Cuddlysaurus: where fluffy IS deadly

Cuddly-looking, fluffy and fuzzy: not something you'd expect to describe a very large carnivorous mesozoic predator. BUT, there WAS a downy dinosaur. Yutyrannus huali, the tyrannosaurid with the fluffy coat, is the largest dinosaur discovered with a full covering of feathers.

Y. huali was uncovered in China, and estimated to be 60 million years older that its famous cousin, Tyrannosaurus rex. Although considerably feathered, the immense bulk of the predator would not have been very aerodynamic - instead the down was purely for insulation, perhaps with a little splash of colour for display. It's not entirely odd for a predator to be feathered - snowy owls manage quite well in polar climates and their physiology is simply a downsized version of Yutyrannus.

(Image of Yutyrannus huali by Alain Beneteau aka dustdevil)

Info collected from these news articles here, here and here.
And this journal article in Nature.

Currency of the extinct

Damn it Australia!!!

We already have the superior "plastic money"... but despite this, we are a land girt by sea... and are clearly MISSING OUT ON A HUGE OPPORTUNITY!!

I mean, Australia, we had dinosaurs... so... if Canada can do this then why haven't we done it yet?!?! I am talking about, of course:

GLOW-IN-THE-DARK dinosaur money!!!

The very awesome coins will be ready for purchase next Monday for C$29.90!

Parenting WIN

This is fantastic!

A definite parenting WIN in my books!
(reminds me of my brother and myself)

Nicolas Steno: You old dinosaur

Today is Nicolas Steno's 374th birthday. For those of you who are unsure of who Steno is/was... I shall enlighten:

Steno was a scientist, but more importantly he was a geologist (and palaeontologist). He identified the relationship between glossopetrae (tongue stones) and the teeth of sharks to be one and the same, adding to an argument established by the late Fabio Colonna; the difference being, Steno noted differences between living shark teeth and those known to be glossopetrae (Owen, 2009). He is the father of the law of superposition, the principle of original horizontality, and the principle of lateral continuity; a basis for stratigraphy.

So, happy birthday, Nic! You old dinosaur.

Owen, D. 2009. Shark: In peril in the Sea, Allen & Unwin, Australia


In Dinosaur News:

PLoS ONE shared "New Ophthalmosaurid Ichthyosaurs from the European Lower Cretaceous Demonstrate Extensive Ichthyosaur Survival across the Jurassic–Cretaceous Boundary".

In brief, a 130 MY old ichthyosaur (Acamptonectes densus) was discovered in Braunschweig, Germany. The sparkling, diamond-in-the-rough snippet of information you should dust off and take home should be that ichthyosaurs are "traditionally" from the Jurassic period; this specimen dates to the Cretaceous. How the ichthyosaur survived the JK event (mass(?) extinction) is beyond me... Oh, but wait! A.densus didn't survive the JK event... essentially, it, among other ophthalmosaurines and platypterygiines continued to thrive: "...diversity and disparity was reasonably high".

Anyway, to clarify what's so important about the "re-writing of pre-history" and what part this ichthyosaur played, I'd recommend reading the excellent ramblings of Darren Naish's blog post (co-author of the PLoS ONE article). There are some wonderful diagrams and anecdotal tidbits within.

Little Bix nursery

Protoceratops andrewsi nest from Mongolia - image from National Geographic, by Khishigjav Tsogtbaatar

Nawwww!

There's so many of them and they all so tiny and cute! If you have read Dinotopia by James Gurney, you'd know of Bix. For those who need a refresher course, Bix was a traveling dinosaur Ambassador and she was also a Protoceratops. The link here is that these little hatchlings are also Protoceratops, from Mongolia. A total of 15 youngsters were uncovered in a nest.

Will and Bix from James Gurney's Dinotopia

Protoceratops is a herbivorous, beaked dinosaur that lived over 85-70mya. It's the smaller cousin of Triceratops, but lacking facial horns. Its life-cycle is pretty well know due to the amount of fossil evidence of hatchlings, adolescents, and male and female adults.

image from Melbourne Museum

Protoceratops also lived along-side Velociraptor. This is famously noted in the "Dueling Dinosaurs", where a Protoceratops locked its beak tightly on the forearm of a velociraptor; the moment being frozen in time and sediment.

image of Dueling Dinosaurs by AMNH

When they find one near Loch Ness, I'll be excited

MORE dinosaur news:

Rare dinosaur unearthed by digger

A nearly complete fossil of a plesiosaurus was uncovered by a Syncrude heavy equipment operator in an oil sands area, Alberta. It is believed to be around 40 million years older than other plesiosaur fossils, making it the oldest plesiosaur discovered to date.

image by Sue Sabrowski - Royal Tyrrell Museum

from The Globe and Mail

A page from a Cycad's diary

Dear diary...

