nandi's blog

Friday, April 13, 2018

Arizona now has a state dinosaur thanks to an 11-year-old boy from Scottsdale.

Jax Weldon, a student at Hopi Elementary School, wrote a letter to Gov. Doug Ducey making the case for a state dinosaur for Arizona. Ducey then asked State Senator Kate Brophy-McGee to run a state dinosaur bill.

"He [Jax] touted the case for economic development, he touted the case for tourism. He made the case that this is something that will put Arizona in a good light," Brophy-McGee said.

Jax suggested the Sonorasaurus for the state dinosaur, a dinosaur that was discovered in Arizona.

"And he knew of a dinosaur that was discovered in Arizona back in 1995, named the Sonorasaurus Thompsoni and he thought that would be a good candidate for an official state dinosaur," Brophy-McGee said.

Ducey signed the bill (SB1517) into law declaring the Sonorasaurus the state dinosaur on Tuesday.

Jax, an aspiring paleontologist, knows all about the new state dinosaur said it is 27 feet tall, 50 feet long and had a long neck to reach the tree tops.

The Sonorasaurus Thompsoni is not necessarily Jax's favorite dinosaur, but he is still proud to help it take its place in Arizona history.

Source: www.tucsonnewsnow.com

Dinosaur ‘Menu’ Reveals How So Many Fearsome Predators Coexisted 100 Million Years Ago

Friday, April 13, 2018

Meat-eating dinosaurs: special serrations kept teeth extra sharp

Around 100 million years ago, large carnivorous dinosaurs and reptiles dominated the landscape in what we now call Africa. But how were so many fearsome predators able to exist side by side without outcompeting one another?

This is the question that a team of researchers from the Laboratory of Geology in Lyon, France, have tried to answer in a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Using a new technique they developed themselves, the team examined fossilized remains from the time of the dinosaurs in order to reconstruct ancient food chains, enabling them to determine how so many predators could have coexisted.

Both sites—Gadoufaoua in Niger and the Kem Kem Beds in Morocco—contain fossils ranging in age from between 100 million and 120 million years old.

“In the ecosystems that we studied, predators are far more abundant than herbivorous dinosaurs, their most likely terrestrial preys,” palaeobiologist and geochemist Auguste Hassler, lead author of the study, told Newsweek.

The researchers measured the proportions of calcium isotopes—variants of calcium which differ in the number of neutrons—in the fossilized remains of tooth enamel and fish scales.

Because calcium in vertebrates is derived almost exclusively from food, the team was able to compare the proportion of calcium isotopes of potential prey, such as fish and herbivores, with that of carnivores to retrace the diets of these predators.

Teeth from the Gadoufaoua deposit (Niger). From left to right: teeth of a giant crocodile, Sarcosuchus imperator, a spinosaurid, a non-spinosaurid theropod (abelisaurid or carcharodontosaurid), a pterosaur, a hadrosaurid (a herbivorous dinosaur), a pycnodont (fish), and a small crocodylomorph. AUGUSTE HASSLER / LGL-TPE / CNRS-ENS DE LYON-UNIVERSITÉ LYON 1

They found that in both locations, the carnivores had similar food preferences. For example, large carnivorous dinosaurs, like abelisaurids and carcharodontosaurids, liked to hunt land-dwelling herbivorous dinosaurs, while others, such as spinosaurids, preferred to eat fish.

Meanwhile, the diet of Sarcosuchus —which is not a dinosaur but a giant ancestor to modern crocodilians—consisted of a mixture of land and water-based prey.

Because of this, the researchers concluded that the different predators avoided competition by subtly sharing food resources.

“All these predators were able to coexist in the same environments because they had different prey preferences,” Hassler said. “This prey partitioning is thus a key to understand their high abundance.”

The latest study provides rare evidence for the diet of dinosaurs, which are generally not well-studied. The scientists hope, however, their calcium isotope method could provide new avenues for research in this area because calcium is abundant and does not get altered through fossilization.

Source: www.newsweek.com

Dinosaur Skeletons Sold For $3.4 Mil.

Entertainment

Saturday, April 14, 2018

Two skeletons of late Jurassic period dinosaurs have been sold for over 2.8 million euros, or about 3.4 million dollars, at an auction in Paris.

The skeletons of a 12-meter-long Diplodocus and an Allosaurus with a length of 3.8 meters were put up for auction on Wednesday.

Both dinosaurs roamed the Earth more than 140 million years ago. About 40 percent of the allosaurus skeleton was missing, but it was completed after 6 months of restoration work.

The auctioneers say they were surprised by the high prices, as they had expected the 2 skeletons to sell for about 1.4 million dollars.

Sources say that dinosaur skeletons are mostly bought by museums in Europe and the United States.

They add that there has been an increase in purchases by wealthy Chinese collectors who appreciate their artistic qualities.

