Feature Channels: Dinosaurs

Filters close
6-Dec-2009 11:00 PM EST
New Dino Species: Early Meat-Eaters Crossed Continents
University of Utah

Discovery of a new species of 213-million-year-old meat-eating dinosaur in New Mexico suggests the first dinosaurs wandered between parts of the Pangea supercontinent that later became North and South America, according to a team of researchers from the several institutions, including the Utah Museum of Natural History at the University of Utah.

Released: 11-Nov-2009 6:30 AM EST
Transitional Sauropodomorph from Early Jurassic of South Africa Found
Western Illinois University

A new dinosaur was discovered in Early Jurassic South Africa that provides clues to the question of how dinosaurs grew to be so big, were able to support their weight and were able to walk on all-fours like the giant sauropods of Late Jurassic.

Released: 10-Nov-2009 8:00 PM EST
Warm-blooded Dinosaurs Worked Up a Sweat
Washington University in St. Louis

In a study published this week in the journal PLoS ONE, a team of researchers, including Herman Pontzer, Ph.D., assistant professor of anthropology in Arts & Sciences, has found strong evidence that many dinosaur species were probably warm-blooded.

Released: 19-Oct-2009 11:15 AM EDT
Ancient Flying Pterosaur Also Sailed Seas
Texas Tech University

Tapejara, a 115 million-year-old pterosaur, was an excellent flyer that had innate knowledge of sailing.

Released: 19-Oct-2009 11:00 AM EDT
Killer Algae a Key Player in Mass Extinctions
Geological Society of America (GSA)

Supervolcanoes and cosmic impacts get all the terrible glory for causing mass extinctions, but a new theory suggests lowly algae may be the killer behind the world's great species annihilations.

Released: 15-Oct-2009 6:00 PM EDT
Giant Impact Near India--Not Mexico--May Have Doomed Dinosaurs
Geological Society of America (GSA)

A mysterious basin off the coast of India could be the largest, multi-ringed impact crater the world has ever seen. And if a new study is right, it may have been responsible for killing the dinosaurs off 65 million years ago.

8-Oct-2009 4:55 PM EDT
Inside the First Bird, Surprising Signs of a Dinosaur
Florida State University

The raptor-like Archaeopteryx has long been viewed as the archetypal first bird, but new research reveals that it was actually a lot less “bird-like” than scientists had believed.

Released: 6-Oct-2009 11:15 AM EDT
Paleontologists Concerned Over Fossil Sale
Society of Vertebrate Paleontology

On October 3, the skeleton of a 40-foot-long, 7.5 ton dinosaur was put up for auction in Las Vegas. The dinosaur was a skeleton of Tyrannosaurus rex, the iconic flesh-eating dinosaur that lived some 66 million years ago. The sale at auction of fossils such as this and others is a matter of deep concern to the profession of vertebrate paleontology.

25-Sep-2009 3:00 PM EDT
Was Mighty T. Rex 'Sue' Felled by a Lowly Parasite?
University of Wisconsin–Madison

When pondering the demise of a famous dinosaur such as 'Sue,' the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex whose fossilized remains are a star attraction of the Field Museum in Chicago, it is hard to avoid the image of clashing Cretaceous titans engaged in bloody, mortal combat.

15-Sep-2009 1:40 PM EDT
T. Rex Body Plan Debuted in Puny Raptorex
University of Chicago

A 9-foot dinosaur from northeastern China had evolved all the hallmark anatomical features of Tyrannosaurus rex at least 125 million years ago.

Released: 23-Jul-2009 2:50 PM EDT
International Society Calls for Reverse of Funding Cuts
Society of Vertebrate Paleontology

The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, the organization representing professional vertebrate paleontologists worldwide, has called for a reversal of the decision to close the University Geological Museum in Laramie.

16-Jun-2009 11:30 AM EDT
Newly Discovered Beaked, Bird-like Dinosaur Tells Story of Finger Evolution
George Washington University

Researchers have discovered a unique beaked, plant-eating dinosaur in China that offers new, important evidence about how three-fingered hands of birds evolved from the hand of dinosaurs.

Released: 17-Jun-2009 8:30 AM EDT
Gobi Desert Yield New Species of Nut-Cracking Dinosaur
University of Chicago

Plants or meat: That's about all that fossils ever tell paleontologists about a dinosaur's diet. But the skull characteristics of a new species of parrot-beaked dinosaur and its associated gizzard stones indicate that the animal fed on nuts and/or seeds.

7-Jun-2009 1:00 PM EDT
The Latest in Technology Looks Into Some Old Bones
Society of Vertebrate Paleontology

A new study published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology uses high-resolution computed tomography (CT) imaging to guide sampling of bone lesions in the vertebrae of a hadrosaur ("duck-billed") dinosaur for histological and isotopic analysis.

12-Mar-2009 11:10 AM EDT
Young Dinosaurs Roamed Together, Died Together
University of Chicago

A herd of young birdlike dinosaurs met their death on the muddy margins of a lake some 90 million years ago, according to a team of Chinese and American paleontologists that excavated the site in the Gobi Desert in western Inner Mongolia.

Released: 15-Mar-2009 6:00 PM EDT
Report on the Arlington Archosaur Site, a Major New Dinosaur Quarry in Dallas-FT Worth Metroplex
Geological Society of America (GSA)

The annual meeting of GSA's South-Central Section will feature a presentation on the Arlington Archosaur Site in Texas. Among the site's 95 million-years-old rocks is a rich deposit of fossils, not only of an as-yet-unnamed carnivorous theropod, but also of a large, herbivorous "duck billed" hadrosaur, prehistoric crocodiles, turtles, sharks, and a new species of lungfish.

Released: 24-Feb-2009 1:20 PM EST
New Theory of Bird Evolution
University of Montana

Ken Dial at The University of Montana has unveiled a major new theory for the evolution of flight that is changing textbooks around the world. It involves wing-assisted incline running and a fundamental bird wing angle.

Released: 18-Dec-2008 2:10 PM EST
Polygamy, Paternal Care in Birds Linked to Dinosaur Ancestors
Florida State University

Sure, they're polygamous, but male emus and several other ground-dwelling birds also are devoted dads, serving as the sole incubators and caregivers to oversized broods from multiple mothers. It is rare behavior, but research described in the Dec. 19 Science found that it runs in this avian family, all the way back to its dinosaur ancestors.

Released: 7-Nov-2008 3:00 PM EST
Paleontologists Doubt 'Dinosaur Dance Floor'
University of Utah

A group of paleontologists visited the northern Arizona wilderness site nicknamed a "dinosaur dance floor" and concluded there were no dinosaur tracks there, only a dense collection of unusual potholes eroded in the sandstone. So the scientist who leads the University of Utah's geology department says she will team up with the skeptics for a follow-up study.

20-Oct-2008 8:20 PM EDT
Tiny Juvenile Dinosaur Fossil Sheds Light on Evolution of Plant Eaters
University of Chicago Medical Center

Scientists from London, Cambridge and Chicago have identified one of the smallest dinosaur skulls ever discovered as coming from a very young Heterodontosaurus, an early dinosaur. This juvenile weighed about 200 grams. This skull suggests how and when the family of herbivorous dinosaurs that includes Heterodontosaurus made the transition from eating meat to eating plants.



close
1.85763