nandi's blog

As animal cloning becomes more and more commonplace, the idea of replacing your dearly departed dachshund may be losing some of its sizzle to what could be the next breakthrough: taking lessons learned from duplicating the Spots and Fidos of the world and applying them to a cause as ambitious as Jurassic Park itself.

In other words, not simply cheating death, but full-scale extinction.

In a sprawling profile of South Korean dog cloner Hwang Woo-suk, a once-disgraced human cloning researcher whom billionaires now pay to respawn their dying or deceased pets, Vanity Fair observed that Hwang and other cloning scientists’ eyes are increasingly beginning to drift toward the past — even as they refine the still highly inefficient process of churning out the canine version of what one researcher described as “identical twins born at a later date.”

“In a nod to Jurassic Park, Hwang is also using intact tissue frozen for thousands of years in Siberia to attempt to resurrect the woolly mammoth, fusing ancient cells recovered from the frozen tundra with donor eggs from modern-day elephants,” VF reports. 

That cursory description suggests a process that’s strikingly similar to the one playfully outlined by Jurassic Park’s Mr. DNA — the friendly animated character who greets visitors with the quick and easy version of how Dr. Henry Wu and his colleagues extracted and then spliced ancient dinosaur DNA to populate an entire Jurassic Park’s worth of lumbering archaic beasts.

In another dystopian nod to the movies, one dog-cloning scientist revealed that the surrogate mother dogs used to gestate the cloned embryos, while not clones themselves, are nevertheless bred with specific characteristics in mind.

“We breed the surrogate moms to be docile and gentle,” explained researcher Jae Woong Wang, describing one of the mixed-breed “mutts” who births and nurses the 2.0 batches of duplicate pups.

Of course the cloning debate remains as rife as ever with ethical issues, but with policies and regulations varying so tremendously throughout the world (to say nothing of researchers who always will carry out their work regardless of the legal risks), science, like life, finds a way. Let’s just hope whatever way the cloning community eventually conjures comes without the teeth and claws that might one day cause us to go the way of the dinosaurs.

Source: www.syfy.com

Long-necked sauropods (SAHR-oh-pahdz) are the largest animals known to have walked on Earth. These giant plant-eating dinos include Apatosaurus and Brontosaurus. Their early relatives were big, too. Some, though, may have used a different strategy to get their girth, shows a new study.

Most early sauropod relatives shared a common suite of features. They had sturdy, pillarlike legs. They had elongated necks and forelimbs. And their bones grew continuously rather than in seasonal spurts. Scientists had considered this an essential blueprint for massive plant-eaters. But at least some ancient giants may have used a different strategy to get so big. That’s the conclusion of a new fossil analysis of sauropodomorphs (SAHR-oh-PAHD-oh-morfz). That group includes sauropods and some of their similarly shaped relatives.

Cecilia Apaldetti is a paleontologist. She works at the Universidad Nacional de San Juan in Argentina. She and her colleagues examined fossils of four early sauropodomorphs. One belonged to a newly identified species. The team named it Ingentia prima (Ihn-GEHN-tee-uh PREE-muh). The other three were an already known sauropodomorph called Lessemsaurus sauropoides (Lehs-ehm-SAHR-us sahr-uh-POY-deez). These “Lessemsauridae” (Lehs-ehm-SAHR-ih-day) date to the Late Triassic. That’s between 237 million and 201 million years ago. They were smaller than the later sauropods. But they were far from puny. The animals weighed in at an estimated 7 to 10 metric tons. That’s larger than an African elephant!

All four specimens showed a similar set of features. But they didn’t match sauropods and other sauropodomorphs. Instead of upright, pillarlike legs, the dinosaurs had crouched hind limbs. Their front limbs were flexed, with elbows splayed slightly outward. Growth patterns in the fossil bones suggest the animals grew in seasonal spurts rather than steadily. And when their bones grew, they did so unusually fast, Apaldetti says. The growth rate was “even higher than that of the giants that grew continuously.”

