2008 | Everything Dinosaur Blog

24 06, 2008

Titanosaur Fossil Discovered in New Zealand

By Mike|2022-11-25T14:21:12+00:00June 24th, 2008|Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Main Page|0 Comments

More evidence of Dinosaurs in New Zealand

The fossil record for dinosaurs in New Zealand is particularly poor. Dinosaur remains are few and far between in this country, although a number of marine reptile fossils have been discovered in recent years. Some fossils of marine reptiles, are much more complete and have enabled scientists to classify them as a separate and distinct genus unique to New Zealand, to date a mosasaur and a plesiosaur have been named and described.

Animals that die in a marine environment have a higher chance of fossil preservation, the conditions permit fossilisation to take place (presence of conditions to allow the rapid deposition of sediments and such like). With New Zealand’s dinosaurs, what fossils that have been found are usually isolated bones, often in a poor state of preservation, so at best only classification to a Family level can be made. For much of New Zealand’s history it was attached to the continent of Australia, which itself formed part of a much larger southern super-continent called Gondwanaland. Dinosaurs were theoretically able to roam from the western coast of south America right across to the east coast of New Zealand. Some fragmentary fossils of dinosaurs (dating from the Cretaceous), have been found, scientists are confident that there were carnosaurs (meat-eaters), probably members of the Allosauridae, as well as plant-eaters such as ankylosaurs and hypsilophodontids. The presence of coal seams, formed in the Mesozoic in New Zealand indicate that the country was relatively tropical for much of the Age of Reptiles, even though the land mass that was to become New Zealand was much closer to the South Pole at this time in the Earth’s history.

Thanks to the devotion and dedication of a fossil hunter, a new type of dinosaur can be added to the fauna of New Zealand, evidence of giant titanosaurs roaming the region has been unearthed. Dr Joan Wiffen, a scientist and fossil collector has been studying the dinosaurs of this particular part of the world for many years. Now into her eighties, she shows no signs of slowing down and has not lost any of her enthusiasm for the subject. With her colleagues, Dr Wiffen has been responsible for identifying six different kinds of dinosaurs indigenous to New Zealand.

The titanosaur fossil (believed to be part of the caudal vertebrae) consists of a single, heavily eroded bone that was found in a stream bed in the Hawke’s Bay region in 1999. Hawke’s Bay is situated on the eastern coast of the North Island, the paper on this particular fossil has only just been published after a period of research and peer review, but this is the first evidence of titanosaurs inhabiting the country.

Titanosaurs, were a branch of the Sauropoda, the large, long-necked herbivorous dinosaurs. Although the ornithopods dominated eco-systems in the Northern Hemisphere and sauropods became increasingly rare in the Cretaceous, in the southern latitudes the sauropods, in the form of titanosaurs continued to flourish. Titanosaurs were the last sauropods to evolve, appearing some time in the Late Jurassic and surviving right until the end of the Cretaceous 65 million years ago. Some titanosaurs can stake a claim to being the largest creatures ever to walk on land, Argentinosaurus (from Argentina), is estimated to have been 30 metres in length and weighed 100 tonnes. Not only are these animals famous for their sheer size, but they are the only group of sauropods known for definite to have dermal body armour. The body armour consisted of hard plates (called scutes) that in many species was scattered over their backs and hind-quarters.

Saltasaurus (from the Salta Province in Argentina) is typical of the titanosaurs, with its dermal armour and typical titanosaur body shape of a long-neck and long-tail. At 12 metres and weighing perhaps as much as 8 tonnes this was no small dinosaur, but it would have been small in comparison to the giant titanosaurs such as Argentinosaurus, Alamosaurus, Andesaurus and Paralititan, all of which could have exceeded 30 metres in length.

A Picture of a Typical Titanosaur – Saltasaurus

Saltasaurus illustrated.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

To view a model of a titantosaur and other sauropods: CollectA Deluxe Prehistoric Life Dinosaur Models.

There is not much more that can be deduced from the fossil, other than to confirm that it is from a Titanosaur, scientists cannot be certain how big this dinosaur was as the bone could have come from a juvenile.

Dr Wiffen stated: “I saw a partly exposed concretion (sedimentary rock) about the size of a rugby ball in the stream bank. I dug it out and asked a colleague to break it open with a hammer. I immediately saw a bone structure inside that looked different from the bone of a marine reptile. To be honest it’s a fairly non-descript and incomplete bone. It is heavily eroded and that’s because it must have been transported in a riverbed for some time before it was buried”.

With fossil carefully wrapped, Dr Wiffen took it home and began to work on it in her garage which also serves as a fossil preparation laboratory. Using fine chisels and small picks she carefully removed the surrounding stone to expose the fossil. She even used dilute acetic acid to help dissolve away the rock to allow more of the fossil to come to light. Once prepared she took the bone to the Queensland Museum in Australia for examination by Dr Ralph Molnar, an authority on dinosaurs from Gondwanaland. It was Dr Molnar who confirmed that this fossil was of a tail bone from a titanosaurid.

23 06, 2008

Archaeological Site near Pulborough Provides Unique Evidence of Neanderthals

By Mike|2024-04-13T08:12:47+01:00June 23rd, 2008|Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Main Page|0 Comments

Neanderthals on the South Downs

An archaeological site located close to the small town of Pulborough on the South Downs may help provide evidence of how Neanderthals coped with conditions in England thirty-eight thousand years ago.