I think I grew a little this last century.
That is all.

Love,
C.

You know those old, awesome-looking, hardy plants that Triceratops liked chewing on in children's dinosaur picture books... cycads?? Well, as it turns out, cycads lied about their age like a 16 year old in a liquor store. They are younger than they appear... sort of... if you count 10 million years young as oppose to 280 mya.

The species around today are not the same species that were around with the early amphibians during the Permian nor are they the same species feeding the plumpy herbivorous dinosaurs. These modern cycads are fairly new in the grand scheme of plant diversification - having only really decided to extend the *snicker* branches of the family *snicker* tree out around 10 mya.

The full article can be found on Science : "Recent synchronous radiation of a living fossil" --- but subscription to the journal is necessary to view it. Or you can GOOGLE it and read the News feed.

Dr. Scott... I heart you.

Joyful tidings!

I've scratched up another dinosaur! And it's a little relation to Velociraptor too. Talos sampsoni. Now why is this little raptor so amazing and exciting to me?!?!

Well, the palaeontologist who pushed for the Kaiparowits Basin Project, is not only the curator of the Utah Museum of Natural History... but he's also DR. SCOTT the Palaeontologist from DINOSAUR TRAIN!!! Yes, Scott Sampson!

I haven't been more excited about a children's TV series since.... I can't even remember! This show got me hooked the very first time I saw it because of one thing that stood out amongst all other children's shows: the correct scientific names for dinosaur species was used to introduce "new" dinosaurs to the imaginations of children. The meaning behind the species names are also woven into the show.

Dr. Scott teaching kids about Deinonychus
(related to Velociraptor and Talos)

Zanno LE, Varricchio DJ, O'Connor PM, Titus AL, Knell MJ, 2011 A New Troodontid Theropod, Talos sampsoni gen. et sp. nov., from the Upper Cretaceous Western Interior Basin of North America. PLoS ONE 6(9): e24487. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0024487

Maryland's miniature version of "Url"

Propanoplosaurus marylandicus: A young juvenile nodosaur (ankylosaur: aka "Url" from Dinosaur) uncovered in a Maryland university in 1997. Only making its debut in the latest installment by the Journal of Paleontology.

Makes me wonder...

What's lying underneath my university??

I'm gonna dig me up a dinosaur!

Stanford R., Weishampel D.B., and Deleon V.B., 2011. The First Hatchling Dinosaur Reported from the Eastern United States: Propanoplosaurus marylandicus (Dinosauria: Ankylosauria) from the Early Cretaceous of Maryland, U.S.A. Journal of Paleontology, 85: pp 916-924

Nonsensical pseudo-science

The Creation Museum... where dinosaurs
become "Missionary Lizard(s)"

Enough said...

Trophies

If you're like me and love animals, would like to decorate your room or house with animal things like mounted trophies BUT hate the notion that an animal has to die for you to have it featured in your home... then try Faux animal trophies! There are sooo many in various designs and mediums.

I'd recommend purchasing snare wire animals from Iganyana Arts: the wire is from poachers' snares which have been dismantled and collected then turned into beautiful wire animal sculptures by locals and sold to tourists with the money supporting the community (therefore reducing the need to poach in the reserves for black market money or food). Ultimately, this aids in protecting the wildlife.

This is a clever and beautiful way to display animal art with soft lighting - a faux trophy light-fitting designed by Christophe Hascoet, Annabel Karim Kassar, Isabelle Rolland (you better have >$7.5K for one).
Recycled cardboard! You can purchase a moose, deer, elephant or rhino from Cardboard Safari

This gorgeous cow is made from paper. Just paper. Created by a wonderful artist, Anna Wili Highfield

DEAD plush animals aren't scary at all when sewn, stuffed and mounted by aicreatures on Etsy

Convert and old sweater into an animal trophy bust, or you could have a look and maybe take a liking to one of Rachel Denny's knitted deer busts.

Woven basket style animal trophies - very cool when paired with a wicker dinning or lounge set. These can be found at Ballard Designs.

There are the masses of Papier-mâché, porcelain, wood and plastic/resin casts and crafted animal trophies too. Too many to list.

The functional hanging trophy ~ can be used as a hat or key rack. These are simply cute and the style is humorous. Designed by New Zealander, Phil Cuttance.