These features show there’s more than one way to build a giant dino, her team concludes. It published its findings online in Nature Ecology and Evolution.

I. prima and L. sauropoides shared some features with later sauropods, though. One was a respiratory system that appears similar to that of birds. The researchers found air sacs within the animals’ vertebrae. These sacs would have held large pockets of oxygen-rich air. They likely helped the dinos keep cool despite their large size. And they made the animals’ vertebrae lighter.

Martin Sander is a vertebrate paleontologist. He works at Universität-Bonn in Germany. He says I. prima presents the best evidence yet of this birdlike respiratory system in sauropodomorphs. Scientists previously weren’t sure. But he isn’t convinced that the Lessemsauridae show a distinct path to massive size. “For me, it’s more of an intermediate stage,” Sander says.

That sentiment is echoed by Jeffrey Wilson. He is a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He agrees that Lessemsauridae bone growth was cyclical. But the cycles weren’t necessarily seasonal, Wilson points out. There may have been long growth spurts with fewer lags. That could be a step toward the steady growth seen in sauropods, Wilson says.

The Lessemsauridae lived some 30 million years earlier than Jurassic sauropods, such as Brachiosaurus and Diplodocus. So their growth strategy came first, Apaldetti notes. But ultimately, the Jurassic giants “were more successful,” she says. They outweighed the sauropodomorphs by as much as 60 tons. And they outlived them by tens of millions of years.

Source: www.sciencenewsforstudents.org

Guanlong is a genus of proceratosaurid tyrannosauroid from the Late Jurassic of China. The taxon was first described in 2006 by Xu et al., who found it to represent a new taxon related to Tyrannosaurus. The name is derived from Chinese, translating as "five colored crowned dragon". Two individuals are currently known, a partially complete adult and a nearly complete juvenile. These specimens come from the Oxfordian stage of the Chinese Shishugou Formation.

About 3 m (9.8 ft), its fossils were found in the Shishugou Formation dating to about 160 million years ago, in the Oxfordian stage of the Late Jurassic period, 92 million years before its well-known relative Tyrannosaurus. This bipedal saurischian theropod shared many traits with its descendants, and also had some unusual ones, like a large crest on its head. Unlike later tyrannosaurs, Guanlong had three long fingers on its hands. Aside from its distinctive crest, it would have resembled its close relative Dilong, and like Dilong may have had a coat of primitive feathers.

Guanlong was discovered in the Dzungaria area of China by a joint expedition by scientists from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology and George Washington University, and named by Xu Xing and others in 2006. Guanlong comes from the Chinese words for "crown" and "dragon", referring to the crest. The specific epithet, wucaii (Hanyu Pinyin: wǔcǎi), means "multicoloured" and refers to the colours of rock of the Wucaiwan, the multi-hued badlands where the creature was found.

At present, Guanlong is known from two specimens. The holotype (IVPP V14531) is a reasonably complete, partially articulated adult skeleton. Another, immature specimen is known from fully articulated and nearly complete remains. The crest on the skull of the immature specimen is notably smaller and restricted to the forward portion of the snout, while the adult has a larger and more extensive crest. The crests of both specimens are thin, delicate structures that likely served as display organs, possibly for events like mating.

In a recent study, Guanlong was found to be in a clade with both Proceratosaurus and Kileskus. Together they formed the family Proceratosauridae with a clade containing Sinotyrannus, Juratyrant and Stokesosaurus. However, in 2014 another study was published, instead finding Stokesosaurus outside the family, which only included Guanlong, Proceratosaurus, Kileskusand Sinotyrannus.

The age of the two individuals were determined using a histological analysis. The adult was shown to have matured at 7 years of age, and died at the age of 12. The juvenile died at 6, and was still growing. As the individuals are different ages, it can be seen some of the changes that happened during growth. In the juvenile, the crest is restricted to the snout, which is proportionally shorter. The orbit is also larger, the hand comparatively larger, the lower leg is longer, the pubic bone has a less expanded end, and other features found in more derived coelurosaurs and tyrannosauroids.

