today). Descriptions of…
The fiberglass skull of Barnum Brown's second Tyrannosaurus rex fitted on the revised mount now standing on the 4th floor of the AMNH.I guess it's appropriate that I just posted the trailer to the new Indiana Jones film, because as soon as I heard that there's a Tyrannosaurus up for auction on eBay my first thought was "That belongs in a museum!" I'm sure that some of you readers are more familiar with this particular case than I am, but according to the eBay listing the individual specimen is about 20% complete, primarily consisting of almost half the skull material, some leg bones, parts of…
When I wrote about the new species of predatory dinosaur, Carcharodontosaurus iguidensis, this past December, I made a note of how interesting it was that in Cretaceous Gondwana there seems to be a certain triumvirate of predatory dinosaur groups. According to the data presented in Brusatte and Sereno (2007), remains of spinosaurids, carcharodontosaurids, and abelisauroids have been found near each other in various locations in a range of Cretaceous-aged strata on the African continent, perhaps reflecting a guild structure like that of extant mammalian African carnivores. Approximately 95…
Archosaurs have been making a lot of news over the past day or so. First, there's the diminutive new pterosaur Nemicolopterus crypticus, a toothless Early Cretaceous form that may have been arboreal. As far as dinosaurs go, the hadrosaur Velafrons coahuilensis was described in the December issue of Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, but it's just now getting some time in the limelight. Paul Sereno and Stephen L. Brusatte, fresh from reporting a new species of Carcharodontosaurus, hit us with a double-dose of new theropods in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, describing the…
If Huckabee shows up for Science Debate 2008, maybe he should spend a little time at the Academy of Natural Sciences (just a stone's throw away from the Franklin Institute); he might just learn something about paleontology & evolution. Then again, he might be inspired to engage in some revisionist history... [see the middle panel] [Hat-tip to RedMolly]
I've generally avoided putting up these commercials so far, but I think I've run through just about every other paleo-advert I've been able to find lately. I remember most of these spots from Saturday mornings (and I've thrown in two dinosaur-themed cartoon intros), and I expect some of you might have some flashbacks, as well; I apologize; I will never post so much obnoxious material all in one place ever again.
Following one of the great "rules" of paleontological fieldwork, a team of paleontologists and volunteers from the Burpee Museum of Natural History in Rockford, Illinois, came across the toe bones of a theropod dinosaur at the very end of their field season. With no time to dig out the specimen, they reluctantly had to cover the remains up and hope that no one else would come across the fossil before they could get to it the next year. Fortunately for them, the specimen was still intact and proved to be one of the most amazing fossil finds of recent years; a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex named…
If you're going to be in the Rockford, Illinois area (or within a reasonable distance of it) on March 1st and 2nd, the Burpee Museum is going to be host to a paleo-festival that you won't want to miss out on. Over the course of two days there will be activities and events for both children and adults, and I have to say that the lecture program they have set up looks pretty awesome. Here's who will be speaking at the festival; Philip Currie- Chinese Theropods and Mapusaurus Jack Horner- Dinosaur Ontogenies Eva Koppelhus - Paleoenvironment of Dinosaur Provincial Jim Kirkland- Cretaceous Utah…
An early reconstruction of Megalosaurus, as alluded to by William Buckland in the text below. (Image source)Yesterday a 1st edition copy of Francis Buckland's Curiosities of Natural History (1857) appeared in my mailbox, and it has proven to be a most delightful book. If you can find this book I would highly suggest you take the time to read it; it is wonderfully written and entertaining (although, as would be expected, there are some inaccuracies here and there). Francis Buckland was the son of famed geologist William Buckland, and throughout the book Francis pays homage to his father in a…
I may or may not be able to get to all this stuff in detail today, but here's a smattering of some paleo news to start your day with; Paleontologists have known for a number of years that the Chicxulub crater in the Yucatan peninsula is likely the "smoking gun" for the end-Cretaceous meteor impact, but new research suggests that the bolide struck the earth in water deeper than originally thought. This would modify ecological effects in the wake of the impact, and it was good to read that a variety of short-term and long-term effects of the event were considered in the new research;[Sean]…
While the most popular dinosaurs have names like Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops few people know one of paleontology's great secrets; the most numerous remains of a large vertebrates found in rocks of Mesozoic age carry the title "Chunkosaurus." Scraps of bone that may be difficult to ascribe to a particular species are far more common than articulated skeletons, and nearly any find where the bones of an individual animal are found together in association is significant, indeed. Given the natural history of bone during fossilization it's a wonder we have any remains of extinct creatures at all…
Yesterday I received my review copy of Grave Secrets of Dinosaurs: Soft Tissues and Hard Science by Phillip Manning (supposedly all about the hadrosaur mummy "Dakota"), and while I usually try to keep quiet about my thoughts on a book until I've finished it I just can't keep my trap shut this time. I will write a full review very soon (I'm more than halfway through the book), but I am extremely disappointed with this piece. The book contains no index, no bibliography/references, and there are virtually no pictures of the dinosaur the book is supposed to focus on (save for a scan of a segment…
Darren has announced that there will soon be a conference over in the UK called "Dinosaurs - A Historical Perspective," and it sounds like it'll be one of the most fantastic meetings to take place in paleontology this year. I can't go (have debt, won't travel), but if you can I would highly encourage you to do so, especially if you've got something you can submit for the conference. The deadline for abstracts is January 28th, though, so you'll need to get working if you've got something to submit, but it sounds like just the sort of thing I'd love to contribute to if I had the chance (see…
Dinner inside the belly of Iguanodon.My fellow scibling Jonah Lehrer has a new piece in SEED extending the argument from the end of his book Proust Was a Neuroscientist called "The Future of Science... Is Art?" It's pretty interesting, exploring the relation between physics and neuroscience to art, but biology (outside of the biology of the brain) is left out. I can't speak about fields like genetics and microbiology, areas where I lack expertise and a sense of history for the discipline, but as far of my own interests (particularly zoology and paleontology) art has often been essential to…
Part of the reason why I love science blogging is that there are usually enough people with interest in a particular field that a lot more research gets covered over the whole blogosphere than any one author could accomplish alone. While I'm still mired in some papers I downloaded last week, Darren has posted a new (and fascinating) piece on "teenage pregnancy" in dinosaurs. You'll have to see Tetrapod Zoology for the details, but be sure to stop by PNAS and get the paper "Sexual maturity in growing dinosaurs does not fit reptilian growth models," by Lee and Werning, too. If you recall,…