The extensive excavations are being carried out by researchers from the University College of London, digging trenches and cuttings to reveal tools used by hominids to hunt game such as Mammoths, Rhino and wild horses.

The site is located at Beedings Castle, a large country house. When it was being built over 100 years ago, workers discovered 2,300 flint tools, at first they were thought to be fakes and the vast majority were discarded with only about 200 being put into museum collections. Now an English Heritage funded project has enabled archaeologists to undertake a thorough examination of the site, using modern archaeological techniques. This is the first formal investigation since the site was discovered in 1900.

The Breedings Excavations

The Beedings excavations are important as they will provide further information to assist with the long-running study of the occupation of Britain by hominids (Ancient Human Occupation of Britain project). The finds in the West Sussex landscape also have international significance, the leaf-shaped cutting tools and other worked flints resemble similar tools find in other parts of Northern Europe. By comparing the different tools and the dates of the sites, researchers hope to gain an understanding of the development of stone use and flint cutting technology.

An Example of a Flint Tool from the Beedings Location

Picture credit: Pope/UCL

Neanderthals

The piece of flint in picture shows distinctive working with a number of facets exposed, evidence that this stone has been worked by a skilled hand, creating an effective blade. Many of the flints have distinctive leaf point assemblages. These are characteristic of a particular type of stone tool, believed to date from around 38,000 to 40,000 years ago (Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician). It was during this period that Neanderthals and modern humans co-existed in Europe, there seems to be a shift in Neanderthal tool making techniques as they adopted some of the methods used by modern humans. Traces of Neanderthal art such as shell necklaces and other adornments have also been found in some European excavations. Cultural items such as non-functional items of jewellery are not known from older Neanderthal sites and some scientists have speculated that modern humans began to influence the Neanderthals in a number of ways, such as tool making and the use of adornments.

Neanderthal models from CollectA.

The Collecta prehistoric life mode range includes prehistoric mammals and Neanderthal figures: CollectA Prehistoric Life Figures.

The absence of any skeleton remains prevents the research team from being able to state with any certainty whether or not this site is associated with Neanderthals or modern humans H. sapiens. However, Dr Matthew Pope, one of the leaders of the expedition commented:

“It’s exciting to think that there’s a real possibility these were left by some of the last Neanderthal hunting groups to occupy northern Europe.” The impression they give is of a population in complete command of both landscape and natural raw materials with a flourishing technology – not a people on the edge of extinction”.

The Neanderthals began to decline in number with the migration of modern people into northern Europe. It has been estimated that within 10,000 of the arrival of modern humans the Neanderthals were all but extinct, with just small isolated populations left on the edge of the continent in Portugal. Neanderthals are believed to have died out just 28,000 years ago, a mere “blink” in geological time.

When the flints were first uncovered over a century ago, many were thought to be fakes and a large number were discarded, now scientists are beginning to realise the significance of this location. The elevation of the site would have made it an ideal vantage point to spot game, a notion not lost on the early hunters who worked tools on this strategic point in the local landscape.

The site was probably visited and occupied for many generations, an important location on what would have been one of the most northern sites of Neanderthal habitation, if indeed the site is proved to be associated with this particular hominid.

Finding Flints

The flints and other materials worked upon by these ancient hunters seem to have been sourced from local sandstone, this may provide the research team with clues of where to look for similar signs of Stone Age activity – strategic land points with stones for tool making accessible nearby.

Barney Sloane, the Head of Historic Environment Commissions at English Heritage said such sites were a precious archaeological resource.

“Their remains sit at a key watershed in the evolutionary history of northern Europe. The tools at Beedings could equally be the signature of pioneer populations of modern humans, or traces of the last Neanderthal hunting groups to occupy the region. This study offers a rare chance to answer some crucial questions about just how technologically advanced Neanderthals were, and how they compare with our own species”.

The Beedings dig site is a very important Early Upper Palaeolithic location, the large amount of flint work dating from the Palaeolithic but with some material from the more recent Mesolithic will provide the scientists with valuable information on the occupation of the United Kingdom by hominids.

West Sussex in England has proved to be a rich source of evidence regarding the evolution of hominids in Europe. A few miles to the south-west of Pulborough, close to the historic city of Chichester lies the small village of Boxgrove. It was here in a gravel quarry that evidence of an even earlier hominid was found – Homo heidelbergensis. A single massive tibia (shin-bone) dating from 500,000 years ago is the oldest record of a hominid in Britain, although recently found footprints in East Anglia (2014) have challenged this.

22 06, 2008

The Debate between Brachiosaurus and Giraffatitan

By Mike|2022-11-25T14:03:16+00:00June 22nd, 2008|Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Dinosaur Fans, Main Page|0 Comments

Should Brachiosaurus be called Giraffatitan?

Brachiosaurus is one of the most popular dinosaurs with young dinosaur fans. It normally rates quite highly in the annual Everything Dinosaur most popular prehistoric animals survey. Brachiosaurus has not quite made the top ten yet, but it tends to be placed in the top twenty of children’s favourites.

To read more about our annual survey: Top Ten most popular Prehistoric Animals 2007/8

However, researchers studying an ancient dinosaur skull found nearly 100 years ago, could challenge much of what we know about Brachiosaurus and their work may even result in a name change for some fossils of this dinosaur.