Guanlong possessed a cranial crest, which may have been used for display. It is similar to those of Dilophosaurus and Monolophosaurus, and like those it was highly pneumatized. However, it was more delicate than in the other genera, and also proportionately larger and more elaborate. Structures in Dilophosaurus and Monolophosaurus have also been suggested to be for species recognition, but the more gracile crest of Guanlong is more likely for display purposes.

Source: www.natgeo.com / https://en.wikipedia.org/

A three-month-old horse that lived up to 40,000 years ago has been discovered in the mysterious Batagai depression in Russia’s Yakutia region, nicknamed the ‘Gateway to the Underworld.’

The North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk published the first photo of the “unique” discovery, which was made together with scientists from Kindai University in Japan along with a crew from Fuji TV.

The horse was unearthed in perfect condition with its mane, tail and hair well preserved, as it was trapped in the permafrost for 30,000-40,000 years, scientists say. The discovery can help scientists to learn more about the environment of the time the foal lived, according to the head of the Mammoth Museum in Yakutsk, Semyon Grigoryev.

“This is the first find in the world of a pre-historic horse with such level of preservation and of such a young age,” Grigoryev said.

The Batagai crater in Verkhoyansky District of Yakutia has baffled scientists, and the nature of the mysterious site of unusual shape is still a matter of discussion. The ancient crater is still growing and strange noises reportedly emerge nearby, which is why the place received its spooky nickname.

Source: www.rt.com

An international team of paleontologists and other geoscientists has discovered the first North American co-occurrence of hadrosaur and therizinosaur tracks in the lower Cantwell Formation within Denali National Park, suggesting that an aspect of the continental ecosystem of central Asia was also present in this part of Alaska during the Late Cretaceous.

This comprehensive cross-disciplinary effort has resulted in a paper—entitled "An unusual association of hadrosaur and therizinosaur tracks within Late Cretaceous rocks of Denali National Park, Alaska—published in Scientific Reports, an online open access scientific mega journal published by the Nature Publishing Group, covering all areas of the natural sciences.

Anthony R. Fiorillo, Ph.D., chief curator and vice president of research and collections at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas, Texas, is the lead author. Co-authors are Paul J. McCarthy, Ph.D., University of Alaska, Department of Geosciences; Yoshitsugu Kobayashi, Ph.D., Hokkaido University Museum, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan; Carla S. Tomsich, graduate student, University of Alaska, Department of Geosciences; Ronald S. Tykoski, Ph.D., director of paleontology lab, Perot Museum of Nature and Science; Yuong-Nam Lee, Ph.D., School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Seoul National University, South Korea; Tomonori Tanaka, graduate student, Hokkaido University Museum, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan; and Christopher R. Noto, Ph.D., Department of Biological Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Parkside, Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Fiorillo and a colleague published on a distinct single footprint in Denali National Park in 2012 that they determined to be made by a therizinosaur, an unusual predatory dinosaur thought to have become an herbivore. Therizinosaurs are best known from Asia. Upon his return in 2013 and 2014, they conducted a more detailed analysis of the area, and he and his colleagues unearthed dozens more tracks of therizinosaurs. What surprised Fiorillo and his team most was the co-occurrence of dozens of hadrosaurs, also known as duck-bill dinosaurs.

"Hadrosaurs are very common and found all over Denali National Park. Previously, they had not been found alongside therizinosaurs in Denali. In Mongolia, where therizinosaurs are best known—though no footprints have been found in association—skeletons of hadrosaurs and therizinosaurs have been found to co-occur from a single rock unit so this was a highly unusual find in Alaska, and it prompted my interest," said Fiorillo. "From our research, we've determined that this track association of therizinosaurs and hadrosaurs is currently the only one of its kind in North America."

The plant-eating therizinosaurs are rare and unusual creatures in the fossil record. The strange-looking dinosaurs had long skinny necks, little teeth, a small beak for cropping plants, and big torsos accompanied by large hind feet and long arms with "hands like Freddy Krueger."

