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Rafe Spall admitted working with the animatronic dinosaurs on ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ was “freaky and wonderful”

Rafe Spall admits it was “freaky and wonderful” to get to work with the giant prosthetic dinosaurs on ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom‘.

The 34-year-old actor has joined the cast of the upcoming sequel as a new character that is yet to be named and will appear alongside Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, who are both reprising their roles from the 2015 blockbuster ‘Jurassic World’.

Spall wasn’t totally sure about how the filming process would work when he stepped on set but he was delighted to discover that many of the dinos were operated by puppeteers.

The English actor – who is married to Elize du Toit – told the Metro newspaper: “Acting with the dinosaurs was really special. There were puppeteers underneath the sound stage who were operating them and they would have a camera down there so they could see who was approaching. It was freaky and wonderful.”

‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ sees the return of Howard, 36, as Claire Dearing and Pratt, 37, as velociraptor trainer Owen Grady.

Whilst original ‘Jurassic Park’ star Jeff Goldblum is back as Dr. Ian Malcolm.

For the fifth installment in the ‘Jurassic Park’ franchise, which is slated to be released in June 2018, Colin Trevorrow stepped away from directing duties handing over the reins to Juan Antonio Bayona but his script is still being used as the basis of the story.

In July, director Bayona announced on social media that filming had finished.

He posted on Twitter: “This is a wrap for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom! What a journey! Thank you to everyone that made it possible. #JurassicWorldFallenKingdom (sic)”

Whilst Trevorrow – who is on scripting duties for the latest project after directing the 2015 original – congratulated Bayona for wrapping on the motion picture.

He wrote on his own social media account: “Congratulations @FilmBayona, cast and crew. #wrap (sic)”

The forthcoming film is the second in the ‘Jurassic World’ series following the 2015 self-titled movie and Trevorrow recently teased fans could expect an “insane” action sequence in the middle of the movie, but insisted it will be different to what the franchise has previously produced.

A new species of extinct dwarf dolphin that lived about 30 million years ago (Oligocene epoch) and possessed adaptations for suction feeding has been identified from a fossil found in the Wando River in Charleston, South Carolina.

Named Inermorostrum xenops, the newfound dolphin provides new evidence of the evolution of feeding behavior in cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoise).

It had a short snout, entirely lacked teeth, and was only 4 feet (1.2 m) long, smaller than its closest relatives and significantly smaller than today’s bottlenose dolphins (7-12 feet, or 2.1-3.7 m, in length).

“Inermorostrum xenops fed primarily on fish, squid, and other soft-bodied invertebrates from the seafloor, similar to the feeding behavior of a walrus,” said Professor Robert Boessenecker, from the University of California Museum of Paleontology and College of Charleston.

“Furthermore, a series of deep channels and holes for arteries on the snout indicate the presence of extensive soft tissues, likely enlarged lips, and also perhaps even whiskers.”

Professor Boessenecker and his colleagues from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, the Canadian Museum of Nature and the New York Institute of Technology also studied the evolution of snout length in cetaceans.

They found that during the Oligocene (25-35 million years ago) and early Miocene epochs (20-25 million years ago), the echolocating whales rapidly evolved extremely short snouts and extremely long snouts, representing an adaptive radiation in feeding behavior and specializations.

They also found that short snouts and long snouts have both evolved numerous times on different parts of the evolutionary tree — and that modern dolphins like the bottlenose dolphin, which have a snout twice as long as it is wide, represent the optimum length as it permits both fish catching and suction feeding.

“The identification of Inermorostrum xenops opens up new questions about the evolution of early whales,” said Dr. Danielle Fraser, a paleontologist at the Canadian Museum of Nature.

“The discovery of a suction feeding whale this early in their evolution is forcing us to revise what we know about how quickly new forms appeared, and what may have been driving early whale evolution.”

“Increased ocean productivity may have been one important factor,” she said.

The research is published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

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Robert W. Boessenecker et al. 2017. A toothless dwarf dolphin (Odontoceti: Xenorophidae) points to explosive feeding diversification of modern whales (Neoceti). Proceedings of the Royal Society B 284 (1861); doi: 10.1098/rspb.2017.0531

Source: www.sci-news.com

There are several features that indicate that they belonged to a different race

The Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) has revealed the largest fossil of a herbivore dinosaur to be found in Chaiyaphum province.

According to DMR Director-General Niwat Maneekut, the long front leg and hind leg bones of a sauropod were found in Nong Bua Rawe district. Upon initial examination, the bones appear to belong to a Phuwiangosaurus Sirindhornae, one of many long-necked sauropods. The species was named in tribute to Her Royal Highness Maha Chakri Sirindhorn.

Twenty more fossilized bones, believed to be from the same dinosaur, have been also found. The DMR is currently trying to turn the area in Nong Bua Rawe district into a legal research site for archaeologists. The area could potentially become a tourist site and a learning center in the future.

A fossil of a dinosaur, believed to be the biggest ever found in Thailand, has been discovered in the country’s northeastern regiony, said a senior government official on Thursday.