Brachiosaurus

Brachiosaurs were sauropods (large, long-necked dinosaurs) that lived during the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous. The name brachiosaur (pronounced brak-ee-oh-saw-us), means “arm lizard”, brachiosaurs had front legs that were longer than their back legs. The back sloped downwards towards (by sauropod standards), a relatively short tail. Brachiosaurs were the “giraffes” of the Mesozoic, their long stiff necks enabled them to reach high into the tops of trees to browse. This gave them access to a food supply that was out of reach of most other dinosaurs. Other sauropods could have fed on the tops of conifers and such like too, but they could only have reached the uppermost branches by rearing up or simply bulldozing the trees to the ground with their massive bulk.

A Typical Illustration of Brachiosaurus

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Huge Animals

Estimates of the maximum size of these huge creatures vary; with weights of between 15 and 78 tonnes being put forward by scientific authors. There is some consensus that the very largest specimens may have weighed between 50-70 tonnes, even at the lower end of the scale this is getting on for ten times the weight of an adult African elephant.

Despite this animal’s great size, its fossils are relatively rare. Such big bones would have been difficult for scavengers to damage and remove from the rest of the carcase. Large bones such as the limb bones and vertebrae could have withstood considerable abrasion before finally getting the chance to be fossilised. A large Brachiosaurus, perhaps drowned in a flood event could float (large amount of gas in the digestive tract), and be transported many miles before finally coming to rest. With luck the body could become covered with sediments and the slow process of fossilisation could start. Of course this is just speculation, the fossil record for Brachiosaurus is particularly poor. Even the extremely fossil rich Morrison Formation of the western USA has provided only one or two fossils of Brachiosaurus. Perhaps these animals were less common than other sauropods such as the diplodocids, or perhaps they inhabited parts of the eco-system where the chance of fossilisation was much less. The result is that scientists have very little fossil material of brachiosaurs to work on, despite these animals being one of the largest dinosaurs of all.

Brachiosaurus was named and described in 1903, by the palaeontologist Elmer Riggs, following study of two partial skeletons discovered in the Grand River Valley of Colorado, USA. Although far from complete, these fossils indicated that this was a new type of dinosaur and so the Brachiosaurus genus came into being.

For a number of years, scientists claimed that such large and heavy creatures could not possibly have been able to move around on land. This led to the sauropods being depicted as semi-aquatic animals, spending much of their time in lakes and swamps where the water could help support their huge weight. This theory has now largely been dismissed and sauropods are depicted as entirely terrestrial animals. The relatively high nostrils had convinced many scientists that these animals lived like giant hippopotami, peacefully feeding on soft, lush water plants away from predators.

To read more about the problems with sauropod nostrils: Where on Diplodocus was its nose?

Wild Safari Prehistoric World Brachiosaurus dinosaur model. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Animals at Home in Water

Dinosaur text books of the 1950s-1980s depicted these dinosaurs as semi-aquatic animals with brachiosaurs and other sauropods being depicted as water dwellers. One of the reasons for this assumption can be traced back to studies of sauropod trackways. Many of the fossil footprints had been made in soft mud, indicating that these animals were walking over wet ground, perhaps indicating that they were in a watery environment. Soft mud is an ideal medium for preservation of prints, the fact that these animals walked over dry land as well could not be proved as there were no footprints fossilised to show this. Bizarre logic, as prints are only preserved under exceptional conditions and are most unlikely to be preserved in dry conditions. The absence of any tail marks in the mud where these animals walked was also noticed. This added credence to the theory of the water living dinosaurs, as this was interpreted as the heavy tails being lifted clear of the ground and being buoyed up by the supporting water. The prints were thus interpreted as showing these heavy animals walking along the bottom of lakes and rivers.

The best preserved and most complete fossils of brachiosaurids have been found in Africa. Between 1909 and 1912 a German led expedition to the Tendaguru beds in what was to become Tanzania, uncovered a number of brachiosaurid fossils. More than 30 individual brachiosaurs were found and excavated over this period. Most of the fossils were shipped back to Germany and although some were destroyed in the Second World War, brachiosaur fossils from these expeditions are still on display today.

The huge, mounted skeleton of a brachiosaur in the Humboldt Museum in Berlin is a composite reconstruction using fossils found during the Tendagura expeditions. This is one of the largest mounted dinosaur skeletons in the world. It is in fact made up from the remains of a least five individuals and has recently undergone something of a makeover as our knowledge of brachiosaur anatomy has improved.

To read more about the work undertaken to reconstruct the mounted skeleton of a brachiosaur in the Humboldt museum: Humboldt Brachiosaur gets a Face Lift.

In 1988, palaeontologist and highly talented illustrator Gregory S. Paul, compared the anatomies of the African brachiosaurs (Tendaguru remains) with those found in the western USA. He noted that there were a number of anatomical differences between the two fossil groups, although they supposedly represented the same species Brachiosaurus brancai.