Though therizinosaurs are known from Asia and North America, the best and most diverse fossil record is from Asia—even up to the time of extinction—and therein is the connection. Fiorillo has long postulated that

Cretaceous Alaska could have been the thoroughfare for fauna between Western North America and Asia—two continents that shared each other's fauna and flora in the latest stages of the Cretaceous.

"This study helps support the idea that Alaska was the gateway for dinosaurs as they migrated between Asia and North America," said Dr. Kobayashi.

To support the theory, Fiorillo's international team of scientists from across the U.S., Japan and South Korea worked to establish if the tracks were those of a therizinosaur and to study any unique aspects of the ecosystem. The members—including a sedimentologist, geologist, paleobotanist, paleoecologist and additional paleontologists including an expert on therizinosaurs—determined that this particular area of Denali was a wet, marsh-like environment and that one fossil in particular looked like a water lily, which supported the theory that there were ponds and standing water nearby. They suspect that both therizinosaurs and hadrosaurs liked these wetter locations.

Fiorillo believes that this Alaskan discovery may connect these animals environmentally and perhaps behaviorally to other therizinosaurs in central Asia. An Asian report of these animals being associated also came from an interval of rocks that was unusually 'wet' at the time, relative to rocks above and below it.

"This discovery provides more evidence that Alaska was possibly the superhighway for dinosaurs between Asia and western North America 65-70 million years ago," added Fiorillo.

More information: Anthony R. Fiorillo et al, An unusual association of hadrosaur and therizinosaur tracks within Late Cretaceous rocks of Denali National Park, Alaska, Scientific Reports (2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-30110-8 

Journal reference: Scientific Reports

Provided by: Perot Museum of Nature and Science

Source: https://phys.org

“This one was a plant-eater and has kind of a wide grin. Not too fearsome, but I wouldn’t want to get whacked by that bony-tailed club,” says UC Berkeley grad Randall Irmis, discussing a spiky-headed dinosaur assembled before us in squat, bony glory at the Natural History Museum of Utah (NHMU), on the University of Utah’s campus. Curator of Paleontology at the museum, Irmis and others recently discovered this new dinosaur, an herbivore that roamed southern Utah 76 million years ago.

The dinosaur was pulled from a site in 2008 in southern Utah near Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument, painstakingly processed for about four years, and is now dubbed Akainacephalus johnsoni—Akainacephalus after its spiky head, and johnsoni after expert volunteer Randy Johnson, who did much of the prep work. The creature, which Irmis says “has never been described in the scientific literature before, and … hasn’t been found anywhere else,” is now written up in the science journal PeerJ. The creature was equipped with many spikes and was an ankylosaurid, a group known for formidable club tails and body armor.

As curator and associate professor in geology and geophysics at University of Utah, Irmis sees many parts of prehistoric creatures. But Akainacephalus is special. The museum has a large part of its skeleton (including nearly all of its skull), a large part of the vertebral column, limbs, ribs, and much of its armor. But more important, as the most complete ankylosaurid found in Utah so far, Akainacephalus johnsoni provides significant clues to how dinosaurs evolved and spread around the world.

Along with a dinosaur identified in New Mexico in 1999, Nodocephalosaurus kirtlandensis, Irmis says Akainacephalus is more like ankylosaurids found in Asia than other species from North America. This hints that ankylosaurids crossed a land bridge from Asia to North America at some point before 76 million years ago.

Why would that be the case? Well, plenty of anklyosaurids already have been found in Montana, Alberta, and other parts of North America. But as Irmis’s co-author Jelle Wiersma noticed in research at the museum, Akainacephalus has spiky bits on its head only found on the New Mexican specimen and on specimens in Asia—mainly in Mongolia and China. This means, Irmis explains, they all had a common ancestor that must have been found in Asia—and so ankylosaurs likely moved across a land bridge to North America at some point earlier than Akainacephalus’s lifetime.