And a few ... hehehe ... silly ones I stumbled upon :P

Candy the Magic Dinosaur

I love this short by asittingduck. The 2nd installment is my favourite (because of the cutesy version of the "Jurassic Park" theme). Candy is, of course, a magic dinosaur with special powers... and lots of friends (even if it seems like the boy and his dog appear less than amused by his antics). It's cute and addictive - well, at least the catchy film score is for me.

I've also found CANDY the Magic dinosaur! Or at least very close look-alike by SaintAngel.

VERY COOL.

♪♫ He's got special powers and he's got
.....
lots of friends! ♪♫

Dinosaurs need love too

Hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day 2011, whether you have a special someone or not!!

[Stegosaurlub by DA's Earthknight]

When you need a hero...

THEY'LL BE THERE!

Artwork and concept by d.r3sto on flickr

I'd opt for extinction if I had a name like that. . .

Looking up strange dinosaur names today... similar to poor Megalosaurus' "Scrotum humanum" and the little Pachycephalosaur "Dracorex hogwartsia". I think I might have found the single most depressed dinosaur in their entire existence...

Erectopus superbus

This pathetically named Allosaur probably wished death upon himself. I would have surely conjured up an asteroid just for the occasion. The poor buggar appeared to have several -near- name changes over the past 100 years, but still managed to maintain his pornstar name. Essentially, Erectopus means "upright foot", add the superbus in and you get "proud upright foot". I highly doubt it would have felt superior and terrifying in the face of laughing herbivores.

I love you, Spike

Stegosaurus Week (13th Sept to 19th Sept) is coming to a close, and I haven't made a single mention about the Stegosaurus.

For those who don't know, Stegosaurus was a herbivour which first appeared in the Jurassic (and probably had epic battles of survival against Allosaurus). The most commonly identified of the Stegosauridae family is most likely Stegosaurus stenops, since nearly everywhere I look (if you're searching for dinosaurs as much as I am), S. stenops is almost like the posterchild for what a Stegosaurus species is characterised for. It was short and stocky, but with large plates and typical 4 spikes on the end of the tail. Although, it wasn't the largest stegosaurid, it does seem to be the most common species.

So why is Stegosaurus so awesome??
Besides the clearly lethal set of tail-spikes Steg sported, and the pretty cool looking fashion statement they made during the Jurassic with their plate(-like Mohawks), there is one really awesome thing about Stegosaurus:

It had a "second brain"; near the base of its tail used for controlling reflexes in the rear part of its body. The "brain" in the hip region was not made of brain tissue, but instead, a complex nerve centre; the "sacral plexus." It was a secondary control center for the spinal cord. So despite the obvious tiny size of Stegosaurus' brain, and the possibility that it may have lacked intelligence, didn't mean it wasn't cleverly designed for its time in an evolutionary time-frame.

Feathery upset

I had this journal article in Nature brought to my attention; and low and behold! It has my favourite palaeoartist, Raul Martin's interpretation of this amazing predator, Concavenator corcovatus...

Interesting features of this 130 million year old predatory dinosaur:
(1) a strange hump on its back; and
(2) unusual calcareous lumps on its forearms (believed to bear quills - a possible evidence of feathers).

The eleventh and twelfth vertebrae are more prominent, being double the height of the rest of the vertebrae. This pyramidal crest may have been used in territorial disputes and/or attracting a mate, or even similarly used in a manner resembling Stegosaurus' plates. (To me, it looks like an ideal, gentle slope where a male Concavenator could rest his chest while romancing the lady... but that's my outlandish observation).
At this point, all we can gather is Concavenator is a rather strange specimen.

Now the bumps on the forearms is even more controversial than the odd triangular hump. So the problem here is this... C. corcovatus provides evidence that feathers began to appear earlier than previously thought. Which now puts a little twist in the Therapod family tree, as Concavenator is more closely related to "Big Al" (MOR 693) which, up until now, have never had a feathery relative. The sister lineage which has the feather-featuring dinosaurs (T. rex) and finally leading to modern-day birds has now been thrown into shambles over the rights to bear plumage.

Vintageosaurus mistakeii

Reconstruction of Laelaps (now known as Dryptosaurus) - by Edward Drinker Cope - possessing a typical (at the time) vertical posture, slouching head and useless arms. Image from Love in the time of Chasmosaurus

We occasionally make mistakes. Everyone can think of at least one major mistake they've made during their career (undoubtedly we make a couple in our personal lives which we may or may not wish to recall). But I want to look into some memorable vintage palaeo mistakes. . . the ones generally made when there is nothing in the known world (19th century known world) that can be comparable to the discovery of massive "lizard bones":

Iguanodon
Most people will recognise this dinosaur more than the first palaeo reconstruction mistake, Megalosaurus. The first reconstruction of iguanodon was the huge iguana-like statue which still stands at Crystal Palace, south London, by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins. The "thumb spike" was placed on the tip of the snout, creating a more lizard-like appearance. In some aspects, Hawkins' iguanodon resembles a horned, very toothy chameleon.