Brachiosaurus and Giraffatitan

The African form seemed more gracile in appearance, it looked more lightly built than its American contemporaries. Another difference was noted in the size and proportion of some of the vertebrae. Paul reinterpreted the fossil evidence and suggested that the African Brachiosaur was sufficiently different from the American fossils to merit being put into its own subgenus. During the Late Jurassic, Africa and the Americas were joined together into a super-continent, the Atlantic ocean that separates these areas of land today had only just begun to form. It was possible to walk from what was to become Antarctica right up to the north of Canada. It had been thought that the genus Brachiosaurus covered both the American and African forms, but Paul’s work was supported by another palaeontologist George Olshevsky and slowly the idea of a separate brachiosaurid genus for the African type began to take hold amongst some scientists. The African brachiosaur was tentatively called Giraffatitan (the name is pronounced ji-raf-ah-ti-tan), it means “Titan Giraffe” very apt as the brachiosaur was regarded as filling a similar environmental niche as modern Giraffes.

The recent find of new American brachiosaur material may help scientists to determine whether or not Giraffatitan is a valid genus, at the moment the classification of brachiosaurid remains as Giraffatitan is still controversial, Giraffatitan is regarded as a synonym for Brachiosaurus by the majority of palaeontologists. In classification terms a synonym is simply another name for the same organism. There are senior and junior synonyms, in this case the name Brachiosaurus would be the senior synonym (first used in 1903) and Giraffatitan the junior synonym.

The recent discovery of a new dinosaur bone bed in the Morrison Formation may provide more data on the American brachiosaurs to aid comparison between the African and American animals. This discovery, announced earlier this week is a fossil “log jam” a series of dinosaur fossils trapped together with a whole host of other fossil remains after a flood, or series of flood events.

To read more about this discovery: New Dinosaur “Log jam” discovered in the Morrison Formation.

It is believed that there are brachiosaur fossils amongst the new finds, this may help provide more information and help to resolve this issue amongst palaeontologists. Ideally, more skull material would be found, this would enable further differences between the two species to be established and perhaps lead to many of the fossil specimens labelled Brachiosaurus in museum collections being relabelled as Giraffatitan.

Other skull material is currently being studied, a partial North American brachiosaurid skull found nearly 100 years ago has been studied by a number of researchers. This skull is more box-like and lacks the distinctive high-crested appearance of the B. brancai holotype. Skull material can prove to be very diagnostic and help determine differences between species. If this skull is confirmed as being from a Brachiosaur such as the North American B. altithorax this would aid weight to the argument for permitting the establishment of Giraffatitan as a separate and distinct genus.

More brachiosaur remains will be found in the future, both in the USA and Africa, so hopefully the taxonomy of these huge reptiles will one day be a little clearer.

Everything Dinosaur stocks a wide range of sauropod figures, such as those in the Wild Safari Prehistoric World model range: Wild Safari Prehistoric World Models.

21 06, 2008

New Dinosaur Named and Described – in the “Garden of the Gods”

By Mike|2023-02-25T16:31:33+00:00June 21st, 2008|Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Dinosaur Fans, Main Page|0 Comments

American National Park gets its very own Dinosaur

A dinosaur skull discovered in the American National Park called the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, has been re-examined and declared a new species previously unknown to science. A partial skull was discovered in the late 19th century within the park boundaries, it had originally been labelled as a Camptosaurus, but like a lot of camptosaur material it has been reclassified. Much of what scientists thought of as camptosaur fossils have been reassessed and identified as iguanodontid.

Theiophytalia kerri

The Colorado Springs fossil has been named Theiophytalia kerri, the name loosely translated means “belonging to the Garden of the Gods”. The species name has been taken in honour of James Hutchinson Kerr, a professor of geology who was credited with the fossil discovery.

The Garden of the Gods is a 1,300 acre national park, famous for its fantastic sandstone and limestone formations that between them cover something like 300 million years of Earth’s history. This new dinosaur has been named by vertebrate palaeontologist Ken Carpenter, of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. From skull bones a lot of information can be obtained, skull bones are very diagnostic of dinosaur genera. The Garden of the God’s skull indicates an ornithopod like Camptosaurus but it is sufficiently different to merit being classified as a different dinosaur genus. It has been estimated that the animal was approximately 8-9 metres long and probably an adult (fused skull bones indicate a mature animal).

“I think it’s fun that Garden of the Gods has its very own dinosaur,” commented Bonnie Frum, the Director of the Garden of the Gods Visitor and Nature Centre, where a replica of the skull is on display.

It is not clear from which part of the park the skull was found, records of fossil excavations in the late 19th century, were at best sparse, some sites were not recorded at all. James Hutchinson Kerr’s hand-written account is the only note of the fossil find and unfortunately the actual location was not recorded.

The notes, which can be viewed at the National Park’s Visitor Centre, provide only a limited amount of information:

“In 1878, I discovered in one of the ridges, east of the red rocks forming the east boundary of the Garden of the Gods, portions of 21 different sea monsters that had been caught as in a basin in one of Earth’s early paroxysms”.

The sediments to the east of the Park represent marine environments, fossil shells can still be found in the mesas in this area. Perhaps, this dinosaur was washed out to sea and became preserved as a fossil in marine strata. Other dinosaur fossils have been found in marine sediments, most famously Scelidosaurus, which is known from the early Jurassic strata of Lyme Regis.

To read more about Scelidosaurus: Britain’s most complete Dinosaur Fossil Discovered to Date ready for Display

An Early Cretaceous Herbivore

It is thought that Theiophytalia kerri lived during the Early Cretaceous, approximately 125 million years ago. A herbivore, it would probably have lived in herds close to a large sea that covered much of the southern USA and the Gulf of Mexico. This sea was part of the Tethys ocean soon to become part of the newly formed Atlantic.