The new dinosaur came from a site only partly excavated so far, that is chockfull of bones from that same time period. Though Irmis has participated in digs in New Mexico, Argentina, Ethiopia, and elsewhere, he notes Utah paleontology is exciting for a few reasons. For one thing, its finds are often recent. In Montana and Alberta, paleontological digs have been done for more than 100 years. But in the area of Utah where this dinosaur was found, the paleontological research has taken place for around the last 30 years. “That area of Utah is one of the last pieces of terrain in the lower 48 states to be mapped, and less accessible than some places,” Irmis says.

Getting into those less-accessible places sometimes involves backpacking with dig tools then transporting any finds weighing less than 300 pounds by hospital carrier. But the relatively undisturbed sites help scientists reconstruct earlier ecosystems, “from plants to insects to dinosaurs, find by find,” says Irmis.

Those scientists are trying to build clues to life in a dramatically different climate, Irmis notes. In the age of dinosaurs, 230 to 66 million years ago, there were no polar ice caps, temperatures were very high, and carbon dioxide levels were much higher. As Earth’s current temperatures warm, Irmis says, scientists can use information from that age as an analog for what might happen in the future.

For instance, back when Akainacephalus chewed greens in marshes, Utah was farther north than today, but had an environment more like today’s southern Louisiana. Similar dinosaurs dwelled in Alaska’s northern slopes and southern Utah, as research at UC Berkeley determined. “With such a different world and climate, did ecosystems function differently than they do today?” asks Irmis.

That’s for paleontologists and others to find out. Offered his current position at NHMU while still finishing his doctoral degree in Berkeley (he received his Ph.D. in 2008), Irmis says accepting was a no-brainer: “Utah has one of the best fossil records in the U.S., and after my time at Berkeley with great fieldwork and a world-class museum collection of paleontology, I was especially enthusiastic about being in a place where I could work on faculty and as a curator at a museum. I lucked out.”

Some people ask him if teaching graduate classes and curating is too much, but he says it’s an ideal combination. ”You have grad students and you can take them on digs, but you also have museums where these data are reposited, and you can communicate directly with the public about those finds. Nothing’s more immediate than interacting with people who’ve come to a museum to see the paleontology and other natural history research being done.”

Source: https://alumni.berkeley.edu

Sharks began evolving differently after the extinction of many dinosaurs, possibly caused by an asteroid strike about 66 million years ago.

Scientists from Uppsala University in Sweden studied how sharks adapted when three-quarters of animal life on Earth suddenly disappeared in the Cretaceous-Palaeogene mass extinction. In a study published in Current Biology, the scientists said they had found that two groups of sharks went in different directions evolutionarily, a split which helps explain the sharks in the ocean today. 

Before the extinction event, apex predator sharks called lamniformes dominated the oceans. Lamniformes include great white sharks, as well as their extinct giant cousin Megalodon.

After the mass extinction event mid-level predator sharks called carcharhiniformes instead became the predominant order of sharks, and remain so today. 

Mid-level predator sharks are the largest order with over 270 species. The group, which includes sandbar sharks and hammerhead sharks, were found to have made a distinctive change that lamniformes did not.

Researchers examined nearly 600 fossilized shark teeth, analyzing their size and shape, primarily the height of the crown and breadth of the tooth. The teeth ranged from 56 million to 72 million years old. 

Numbers of lamniformes with low-crowned and triangular teeth appeared to drop, but the carcharhiniformes with that same tooth shape thrived and rapidly increased in numbers. Today, there are only 15 species of lamniformes left.

The scientists believe that the evolutionary change is linked to the available food after the extinction event. Ancient lamniformes primarly preyed on marine reptiles, many of which which were wiped out. (Modern lamniformes have much more varied diets and will eat cephalopods or seals.)

Carcharhiniformes, which eat mostly small, bony fish, found that their food sources had proliferated after the extinction. And it may be that which laid the foundation for diversification of the group later. (Modern hammerhead sharks, for example, likely share the same diet as their ancient predecessors.)

