November, 2009 | Everything Dinosaur Blog

20 11, 2009

Dinosaur Dash – The New Dinosaur Evolution Game

By Mike|2024-04-18T15:23:25+01:00November 20th, 2009|Dinosaur Fans, Everything Dinosaur News and Updates, Main Page, Palaeontological articles|0 Comments

Dinosaur Dash Game – Can you be the first to Evolve?

Designed with the co-operation of those clever palaeontologists at the Natural History Museum in London, the Dinosaur Dash game challenges players to survive the age of reptiles.

In this family, dinosaur themed, board game, the object is to take your little dinosaur playing piece, all herbivores (we suspect because if there was a T. rex playing piece then this would lead to too many arguments), from the Triassic to the Cretaceous.

Dinosaur Evolution Game

For two to four players, with a special game version for especially young dinosaur fans (five years and up), the board game is supplied with a set of dinosaur quiz and chance cards to help young people learn about prehistoric animals. The game uses beautifully illustrated game cards, from the Natural History Museum in London and is packed full of dinosaur facts and information.

The Dinosaur Dash – Evolution Game

The game box is wonderfully illustrated by John Sibbick; the famous dinosaur artist and illustrator. As you play the game you will have to answer questions about prehistoric animals and rely on your knowledge, skill and luck to survive the Mesozoic. It is a great festive gift idea for fans of dinosaurs and prehistoric animals and the game has a strong educational element too.

To view the extensive range of dinosaur and prehistoric animal themed gifts and toys available from Everything Dinosaur’s award-winning website: Visit Everything Dinosaur.

Along your time travelling adventure, you may have to escape the fearsome jaws of a Tyrannosaurus rex, or fight off a rival Triceratops with a display of your frill and three horns. Can you be the first to evolve?

A spokesperson from Everything Dinosaur praised the game. It represents lots of fun for all the family. After all, how would you cope when faced with a T. rex?

The spokesperson added:

“It is a great board game. We recommend this wonderful, family-friendly game. It would make an ideal Christmas gift.”

19 11, 2009

The Goat that lived like a Reptile

By Mike|2023-09-02T06:46:51+01:00November 19th, 2009|Animal News Stories, Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Main Page|0 Comments

Ancient Goat Species Lived like a Reptile

An ancient mammal lived in the slow lane, scientists studying Myotragus goat fossils suggest that this island-living animal may have had a metabolic rate similar to an extant reptile.

The island of Majorca in the Spanish Balearics may be regarded as a holiday retreat for many. Indeed, this group of islands, of which Majorca is the largest, attract many millions of holidaymakers each year. However, the geology of Majorca is truly fascinating and a study of a type of goat that once lived on this island has revealed a remarkable adaptation to a resource poor environment. For one type of prehistoric mammal, the key to survival in a harsh environment was to live like a reptile.

Amongst all this recent debate over whether dinosaurs were warm-blooded or cold-blooded (ectothermic v endothermic) comes a research paper published in the scientific journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggesting that goats adapted to a resource-poor environment by changing their growth rate and metabolism to match the available food supply. A mammal living in the slow lane, developing a metabolism and growth rate more like a reptile’s than other mammals.

This discovery is the first time scientists have seen this ectothermic survival strategy in Mammalia. Unfortunately, for the species of goats concerned, their adaptations may have eventually led to their extinction, once skilled human predators came to the Majorca.

Co-author of this study into the prehistoric goats of Majorca, Meike Köhler, a palaeobiologist at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain noted that the energy saving adaptations made these animals small, slow and easy prey for sophisticated human hunters when modern people came to live on the island approximately 3,000 years ago.

Myotragus Goat Fossils

A study of the fossilised bones of this prehistoric goat (Myotragus) were first found on the island in the early part of the 20th Century. The fossils show that this species lived, isolated on this island for more than 5 million years, with virtually no natural predators. In most large mammals, constant high growth rates and fast metabolisms require lots and lots of food to sustain them. Cold-blooded reptiles, relying on the sun to warm their bodies do not require anything like as much food as an equivalent sized mammal would. Since resources can fluctuate wildly on isolated islands, reptiles often displace mammals in such environments as the mega fauna.

However, this new research, which analysed the ontogeny of several Myotragus specimens revealed that the goats may have adapted their growth and metabolic rates seasonally to cope with the limited amounts of food that was available – just like reptiles do.