The initial reconstruction of Iguanodon by Hawkins, and the current corrected version by Raul Martin.

Apatosaurus (formerly Brontosaurus)
The Apatosaurus went through many changes, but one of the more notable was the correction of its skull. For many years until 1975, the poor sauropod borrowed the skull of a distantly related cousin, Camarasaurus - more closely related to Brachiosaurus. The contrast in the two skull types are quite astounding.

Left is the Camarasaurus skull, which for years was placed upon the body of "Brontosaurus", the skull on the right is that of a Diplodocus, a close relative of Apatosaurus (NE: Brotosaurus) and displays what the skull of Apatosaurus should have been like. Image from Taylor, M.P., Wedel, M.J., Naish, D. 2009. Head and neck posture in sauropod dinosaurs inferred from extant animals. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, 54(2): 213-220

Posture, poise and grace
For most dinosaurs, the position of the legs and the weight-bearing stance was often incorrect. Tyrannosaurus, Iguanodon, Triceratops, Stegosaurus and even large sauropods have all fallen at the unbalanced positioning of their limbs and tails. Tyrannosaurus, for example, for many years had been depicted as near vertically erect like an alert meerkat and balanced precariously on its tail (which dragged along the floor similarly to sauropods depicted around the early 20th century). In the case of the sauropods, (such as Diplodocus) they were occasionally illustrated with bow-legs; dragging their enormous bulk through the dirt, long tail limp behind them. Due to this hefty burden, most sauropods were placed in an aquatic setting to allow them more buoyancy. Providing evidence in the fact that poor teaching and a long-standing reliance in religion and Creationism doesn't achieve results in reality.

The reason for bringing up some of the errors in palaeontology (and particularly reconstructions) is in showing that when first uncovered, after the initial analysis and subsequent recording of characteristics and features, not everything about a specimen will be correct. More often than not, since science is forever updating its knowledge and techniques, things which may not have been considered important may, in fact, turn out to be the exact source of information which could completely alter the definition of that specimen... as an example, I turn your attention to BMRP 2002.4.1 "Jane"... (in my heart, always a Nanotyrannus), or maybe the example of the absorption of Stygimoloch and Dracorex as individual species into different growth stages of Pachycephalosaurus would be for better understanding.

Fossick fossick fossick

MUSEUM TOMORROW!!!
I'm excited... again... :D
More fossils to fossick through!

Note to self...
If I ever go to QLD, I'm going to Richmond's "Kronosaurus Korner"

Top 5 Fossil Discoveries (IMO)

-1- Materpiscis "Mother fish"
Ancient fish from Australia's Kimberley region, c.380 million years ago. Oldest known fossil displaying viviparous characteristics (live birthing) in the fossil record.

-2- Gogonasus
Ancient fish from the primitive tropical Australian reef 380 million years ago. Its breathing structure on its head, and forearm lobe-fin joints were precursors to the middle ear and limbs (radius and ulna). Gogonasus now replaces Quebec's Eusthenopteron (the original "missing link" in terms of early tetrapod development) in the tetrapod relationship. Since it's so ancient, this pushes the first appearance of these features further back in the fossil record.

-3- Darwinius masillae "Ida"

The most complete skeleton of the earliest stage of human - the key "missing link". Small, lemur-like fossil believed to be the earliest stage of human evolution. Not related to lemurs due to the lack of dew claw on the forelimbs and there is not a fused tooth comb (both characteristics are primary features of lemur).

-4- Homo floresiensis "Flores Man" aka: Hobbit
Potential to rewrite human history. Believed to be a separate species of homonid from humans, but appeared to exist around the same time as early H. sapiens (hobbits were founds on the Idon Flores while humans inhabited the rest of the world). Possible disease and/or rare genetic disorder caused their shorter stature.

-5- Megalosaurus bucklandii "Giant lizard"
The first dinosaur (besides birds) to be scientifically described and subsequently named. It came upon the unfortunate name "Scrotum humanum" by Richard Brookes in 1763 due to its identification by Reverend Plot as the femur of a giant human (as described in the Bible). Its appearance was believed to be a long limbed, quadrupedal dog-like crocodile before coming to its more correct form.