Mohamad Bazzi, one of the researchers, told ScienceNews that the finding “is one of the more transformative events in shark evolution.”

Source: www.newsweek.com

A couple who bonded over “Jurassic Park” brought their obsession to a new level when they made the movie the theme of their wedding.

Courtney McMillion, 28, has loved the dinosaur flick since she was a kid and was thrilled to realize Billy McMillion, 26, was also a fan when they began dating in 2013.

Event manager Courtney and Billy, an engineer, always joked they would have a “Jurassic Park”-themed big day.

Then, when they got engaged last February, they decided to make it a reality.

Courtney spent 18 months organizing the $25,000 bash, which was complete with dinosaur decorations and saw her arrive in a Jeep Wrangler like the one in the movie.

Their venue, The Landings 1841, in Burlington, Wisconsin, was decked out in forest greenery and their 170 guests were issued VIP passes for the prehistoric ceremony.

The bride walked down the aisle to the movie’s theme tune and groom Billy even crafted a doughnut wall to look like the front gates of the fictional park.

Courtney said she had a blast planning her dream day but said there was a fine line when it came to keeping it elegant.

She said: “It was more me who always loved Jurassic Park. I remember watching it when I was small and that’s when I first fell in love with it.”

“When the original first came out in IMAX, I was so excited but no one would go with me.”

“At the time me and Billy were just good friends and he offered to go.”

“We started dating in October 2013 and we just loved staying in and watching movies together.”

“We would regularly watch ‘Jurassic Park’ or it would coincidentally be on TV.”

“It sort of became our thing. We would go to dinosaur museums and exhibits on dates.”

“I used to joke that our wedding should be ‘Jurassic Park’ themed and after we got engaged, I started to think, why not?”

“I work at my wedding venue, where I see weddings three times a week.”

“They’re all hydrangeas and baby’s breath. They’re beautiful but I wanted something different.”

Billy added: “When Courtney suggested a ‘Jurassic Park’ theme I was a little skeptical.”

“I wanted a country wedding but the more we talked about the more interesting the idea became.”

“Everyone loved it but I was scared people were going to think it was childish but Courtney being as crafty as she is, it was super pretty and held the theme really well.”

One of the highlights of the day for Courtney was arriving at the ceremony in a movie-themed Jeep, supplied by a fellow fan in Iowa.

Courtney said: “I’ve always wanted a Jeep Wrangler like in ‘Jurassic Park’ so a couple of years ago I joined this group on Facebook called Jurassic Park Motors, where fans renovate jeeps to look like those in the movie.”

“I really wanted to feature one of these jeeps in the wedding and I just asked in the group if anyone wanted to come.”

“One man, JurassicPark09, whose real name is Adam, drove all the way from Iowa to help us. He was so dedicated and it really made our day.”

Billy added: “My favorite part of the day was seeing Courtney in her wedding dress and being in awe of how beautiful she was.”

The bride said that although she was really dedicated to the theme she did not consider decking out her bridal party in dino-themed attire.

Courtney said: “I never considered wearing Jurassic Park costumes. I think that would have crossed the fine line.”

“I didn’t want it to be too much of a spectacle. It was fun, but it was still a wedding after all.”

Billy added: “I’ve seen like every episode of ‘Say Yes to the Dress’ so costumes weren’t gonna be an option.”

Cassandra Spiegelhoff, who photographed the couple on their big day, said it was exciting to work on a wedding that was so different from the rest.

The wedding photographer even photoshopped some dinosaurs into the final prints for the happy couple.

Cassandra said: “We shoot 50 weddings every year and there’s always the same poses, the same readings, the same speeches.”

“This wedding was so different.”

“The ‘Jurassic Park’ theme could have been so lame but it wasn’t tacky or cheap.”

“It was so elegant. She really nailed it.”

“It was amazing.”

“You could tell it was the best day of their life.”