Commenting on the research findings Meike Köhler stated:

“This way, it burned only the energy that was available from the environment, slowing down the ‘fire of life’ in times when resources became scarce”.

The reptile-like lifestyle, however, meant that the newborn of this particular goat were extremely small, about the size of rats and the young would have taken many years to reach breeding age and adulthood. The goat may have saved a lot of energy by developing a brain only half the size of similar-sized ungulates and eyes only a third as large as other species of goat that existed on the mainland of Europe. The small eyes can clearly be seen in the picture above.

Detailed Bone Analysis

The bone analysis indicated that the ontogeny (growth rates) was very slow for this particular species and these goats probably had a sluggish appearance.

“Like modern-day reptiles, the goats probably “saved as much energy as possible just lying around and basking in the sun,” Köhler said.

“The postcranial skeleton indicates that this animal was not able to run, jump, or move fast around, and [would have been] easy prey, ” added Köhler.

A number of remote, isolated islands have provide evidence of the enormous ability of organisms to adapt to their constrained environments. Examples include giant flightless birds such as the New Zealand Moa, pygmy elephants and humans on the Indonesian island of Flores, and now a goat that adapted to limited resources by taking on the metabolism of a cold-blooded reptile.

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s website: Everything Dinosaur.

18 11, 2009

Following up on the Endothermic versus Ectothermic Debate

By Mike|2023-03-04T14:30:17+00:00November 18th, 2009|Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Everything Dinosaur News and Updates, Main Page|0 Comments

Warm-blooded versus Cold-blooded Dinosaurs

Famous palaeontologist Dr Bob Bakker weighs into the cold-blooded versus warm-blooded dinosaur controversy.

Whilst writing up the recent article on a study of dinosaur locomotive capabilities we were reminded of some fascinating work undertaken by Dr Bob Bakker who took a novel approach to this particular aspect of palaeontology.

To read the recent article on Endothermy v Ectothermy: Debate over Warm-blooded Dinosaurs Hots Up.

Mammals and birds maintain a constant body temperature by producing body heat internally, (endotherms). Whereas, extant reptiles such as crocodiles and lizards have to rely on external influences to maintain a constant body temperature. A lizard, for example, will move between hot places such as a rock in direct sunlight and the shade of a crack or crevice to regulate their body temperatures. Cold-blooded animals such as lizards are called ectotherms.

There are some significant drawbacks being an ectotherm (cold-blooded), on a cool, cloudy day it can be difficult to warm up and as a result cold-blooded creatures remain sluggish. At night, except within the tropics, it can become too cold for ectothermic animals to remain active. As a result reptiles are much more widespread in the tropics and sub-tropics than they are in the temperate regions of the world. Having said this, the United Kingdom has six species of native reptile, quite remarkable given the rotten weather we have had lately.

Cold-blooded versus Warm-blooded

Being cold-blooded does have one huge advantage over those warm-blooded mammals and birds. Ectotherms do not need to expend energy in order to keep warm, as a result, their appetites are much less. A crocodile does not need to eat anything like as much as a lion. Dr Bob Bakker started to explore this issue of whether dinosaurs were cold-blooded or warm-blooded back in the late 1960’s. He was influenced by his mentor Professor Ostrom, at Yale University. It was Professor Ostrom who reveiwed and studied the fossil evidence related to the theropod Deinonychus, raising the profile of this debate.

Dr Bob Bakker

Dr Bakker began with the assumption that dinosaurs were endothermic. He then set about the task of finding evidence to support this view. He studied dinosaur anatomy and dinosaur posture, but he also took an extremely novel approach to this debate – he began to take a census of fossil collections.

Dr Bakker argued that if ectotherms need less food than endotherms; the ratio of predators to prey would be very different in the fossil record when looking at the Mesozoic and Palaeozoic and contrasting it with the fossil record from the Cenozoic, known as the age of mammals.

Could the difference in appetite between endotherms and ectotherms be measured in the fossil record? Dr Bakker believed that it could and he set about studying three distinct sets of fossils from different times in the geological record. He looked at the ratio of fossils of predators to fossils of prey animals in fossils dating from the Permian, a time of primitive reptiles and amphibians. He examined the ratio of fossilised predators to fossilised prey in strata dating from the Cenozoic, a time of warm-blooded mammal dominance. He then looked at the ratio of predators to prey in dinosaur fossils, his aim was to see if he could identify evidence of warm-bloodedness in the Dinosauria.