The Garden of the Gods was named in 1859, surveyors from Denver looking to locate a new town in the state, came across the strange red sandstone rock formations and declared it being a place fit for Gods to assemble. The name stuck and the area has been called the Garden of the Gods ever since.

The Garden of the Gods Park is a registered National Natural Landmark in Colorado Springs. It is open from 5 am to 11 pm in the summer and 5 am to 9 pm during the winter months. It is famous for its beautiful and strange-looking geological formations made up of ancient sedimentary beds of red and white sandstones and limestone. The layers of rock have been raised into vertical columns by faulting and are subject to substantial erosion, so more fossils may be found in the future.

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s website: Everything Dinosaur.

20 06, 2008

Helpful Dinosaur Cookie Cutters Prove a Success

By Mike|2024-04-12T19:30:01+01:00June 20th, 2008|Everything Dinosaur Products, Press Releases|0 Comments

Dinosaur Cookie Cutters – Make Dinosaur Shaped Biscuits and Snacks

Ideal for making Tyrannosaurus rex or Triceratops shaped snacks for dinosaur parties, a strong, sturdy set of dinosaur shaped cookie cutters, great for baking, school projects or even for cutting out shapes when working with clay. A metal dinosaur shaped cookie cutter set, ideal for young, hungry palaeontologists! The set includes four super prehistoric animal shaped biscuit cutters – T. rex, Triceratops, the long-necked Diplodocus and a super plated Stegosaurus.

Make Meal Times into Dinosaur Times

Dinosaur Cookie Cutters ideal for a dinosaur party!

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Just what you need to make your dinosaur party a “roaring” success.

To view Everything Dinosaur’s huge range of toys and gifts: Dinosaur Toys and Gifts.

19 06, 2008

New European Champions for Prehistoric Animal Genera – How did we do?

By Mike|2024-04-12T19:29:00+01:00June 19th, 2008|Everything Dinosaur News and Updates, Main Page|0 Comments

Is the number of Prehistoric Animal Genera a good Guide to National Football Team Performance?

At the start of the 2008 European Football championships some of the team members at Everything Dinosaur conducted a quick analysis of the sixteen countries taking part to ascertain whether the number of prehistoric animal genera recorded within a country would act as a guide to football team performance.

Prehistoric Animal Genera

No in-depth analysis of the actual number of genera recorded was carried out, most of the countries playing in the football tournament have had far more genera recorded from palaeontological finds from their countries than we stated. Team members merely used what data they could find from the office files one evening, as a very crude and general guide. The number of genera was weighted in accordance with the size of the country concerned; (it was felt appropriate to do this, as how else where we able to compare the likes of Croatia and Austria with Russia for example). For extra spice, we also factored in the number of mentions a participating country had had within our own web log.

Based on this analysis, we produced a ranking table, listing the expected position of each nation based on the statistical data provided.

To view the first article and summary table: European Champions for Prehistoric Animal Genera.

With the group games now concluded and the quarter finalists determined, it is a good time to review our data to see how accurate our predictions were. According to our study, Germany should win the tournament, beating France in the final (countries ranked one and two respectively in our analysis). It is true that Germany have made the last eight, unfortunately France have been knocked out, indeed the French finished bottom of their group.

How Did We Do?

The top ranked teams, according to this analysis are listed below along with their tournament record:

National Team Performance at Quarter Finals Stage (2008 European Championships)

Rank	Country	Performance
1	Germany	Quarter finalist
2	France	Knocked out
3	Spain	Quarter finalist
4	Russia	Quarter finalist
5	Portugal	Quarter finalist
6	Greece	Knocked out
7	Switzerland	Knocked out
8	Sweden	Knocked out
9	Turkey	Quarter finalist
10	Poland	Knocked out
11	Italy	Quarter finalist
12	Romania	Knocked out
13	Holland	Quarter finalist
14	Czech Republic	Knocked out
15	Austria	Knocked out
16	Croatia	Quarter finalist

Data source: Everything Dinosaur

It seems that using this rather bizarre methodology, four out of the eight teams that have made the quarter finals have been predicted correctly. In essence, had we picked 8 countries at random, we statistically would have had a chance of predicting half of them correctly, so without having to conduct Chi squared tests or indeed subjecting our work to a more rigorous analysis we can conclude that prehistoric animal genera does not seem to have an impact on a football team’s performance.

However, Germany, the country ranked number one in our survey could still win the Championship.

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s award-winning website: Everything Dinosaur.

18 06, 2008

Dinosaur “Log jam” Discovered in the Morrison Formation of Utah

By Mike|2022-11-25T13:36:14+00:00June 18th, 2008|Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Dinosaur Fans, Main Page, Palaeontological articles|0 Comments

New Dinosaur Quarry unveiled – a chance to meet up with old Friends

An expedition hoping to find specimens for a Chicago museum have hit the jackpot with the discovery of a vast number of jumbled up dinosaur bones in an ancient river system outside of Hanksville, Utah in the USA.