Source: www3.nhk.or.jp

Jurassic World 2 Rating Promises Intense Dinosaur Violence

Entertainment

Thursday, April 12, 2018

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is going to be violent and intense, promises the MPAA. The Motion Picture Association of America has officially rated the upcoming sequel, the fifth entry in the Jurassic Park franchise overall, PG-13, for "intense sequences of science-fiction violence and peril." That sounds like what audiences have come to expect from the dino-centric series over the years, but the real question is, can this movie actually justify its existence beyond making Universal a whole lot of money?

The explanation for the MPAA's rating doesn't come as a surprise. At bare minimum, watching dinosaurs run around on an island, or in the case of Jurassic World 2, quite possibly on the mainland, chasing humans and killing people is going to warrant some intensity, violence and peril. It's also worth mentioning that the four previous entries in the Jurassic Park franchise were all rated PG-13 as well. This is a series that can't quite get away with PG and be any fun and doesn't really need to go for an R, unless they really want to ratchet up the violence. But that's not what these movies are about.

Director J.A. Bayona has said that this movie will be darker than Jurassic World, and it's also not going to be the end of the dinosaur-filled movies either. Universal recently announced that Jurassic World 3 will arrive in June of 2021, with Colin Trevorrow, who directed the first Jurassic World, returning to helm the final installment of this new trilogy. He's set to co-write the final movie with franchise newcomer Emily Carmichael. So the studio is banking on this upcoming entry to be a big hit. But that's not really a surprise, given what happened with the previous movie.

Following the release of the disappointing Jurassic Park III in 2001, which didn't do much for fans or critics and grossed just $368 million worldwide, the studio has trouble figuring out what to do with the movies moving forward. What would ultimately become Jurassic World went through many stages of development, but the idea of seeing a fully functioning dinosaur theme park clearly appealed to moviegoers. It also didn't hurt giving fans a 14-year break to build up anticipation. The result? Jurassic World became one of the highest-grossing movies ever, making $1.67 billion worldwide. That demolished expectations and gave the studio confidence to proceed with the rest of this new trilogy.

But can this be more than a cash grab? Who knows? Heading into the fifth movie, it's become tough to find reasons to mix humans with these killer man-made creatures, but it's been promised that this won't just be dinosaurs chasing people around on an island. Plus, we've got that huge volcanic eruption to look forward to. However the chips may fall, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, which arrives in theaters on June 22, has been rated by the MPAA and is complete. Now it's just a matter of waiting to see if this movie can not only be as successful as its predecessor, which is a tall order on its own, but if it can also tell a satisfying story.

Source: https://movieweb.com

Before the Dinosaurs

Friday, April 13, 2018

The disarticulated skeleton of a dinocephalian was excavated from middle Permian rocks in Zambia in 2014. Shown are Seb Steyer (Museum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris, on left) and Chuck Beightol (UW; on right). Courtesy Photo

252 million years ago, the Permian extinction wiped out much of the life on Earth. Unlike the K-T extinction event, this wasn’t the one that killed the dinosaurs, this was the one that paved the way for their existence.

“That was the biggest extinction,” said Christian Sidor, a professor of biology who studies the years around Permian-Triassic extinction. “Some people have said that [it killed] maybe 70 percent [of life] on land and 90 percent in the oceans.”

The Permian-Triassic extinction paved the way for new species who are the precursors of mammals and archosaurs, the precursors to the dinosaurs. These species repopulated the Earth and evolved into the creatures known today.

The best place to find fossils from this era, according Sidor, is in South Africa, specifically in the Karoo Basin. Though it is a good place to look for fossils from this era, only utilizing this one site can be problematic. These fossils help shed light on what life was like in that region, but are less informative about the extinction event far away.

“At the same time the extinction is happening in South Africa, there is interpreted to be this big mountain-building,” Sidor said. “Paleontologists have been worried. Is what we’re seeing in terms of mass extinction actually mass extinction or is it mass extinction because of the mountain-building?”

Mountain-building is essentially the process of uplift when two tectonic plates collide. This idea drove Sidor to look for Permian-Triassic fossils in other areas to help control for the diverse geographies in different regions. Sidor wanted to see if the same patterns in the fossil record were seen regionally so he went to Tanzania in 2007 and 2008 to dig for fossils.

In 2009, they received a grant to go to Zambia. One of the big differences is that in Tanzania and Zambia, the tectonic activity resulted in rift basins instead of mountains. Rift valleys often have much more detailed fossils because their geological development is much shorter than mountains.

“The rocks in Zambia and Tanzania are 242 million years old and we’ve found some very close relatives of dinosaurs,” Sidor said. “You don’t see those species in the same rocks in South Africa. One of the other things we discovered is that before the extinction, the fossil record of Tanzania and Zambia is more or less the same [as in South Africa]. And then you go after the extinction, the three different places end up looking very different. After the mass extinction, everything gets wiped out, and different groups can actually repopulate in different ways in different places.”