Simplified Diagram Summarising Dr Bakker’s Fossil Census

Simplified Table.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

The results he compiled were most interesting. In the Palaeozoic fossil collections he found a ratio of predator to prey of approximately 1:1, what would have been expected if the animals were ectotherms. With the Mesozoic and Cenozoic fossils a different pattern emerged. The dinosaur and mammal fossil collections showed a ratio of more than ten prey animals to one predator.

This novel and deceptively simple analysis led Dr Bakker to postulate that this was more evidence of endothermy being present in the Dinosauria. As more dinosaur fossils have been found, even ones covered in feathers, so the belief that at least a number of different types of dinosaur were warm-blooded has gained credence.

The feathers are important as feathered animals would be insulated against the cold, an adaptation suited to an endothermic animal.

For an extensive range of feathered dinosaur models: Dinosaur Toys and Models.

17 11, 2009

What is a “Living Fossil”? A Favourite Question

By Mike|2024-04-18T07:28:06+01:00November 17th, 2009|Dinosaur Fans, Educational Activities, Main Page|0 Comments

What is a “Living Fossil”?

A number of extant species, that is a species that exists today rather than an extinct one, are referred to as “living fossils”. An example might be the remarkable Tuatara, that has just been introduced to the mainland of New Zealand. The Tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus) is the only surviving member of an otherwise extinct reptilian order the Rhynchocephalia.

The Rhynchocephalia

Fossils of Rhynchocephalians have been found in rock strata dating back to the Lower Triassic and from the fossil site locations, virtually every continent except North America, it is likely that this particular type of reptile was very common in the early Mesozoic. The Tuatara has been protected by the New Zealand Government for many years and recently, in an extension of the ongoing conservation programme a new mainland reserve for this little reptile was established.

Living Fossil

The males have conspicuous triangular folds of skin that form a crest that runs down the back and tail of the males. The Maori word Tuatara means “peaks on the back”, a reference to the crests found along the backs of the males.

To read an article on the Tuatara re-introduction programme: Living Fossil to be Reintroduced to New Zealand Mainland.

There are many other examples of living fossils, Charles Darwin, in his ground breaking work on natural selection “The Origin of Species” uses the phrase “living fossil”. In chapter 4 of our copy of the third edition (kept in the office), we first encounter the phrase “living fossil”. In this chapter, Darwin begins to outline his theory of natural selection, presenting evidence for the competition for organisms in the natural world.

Darwin comments that in general, the larger the land mass or area within which an ecosystem exists the greater the competition between organisms and hence the greater the drive to create new species. He contrasts the paucity of species to be found on remote islands to those found on the continents and he states that those native organisms of the isolated country of Australia are easily out competed and threatened by European and Asian species once they are introduced. Darwin introduces the idea that there are circumstances in the natural world favourable to natural selection and circumstances which are not favourable to the process of natural selection.

Natural Selection

In developing this point about circumstances favourable or unfavourable to natural selection; Darwin states that the world contains far more salt water than fresh water. Compared to the great oceans and seas of the world, freshwater lakes, ponds and rivers are very small. Consequently, he argues that the competition between organisms living in freshwater will be much less severe than the competition between organisms living in salt water. As a result new species of freshwater animals will take longer to develop when compared to salt water species. New forms take longer to develop and older forms persist for longer.

Darwin comments that in freshwater; seven genera of ganoid fishes can be found, the likes of the Gar fish for example. These are the remnants of a much more common type of fish that dominated both freshwater and marine environments by the number of fossils found. It is also in freshwater, he notes, that the last of the lepidosiren (lung-fishes) can be found. These remaining few species of once great families of fish are now widely separated in the natural scale and Darwin refers to these type of creatures as being:

“anomalous forms” that “may almost be called living fossils, they have endured to the present day, from having inhabited a confined area, and from having thus been exposed to less severe competition.”

If this is Darwin’s definition of a living fossil, then it is certainly good enough for us.

For replicas of extinct animals visit Everything Dinosaur’s website: Everything Dinosaur.

16 11, 2009

Unique Mexican Dig Site Indicates that Clovis Man had a Taste for Elephants

By Mike|2024-04-18T07:28:49+01:00November 16th, 2009|Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Main Page|0 Comments

First American Settlers may have Hunted Elephants

A team of archaeologists working at a remote dig site in Mexico close to the border with Arizona have unearthed evidence that the earliest known American settlers, the Clovis people, probably ate the local megafauna, including giant elephants.