The researchers, representing the Burpee Museum of Natural History, had been hoping to find specimens for the museum’s new display centre which is currently under construction. This new discovery will give them plenty of options, as so far, six types of dinosaur have been identified along with a number of other important finds that provide a detailed picture of the western North American landscape in the late Jurassic.

It seems the team have uncovered a “log jam”, a series of fossils that represent the aftermath of a single flood event (or perhaps numerous floods), with drowned animals being washed down stream and ending up in part of a river system with more flood debris including trees and other plant material. The site is then gradually covered over with sediments and preserved as fossils, providing a remarkable insight into the fauna and flora of this part of the world approximately 148 million years ago.

Dinosaur “Log Jam”

These “log jams” can provide palaeontologists with a tremendous amount of information about a particular ecosystem, as a vast amount of fossil material is uncovered. This new site includes numerous dinosaur remains, some of the bones are articulated but the majority are scattered and jumbled up. Amongst the fossil bones are the fossilised remains of conifers, so well preserved that the texture of the bark can still be made out along with growth rings on the broken branches and trunks. These pieces probably created a natural dam which enabled the collection of all the carcases of animals caught in the floods to be washed up together in the same area. Dendrochronologists (scientists who study the growth rings of timber), should be able to obtain climate data from the fossilised wood. Wide growth rings followed by narrow growth rings would indicate distinct seasons, such as a wet season with rapid growth followed by a dry season with limited tree growth. This site could help provide further information on life in the Late Jurassic (Tithonian faunal stage).

These log jam sites are very important to palaeontologists, because of the wealth of data they contain, although such finds are rare, when they do occur they permit scientists a unique access to ancient worlds.

To read about the discovery of a similar site (but dating from the Cretaceous period), in Argentina: Giant Dinosaur Discovered in Cretaceous “Lost World”.

This new quarry is within the Dinosaur National Monument Park, an area protected by the U.S. National Parks Service, an area that is one of the most important sites in the world for dinosaur fossils. The National Monument site was established in 1915 by Presidential decree, and much of what we know about dinosaurs such as Apatosaurus, Diplodocus, Allosaurus, Camptosaurus and Dryosaurus is due to fossil discoveries made in this area.

Many Dinosaur Fossils from Utah

This part of Utah was first recognised as being scientifically important in 1909, when an almost complete Apatosaurus skeleton was discovered by an expedition from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). Between 1909 and 1923 the site was continually excavated and approximately 350 tonnes of fossil bones were removed, providing the backbone (no pun intended), of most of the world’s Jurassic dinosaur fossil collections.

Commenting on the discovery, Matt Bonnan an associate professor of biological sciences at Western Illinois University stated:

“What’s exciting is that it’s the first time in a long time where we have logjams of bones of a different species in one place” .

For Matt, this will give him an opportunity to study more sauropod fossils including Apatosaurus, Diplodocus (diplodocids) and the more heavily built Macronaria, a clade of sauropods that includes the brachiosaurids and camarasaurids. The name Macronaria, literally means “big nostrils”, a reference to the distinctive box-like skulls of these huge dinosaurs, where the naris (hole in the skull for the nostrils) is bigger than the orbits (the hole in the skull for the eyeballs). It is thought that these large nostrils were filled with moist membranes that would have cooled the brain as these animals wandered around the hot Jurassic landscape.

The area of land around the town of Hanksville has been known as a source of fossils to locals and land managers for years, but it was only in the last few weeks that its potential impact to science became apparent. Amateur fossil hunters had picked over the site but no extensive excavations had taken place thus leaving those fossils below ground in pristine condition. The Bureau of Land Management intends to close the site to the public to permit a proper scientific excavation to take place.

It is hoped that the Burpee group will provide more information on some already well known dinosaurs such as the meat-eater Allosaurus, plus the herbivores Stegosaurus and Camptosaurus. Elements of a brachiosaurid type fossil have already been recovered. Despite being a very well known dinosaur, remains of these animals in the Morrison Formation are very rare. The only virtually complete skeleton of a Brachiosaurus was found in Tanzania, it is on display at the Humboldt Museum of Berlin. This animal has been reclassified as a different type of brachiosaur by some scientists and re-named Giraffatitan, although this re-working of the evidence has yet to gain universal approval and most palaeontologists refer to the Humboldt specimen as a Brachiosaurus. Perhaps the brachiosaur remains at the Hanksville site will give scientists a rare opportunity to compare the African and North America types of brachiosaur.

A Typical Model of a Brachiosaur

Brachiosaurus replica (Bullyland of Germany)

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

To view the Museum Line range of models from Bullyland: Bullyland Museum Line Models.

The fossil area is approximately half a mile in diameter and probably represents a sandbar deposit upon which all these organic remains came to rest. Whether this marks a single flood event or a gradual build up of debris in one area over a number of years has yet to be determined. One thing is for sure, this new site will help cement the Morrison Formation as one of the most important Mesozoic sites of all and provide fresh insight into well-known dinosaurs, but relatively poorly researched animals such as the North American brachiosaurids.

“We will be able to take a look at old bones with new eyes and new techniques,” Bonnan commented. “In the old days they looked for the best specimens for display. What we tend to be interested in nowadays when you have a log jam is what it can tell you about the flow of the river system and about the ancient environment.”