Source: https://nypost.com

You've probably never really wondered where your skeleton came from, but that has puzzled paleontologists for over a century. In particular the question mark was hovering over the skeletons of a strange, ancient fish family called heterostracan, but now UK scientists say they've cracked it, declaring the 400 million-year-old fossils to be the oldest examples of bone ever found.

The skeletons of modern vertebrates are made up of four different types of tissue that mineralize as we develop to become strong and rigid. Bone is obviously the main one, but there's also cartilage in there, as well as the dentine and enamel that make up teeth.

Exactly when and how this vital piece of biology came to be is still unclear, but the answer may lie in the fossils of heterostracan. These weird old fish lived during the Silurian and Devonian periods, between about 444 and 380 million years ago, and they were some of the first vertebrates to evolve mineralized skeletons. That said, those structures don't appear to be made up of any of the four modern skeletal tissue types.

"Heterostracan skeletons are made of a really strange tissue called 'aspidin'," says Joseph Keating, lead researcher on the study. "It is crisscrossed by tiny tubes and does not closely resemble any of the tissues found in vertebrates today. For 160 years, scientists have wondered if aspidin is a transitional stage in the evolution of mineralized tissues."

The controversy, according to the researchers, is whether aspidin is a type of cellular or acellular bone, dentine or some kind of evolutionary middle ground. The key seems to be the strange spaces in the middle of the aspidin, which have been suggested to have contained cells, cell processes or bundles of fibers, each of which would indicate a different kind of tissue.

To peek closer than ever before, the scientists used Synchrotron Tomography, a detailed form of CT scan that uses very high energy X-rays. The researchers found that the spaces had a linear shape, which they say leaves only one option – aspidin is acellular bone, making it the earliest evidence of bone found so far in the fossil record.

"These findings change our view on the evolution of the skeleton," says Phil Donoghue, co-author of the study. "Aspidin was once thought to be the precursor of vertebrate mineralized tissues. We show that it is, in fact, a type of bone, and that all these tissues must have evolved millions of years earlier."

The research was published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

Source: University of Manchester

Source: https://newatlas.com

A SET of dinosaur footprints have been discovered in a Brit quarry.

The stunned workers came across around 30 different impressions that are believed to have come from a herd of gigantic sauropods as they roamed across the landscape in Swanage, Dorset on Britian’s Jurassic Coast.

Amazingly, this was the site of a similar discovery of 52 dino prints back in 1997. 

They are believed to be around 140million years old. 

Sauropods, the first successful group of herbivorous, could live as long as 120 years and were believed to reside along Britain’s south coast from the late Triassic to the late Cretaceous periods.

Fully grown sauropods could measure as long as 40 metres (130 feet) and weigh up to 80,000kg (80 tonnes). 

They were the largest creatures ever to walk to the Earth.

And when a herd of the mighty beasts ambled along Britain’s coast, they would have left their footprints in the soft mud which was then covered by layers of rock for millions of years.

Professor Matthew Bennett from Bournemouth University, who guided the extraction in Purbeck stone quarry, said: “The footprints are like giant saucer-shaped depressions which are up to three foot in diameter but only half an inch deep.

“They belonged to the sauropods which were very large dinosaurs the size of double decker buses and very gregarious, travelling in groups.”

He said that now the extraction of the footprints has been completed without damaging them, they will likely be put on display at a museum. 

“I’ve spent my life travelling the world to look for fossil footprints so it is nice to find some on our doorstep,” he added.

Meanwhile, the quarry had to be shut down for 10 days while the excavation took place. 

David Moodie, from Lewis Quarries, said: “It became apparent that we had come across something of historical interest, so working closely with the National Trust and Professor Matthew Bennett of Bournemouth University, we were able to move forward in the best way without stopping progress in the quarry itself.”

This isn’t the first time a footprint has been found in the UK.

They belonged to gigantic long-necked sauropods and theropods – the “older cousins” of Tyrannosaurus rex.

Source: www.dailystar.co.uk