A new prehistoric sea monster has been discovered – after one of its fossils spent almost 150 years sitting in a museum.

The ancient reptile is called Ieldraan melkshamensis, or the Melksham Monster, after the Wiltshire town where the fossil was originally found.

The fossil has been owned by the Natural History Museum since 1875, but sat in its archives until a closer look revealed it held information about this distant relative of today’s crocs!

The extinct creature, named Ieldraan melkshamensis, is a member of Geosaurini, a sub-family of prehistoric crocodiles.

Dinosaur experts at the University of Edinburgh investigated the fossil, and used the monster’s distinctive skull, lower jaw and teeth to identify it as a new species, from the Jurassic era – that’s 145 to 200 million years ago.

Dr Steve Brusatte, from the University of Edinburgh, said: “The Melksham Monster would have been one of the top predators in the oceans of Jurassic Britain, at the same time that dinosaurs were thundering across the land.”

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

This year paleontological excavations are underway in Eastern Kazakhstan under the Modernization of Public Consciousness program. The focus is on the Zaisan basin which always attracts scientists. This place is famous for the well preserved geological layers. Paleontologist Bolat Baishashov was the first in the CIS to find the remains of a genus of extinct rhinoceros, sinotherium, which resided in Zaisan more than 20-30 million years ago. The discovery has become a real sensation for the scientific world. In fact, previously, this animal was found only in China.

BOLAT BAISHASHOV, PALEONTOLOGIST:

– In 1986, I conducted excavations and found the lower jaw and the upper fragment, the skull, and several teeth and bones of the extremities. On the basis of research, I described these bones as a new species which is called the Zaisan sinotherium.

Since then, the area has become famous. There used to be constant excavations, but in 1990s they have been suspended. The excavation works were resumed only 3 years ago. According to local historian Themistocles Zhunusov, every season pleases with new findings.

THEMISTOCLES ZHUNUSOV, HISTORIAN:

– Approximately 50-60 species of animals are found for the first time in the Zaisan basin. For example, a crocodile was only found in three places in Kazakhstan. Three crocodiles were found, last year four crocodiles were excavated in Zaisan.

A completely new finding is the genus of extinct rhinoceros, sinotherium. Bolat Baishashov believes that local residents should see this property and know how unique their land is.

After the found remains, the scientist gave a part of the discoveries to the Zaisan museum.

Source: www.kazakh-tv.kz

The franchise fans may see their favourite Rexy in captivity through the upcoming Jurassic World sequel.

Jurassic World 2, the upcoming science fiction adventure film titled Fallen Kingdom, makes the franchise fans excited about the return of two of their favourite characters, Dr Ian Malcolm and the Tyrannosaurus rex, popularly known as Rexy.

So, when any new updates on the two characters make its way online, it captures the fans attention. Recently, Mattel shared new information about their upcoming toy line for the new Jurassic Park sequel. It teases the new look of Rexy.

The toy line is currently being exhibited to the retail and license partners. Several behind-the-scene images and making details of the new products have been shared online by Fortune. One of the photos features a clear picture of the fan favourite T. rex head.

“Right away the sculpt is clearly Jurassic, with a nice attention to detail when it comes to form factor. The skull and muscular structure looks dead on. This individual prototype seems to be lacking the finer levels of skin and scale detail, and at this time, it remains unclear if the final item will evolve in those regards. While there’s room for improvement with the aforementioned fine detail, the sculpt shape is the best the franchise has ever seen – especially the teeth, which are surprisingly perfect,” stated a fan site called Jurassic Outpost.

Meanwhile, another fan site called Jurassic World 2 movie shared details on leaked photos of animatronic Rexy in Fallen Kingdom. According to the website, the images have major spoilers on the upcoming movie.

“The images show Rexy laying down in a cage, much like the one featured in The Lost World: Jurassic Park which housed a sedated bull Tyrannosaurus rex for transport to the mainland. Of course this could just be the structure used to transport the massive set piece, but we’re willing to bet we’ll see Rexy in captivity once again in the Jurassic World sequel,” stated the online portal.

Velafrons (meaning “sailed forehead”) is a genus of lambeosaurine hadrosaurid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Mexico. It is known from a mostly complete skull and partial skeleton of a juvenile individual, with a bony crest on the forehead. Its fossils were found in the late Campanian-age Upper Cretaceous Cerro del Pueblo Formation (about 72 million years old), near Rincon Colorado, Coahuila, Mexico. The type specimen is CPC-59, and the type species is V. coahuilensis.

Velafrons was most similar to young specimens of Corythosaurus and Hypacrosaurus, and was found to be a corythosaurin in the phylogenetic analysis performed by Gates and colleagues in their description of the genus. The skull was large in comparison to skulls from other genera at a similar growth stage, so the crest may have been small in adults or followed a different growth pattern, or it may be that adult Velafrons were also larger than adults of other lambeosaurine genera. Unusually large size is also seen in the Mexican hadrosaurids Kritosaurus sp. and Magnapaulia laticaudus. As a hadrosaurid, Velafrons would have been an herbivore.