It is sometimes difficult for the public to appreciate how little is still known about famous dinosaurs such as Diplodocus and Brachiosaurus for example. Although scientific techniques have improved and new fossils found, there is still so much more to learn about these amazing creatures. A point that is all too often overlooked when the likes of “Walking with Dinosaurs” a ground breaking BBC TV documentary series featured the animals of the Morrison Formation in episode two of the series -“Time of the Titans”.

17 06, 2008

Ancient Fish Found in Scottish Quarry

By Mike|2023-09-02T08:28:40+01:00June 17th, 2008|Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Geology, Main Page|0 Comments

Devonian Fossil Fish Found in Scottish Quarry

A Scottish fish fossil that dates from the Devonian period has been unearthed in a disused flagstone quarry. The fish which has been identified as belonging to the genus named Actinolepis had not been known from UK strata before this discovery. Actinolepis was a placoderm (the name means “plated skins”). Placoderms were a class of jawed fish, protected by dermal armour around the head and front of the body. Originating sometime in the Ordovician, the group flourished throughout the Devonian but disappeared from the fossil record around 354 million years ago. The placoderms were one of the classes of vertebrates that went extinct at the end of the Devonian period.

Placoderm Fish Fossil

The only other example of an Actinolepis was found in Devonian strata in Estonia, making this Scottish fossil an important discovery.

During the Devonian period (approximately 417-354 million years ago), the landmasses that were to become North America, Scandinavia and Europe were joined together. The Eastern part of this super-continent was called Baltica, a mountain ridge had formed when continental plates had collided together (Laurentia colliding with Baltica to form a landmass called by many scientists – Euroamerica). Water draining from these uplands formed a huge, freshwater lake in the low lying areas of barren land between the mountains and the sea.

Lake Orcadie

This lake is called Lake Orcadie and at its peak it covered the land now occupied by Shetland, the Orkney, Caithness, the Moray coast and across to Norway. The lake seems to have existed for hundreds of thousands of years and during this time it went through a series of expansions and reductions in volume.

The lake contained a diverse variety of fish genera, with many of the fish being found as fossils in the quarry at Achanarras in Caithness, from which this new placoderm fossil was extracted. The quarry is now managed by Scottish Natural Heritage, so far sixteen different types of prehistoric fish fossil have been found at the site, including agnathans (jawless fish). It is not only fossil fish that makes this site so interesting fossils of many invertebrates that shared this watery world with the fish have also been found including fossils of eurypterids (sea-scorpions).

Professor Nigel Trewin

This latest discovery was officially unveiled by Aberdeen-based palaeontologist Nigel Trewin, who has been visiting the Achanarras quarry for more than 35 years. Professor Trewin, with colleague Mike Newman, has published details of this find in the Scottish Journal of Geology.

The actual fossil was found by an amateur collector, however, it was soon realised that this was an unusual and important find. Professor Trewin believed the fish, which had large pectoral fins, would have been a bottom feeder. Commenting on the demise of the placoderms, he said: “I’m afraid there are no modern relatives of this one, unlike some of the other finds which have been made here.”

The placoderms are one group of vertebrates that died out, in what has become known as the Devonian mass extinction, a mass extinction event that devastated many marine families of fish, especially those that lived on tropical reefs.

A close-up view of the anterior portion of the CollectA 1:20 scale Dunkleosteus model. — *A close view of the anterior portion of the CollectA 1:20 scale Dunkleosteus model. Dunkleosteus was a giant, predatory placoderm of the Devonian. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.*

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

To view a 1:20 scale replica of a Dunkleosteus (placoderm) and models of other Palaeozoic creatures: CollectA Deluxe Prehistoric Life.

Visit the Everything Dinosaur website: Everything Dinosaur.

16 06, 2008

Part of the Dinosaur Mummy ready for Display

By Mike|2022-11-25T13:18:31+00:00June 16th, 2008|Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Dinosaur Fans, Main Page|0 Comments

Dakota the Dinosaur Mummy goes on Display

The arm and tail of a rare mummified dinosaur that has been heralded as one of the most amazing dinosaur discoveries ever made have gone on display in North Dakota’s state museum. The dinosaur, believed to be a type of duck-billed dinosaur called an Edmontosaurus (nick-named Dakota), has been fossilised with a remarkable degree of detailed preservation, including skin and other soft body tissues.

At the unveiling of the first parts of the skeleton to go on display, the audience were able to examine one of the arms and the tail of this huge, plant-eater that roamed Dakota approximately 67 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian faunal stage).

The team at Everything Dinosaur first reported on this fantastic fossil in 2007, when the first detailed reports became available: Dinosaur Mummy unlocks Duck-Billed Dinosaur Secrets.

Commenting on the hadrosaurine fossil, Dr Phil Manning, a palaeontologist at Manchester University and one of the international team of researchers working on the project said:

“It is a fascinating fossil, and it’s one which we’re going to be disinterring secrets from … for many years to come”.

When members of the public see the huge reconstructions of dinosaur skeletons within museums, many get the wrong impression, believing that dinosaur fossils must be relatively common. This is simply not true, even fossils of some of the most diverse and numerous types of dinosaur, such as dinosaurs from the Hadrosauridae (the Duck-Billed dinosaurs) are exceptionally rare. Despite having ranged over much of the Northern Hemisphere in the Late Cretaceous only a few hundred hadrosaur fossils are known and the vast majority of these do not represent articulated fossils. Dinosaur bones are extremely rare and to find the mummified remains of a dinosaur is exceptional. Only a handful of mummified dinosaurs have ever been discovered. For young Tyler Lyson, currently completing his Doctorate in Palaeontology at Yale University, who discovered the dinosaur remains on his uncle’s ranch back in 1999, the unveiling permits him to share his amazing discovery with a larger audience. Up until now only the researchers and one or two privileged individuals were allowed to gaze upon this dinosaur, still partially encased in a sandstone block.

