A couple of weeks ago I described the report in Nature that suggested it was possible to determine what colour feathered dinosaurs were. Now there’s a report in Science magazine – not yet published – that does the same trick, with a different dino. Jerry Coyne has blogged on this over at Whyevolutionistrue.com. The beast [...]
Entries Tagged as ‘Dinosaurs’
30/10/2009
MASSIVE PLIOSAUR FOSSIL
The amazing “Jurassic Coast” in Dorset/Devon has thrown up another fantastic fossil – the skull of a massive pliosaur, which would have been perhaps 15m long. To be honest, the fossil isn’t much to look at (a load of rock), but it’s a pretty impressive find. Pliosaurs, in case you don’t know, were short-necked marine [...]
05/05/2009
NEW FOSSIL – 2
November 2007 Mike Taylor, a PhD student from Portsmouth was rummaging around in the basement of the Natural History Museum – the way you do – when he came across a new species of sauropod dinosaur, now called Xenoposeidon. Or at least, one of its vertebrae. Guardian summary; BBC summary. Blog by Mike Taylor, including loads of material on [...]
24/04/2009
DID DINOS BREATHE LIKE PENGUINS?
November 2007 Our very own Jonathan Codd features in this BBC news page, describing his work on the bones involved in dino breathing. The paper this was based on has just been published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society (open access).
23/04/2009
DYNAMITE FOR DINOSAURS
November 2007 Nature magazine article about a palaeontology project in Alaska, where they are blasting out hadrosaur bones from underneath the permafrost – a bit different from the normal image of people using paintbrushes under a baking desert sun… Mind you, they do end up with paintbrushes in the end. You or your institution will need a subscription [...]
22/04/2009
WALKING WITH DINOSAURS – ON STAGE
October 2007 YouTube video of the stage show. A bit disappointing, I felt, like watching a bad episode of Dr Who – the monsters are just people in suits. I was particularly disappointed by the stegosaur (about 1 minute in).
22/04/2009
THE FOOT OF T.REX
October 2007 Our very own Dr Phil Manning strikes again. This time, he has identified the first footprint of T. rex. A team from BBC North-West was on hand! BBC News page; watch the programme here (may not work outside the UK).
22/04/2009
SABRETOOTHS AND DUCK-BILLED DINOSAURS
October 2007 Two studies of the biomechanics of biting in extinct animals. The first shows that the sabretooth tiger’s bite wasn’t as bad as its yawn, while the second shows that duck-billed dinosaurs could probably chomp their way through some pretty hard stuff.
22/04/2009
A FEATHERY VELOCIRAPTOR?
September 2007 Velociraptors were those aggressive, smart, hunting dinosaurs at the end of the first Jurassic Park movie. Spielberg got two things wrong – they were nowhere near as big as in the film (dramatic licence) and it now appears they may have had feathers on their fore-limbs. Or at least, there are bumps on their bones that the authors [...]
22/04/2009
TWO MORE PODCASTS
September 2007 Science podcast on ape/human cognition, feathered dinosaurs, saving tigers. Science podcast on cooperative breeding and the mystery of the Ivory-Billed woodpecker – is it extinct?