The fossils the team found were early relatives of amphibians, mammals, and reptiles. The rise of the archosaur after this extinction event paved the way for the era of dinosaurs. Today, the only living relatives of archosaurs are birds and crocodiles.

“Archosaurs really radiated after the mass extinction,” Sidor said. “And one of their groups, dinosaurs, by the time of the late Triassic, they were the dominant animals. This was the beginning of the dinosaur era.”

Since first visiting Tanzania in 2007, they’ve gone back about ten times and collected around 2,200 fossils, which Sidor calls “a pretty substantial collection.”

“The fossils that we find are totally unique,” said Savannah Olroyd, one of Sidor’s current graduate students. “It was great to be a part of something where you’re finding something that’s totally new.”

This summer, the team will return to Zambia to look for more fossils. The expedition will be led by Brandon Peecook, a former student of Sidor’s who is now at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.

“The work in Zambia especially is pretty awesome because the fossil sites are in the national parks,” Peecook said. “So not only are you finding very cool extinct animal fossils, but you’re doing it and having to deal with elephants and lions and giraffes and stuff. It’s a pretty fun place to be.”

Researchers on the Zambia expedition are exploring how mammals became mammals, the evolution of teeth and jaws in early species, and filling in missing evolutionary links. Peecook is interested in studying the Permo-Triassic ecosystem, particularly “how ecosystems fall apart and how they put themselves back together.”

Finding fossils is no easy task, so even though they all have different interests, everyone on the expedition will be looking for whatever fossils they can find. According to Sidor, 90 percent of the process is prospecting. Nowadays, the team uses technology such as Google Earth and GPS units to figure out where they will look for fossils.

“It’s really hard work,” Olroyd said. “You’re hiking for a really long way, several kilometers every day, you’re out there all day, and you’re basically by yourself. It’s just you and Africa, basically.”

But in Zambia, there are still new horizons and fossils waiting to be discovered.

“We’ve barely started.” Peecook said.

Source: www.dailyuw.com

Most Primitive Kangaroo Ancestor Rediscovered After 30 Years in Obscurity

Thursday, April 12, 2018

Ancestors of Modern-Day Kangaroos Walked Upright on Two Feet

A handful of tiny teeth have led scientists to identify the most distant ancestor of today's kangaroos. The fossils were found in the desert heart of Australia, and then hidden away, and almost forgotten in a museum collection for over three decades. The findings are published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

Kangaroos are icons of Australia's unique living fauna. However, their earliest ancestry is shrouded in mystery. At the beginning of the 1980's, a few enigmatic molar teeth were excavated by palaeontologists hunting for fossils around a dry salt lake in northern South Australia. The rare specimens were recognised as an ancient kangaroo ancestor, but had to wait for over 30 years before modern computer-based analyses could confirm the significance of the discovery.

Originally dubbed Palaeopotorous priscus, Latin for '[very] ancient', 'ancient rat-kangaroo', by the now eminent Australian palaeontologists Prof. Tim Flannery (University of Melbourne) and Dr Tom Rich (Museums Victoria), the importance of these remains was suggested in their first unveiling to science.

"The teeth of Palaeopotorous were initially described in 1986. Even then they were stated as representing possibly the most primitive relative of the entire modern kangaroo radiation. Yet, nobody ever evaluated this claim, and despite being occasionally mentioned in the scientific literature, they were never again examined in detail," said Dr Wendy den Boer, who studied the fossils as part of her recently awarded PhD from Uppsala University in Sweden.

"The name Palaeopotorous was established using a single molar tooth, although, eleven other anatomically very similar teeth were recovered during the expedition. None of these fossils were found in association, so it is still unclear whether we are dealing with one, or more species," said Dr Benjamin Kear, Dr den Boer's PhD supervisor and co-author on the published article. "This uncertainly means that we have had to use a complex series of analyses to assess its morphological similarity and evolutionary relationships relative to other members of the kangaroo family tree".

"Our results showed that Palaeopotorous was most similar to living rat-kangaroos, as well as some other extinct kangaroo relatives. Using information from fossils, and the DNA of living species, we were able to further determine that at around 24 million years old, Palaeopotorous is not just primitive, but likely represents the most distant forerunner of all known kangaroos, rat-kangaroos and their more ancient ancestors," said Dr den Boer.

"Palaeopotorous was about the size of a small rabbit, and probably did not hop, but would have bounded on all four legs. Nevertheless, a few bones found at the same site in central Australia indicate that the earliest kangaroos already possessed some key adaptations for hopping gaits," said Dr Kear.

Palaeopotorous lived at a time when central Australia was much wetter than it is today. Its fossils were buried in clay deposits left by a river, but these earliest kangaroo ancestors would have foraged amongst vegetation growing nearby and along the banks. The teeth of Palaeopotorous were washed into the river after death, along with the remains of many other ancient marsupials.?

UPPSALA UNIVERSITY

Source: www.eurekalert.org

Scientists Have Grown 'Dinosaur Legs' on a Chicken For The First Time