This hadrosaur, when it died was buried very quickly by fine sediment and this has preserved parts of the soft body tissue, the dinosaur’s skin scales have even been preserved on parts of the skeleton. How much of the fossil has been recovered has still to be determined as much of the animal is still entombed in a large sandstone block that will take the research teams many years to prepare.

The tail and arm have been extracted from a smaller sandstone block, the larger block, which contains the rest of the fossil has undergone a CAT scan to determine its contents but the stone matrix is very solid and the block so big that the data produced is still being analysed. It is not clear for example whether the skull of the animal has been preserved.

Fossilised Skin of “Dakota” the Edmontosaurus

Picture credit: Xinhua/Reuters

The picture was taken at the dig site and shows the remarkable degree of preservation of the fossilised skin, individual scales can be clearly seen.

“It’s certainly drawing a lot of attention to North Dakota,” commented state palaeontologist John Hoganson, a member of the North Dakota Geological Survey. He went on: “we know people are going to be coming in from all over the country and world to see this”.

It has been estimated that another $100,000 would be required to complete the work of extracting the fossil from its matrix. Already the likes of the National Geographic Society has funded the project to the sum of approximately $200,000 but at this stage a definite cost for the work to be carried out cannot be calculated. Since the scientists are not exactly sure what the sandstone block actually contains, any funding costs at this stage are merely estimates. A spokesperson for the research team who helped remove the arm and the tail estimated that it could take more than a year to reveal the rest of the skeleton.

Everything Dinosaur stocks a rang of hadrosaur figures including replicas of Edmontosaurus: Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal Models.

It is hoped that when the project has been completed Dakota will go on a world wide tour of museums, probably starting with Japan, before finally going on permanent display in the state after which it was named.

To read more about this fossil: Update on Dakota – the recently discovered Hadrosaurine Mummy.

15 06, 2008

A Maternal Mammoth

By Mike|2023-02-25T16:32:47+00:00June 15th, 2008|Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Everything Dinosaur News and Updates, Main Page|0 Comments

Did Woolly Mammoths make Good Mothers?

With the many fossils of Woolly Mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) and the ancestral type Mammuthus meridionalis, plus the opportunity to observe modern elephant species, scientists have built up a detailed picture of the lives of Woolly Mammoths. Well preserved frozen carcases from Siberia and other remarkable finds have enabled researchers to piece together a picture of what it must have been like to be a Mammoth in the Pleistocene, wandering the extensive, grassy plains of northern Europe.

Daniel Fisher of the Michigan University has pioneered a method of determining the age of Mammoths at death by analysing cross sections of the tusk. It seems that Mammoths could live to about the age of sixty, a lifespan slightly shorter than the African and Asian elephants. Like modern elephant species they lived in a sophisticated, highly structured social hierarchy. The females and young animals lived in herds together, with perhaps a matriarch figure, the oldest female in the group acting as leader. Mature bulls lived a solitary existence, coming into contact with females only to mate. Younger males may have formed small herds, gathering together for protection from predators such as Dire wolves and Sabre-tooth cats.

Maternal Mammoths

Competition for mates was probably a common site when the females came into season. One Mammoth fossil found in Nebraska comprises two skulls locked together by their curling tusks, the combatants, probably males must have become entangled during a fight and then unable to separate themselves. They must have died a slow and lingering death from starvation.

As with most mammal species adapted to northern climates, mating probably occurred in the Summer months. With a twenty-two month gestation period, a female Mammoth that conceived in July would give birth in the next May but one, allowing the calves to have a few months of warm, mild weather before the winter and any migration that was undertaken. Having a calf in the spring would also benefit the Mammoth mothers as they would have plenty of new grazing to help them produce the milk required for their offspring. A single calf would be born, and this calf would probably depend on it’s mother’s milk for at least two years. The calf being dependent on the mother coupled with the long gestation period would have meant that mature females would only have been able to breed once every four years.

A Mother and Calf Woolly Mammoth

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

The Mammoths in the picture are models from the Schleich Prehistoric Mammals series. These are 1:20 scale models of Pleistocene age mammals which are now extinct. In recognition of the maternal instincts of Mammoths, the Everything Dinosaur team supply the adult Mammoth model and the baby as a set.

To view models of prehistoric mammals: Models of Prehistoric Mammals.

Many large mammals produce just a single calf and dedicate a lot of resources into nurturing their offspring. This strategy is effective so long as the adult population does not decline. As has been seen with African elephants, if there is much predation of adult animals, as with poaching for example, then the population can crash dramatically.

Some researchers have claimed that Mammoths would look after each other and orphaned calves would be fostered. There is also some fossil evidence to suggest that Mammoths like modern elephants were reluctant to abandon a dead or dying member of their group. Offspring off both sexes probably stayed in the female herd until about 10-12 years of age, before the males moved on to form bachelor groups.