An elephant may not be the first animal that springs to mind when you consider the wild animals that live in the Americas today. However, it is worth remembering that the two modern-day species of elephant are living representatives of a much larger group of hoofed mammals – the proboscideans. The proboscideans spread throughout the world during the Miocene to the Pliocene Epochs.

Clovis People

Now in a study of a secret dig site, a team of anthropologists and archaeologists have concluded that the first Americans co-existed with large elephant-like animals and may have hunted them or at least scavenged carcases to obtain meat. Stone tools and spear tips found with the fossil bones of a ancient type of elephant, about the size of a modern Asian elephant have been found at a remote location in the northern Mexico state of Sonora. They indicate that Clovis era hunters butchered two young gomphotheres, the site has been dated to around 13,000 years ago.

Gomphotheres were a highly successful group of elephants that lived in a variety of habitats, a number of species are known. They are distinguished from extant species of elephant by having two pairs of tusks. One pair in the upper jaw, a second often smaller pair in the lower jaw that forms a shovel to help the animals dig up roots.

Bullyland H. sapiens — *A model of modern human being (H. sapiens).*

Commentating on the discovery, Vance Holliday, an anthropologist with the University of Arizona; stated that these fossils are the most geologically recent gomphothere fossils found, indicating that this type of elephant survived up to almost the beginning of the Holocene Epoch.

This is the first time gomphothere fossils have been found together and in association with implements and tools of the Clovis people, the oldest known inhabitants of North America. It is known that ancient humans (H. sapiens) in Africa hunted elephants, images of an elephant hunt have been depicted in African cave paintings. The site will be excavated for the foreseeable future, but the researchers presented preliminary findings at a meeting of the Geological Society of America last month.

Outlining the significance of the site Holliday stated:

“This would be the first documentation that there was some sort of human interaction with gomphotheres in North America.”

Yet to Find Evidence of Humans

Although the dig team have yet to find any human fossil evidence, distinctive spear tips associated with Clovis people have been found and it seems likely that the Clovis people either hunted these elephants or took meat from dead animals. The Clovis people are so called as evidence of their culture (believed to have dated from about 13,000 years ago) was found near the town of Clovis in New Mexico.

Gomphotheres were thought to have vanished from North America 100,000 years ago, said David Lambert, a biologist at the Louisiana School of Science, Mathematics and the Arts.

CollectA Gomphotherium. — *The CollectA 1:20 scale Gomphotherium model. A replica of a prehistoric elephant.*

The picture above shows a 1:20 scale gomphothere replica, in the CollectA Deluxe prehistoric life range. To view this extensive range: CollectA Deluxe Prehistoric Life Models.

Holliday added:

“This is a Lazarus effect. Something disappears and then, out of the blue, pops up again.”

Lambert, who has unearthed three gomphotheres in Florida — all more than 120,000 years old, stated that the finding of fossil gomphotheres approximately only 13,000 years old was a “real surprise”.

This remote dig site, is providing some interesting insights into the lives of the earliest American settlers, it is not clear whether the elephants were killed by these humans, but it is known that the Clovis people did hunt and kill large animals. The Sonora site may yield more exciting discoveries as the researchers believe that this may have been the location of a Clovis encampment. Perhaps more artefacts will be found, along with evidence of human habitation such as the remains of hearths.

15 11, 2009

Young Talented Dinosaur Illustrators – Clever and Creative Palaeoartists Their Unique Art on Display

By Mike|2024-04-18T07:36:46+01:00November 15th, 2009|Dinosaur Fans, Everything Dinosaur News and Updates, Main Page|0 Comments

Young Dinosaur Fan shows us What She can Do

One of the key skills of a palaeontologist is that of an illustrator, being able to draw accurately fossils and produce an illustration of finds. In the past, it was these drawings and sketches reproduced in scientific papers and other publications that enabled scientists from around the world to study discoveries made by other palaeontologists. These days, illustrations have largely been replaced by computer images and photographs, but being able to draw is a useful skill for any scientist.

Dinosaur Illustrators

They certainly start young, below is a picture of a Baryonyx sent to us by a young dinosaur fan called Isabelle. We get lots of pictures and other items sent into us by dinosaur enthusiasts, some of them are professional artists and illustrators others are just mad keen young dinosaur fans eager to show us what colours they think dinosaurs were.

An Illustration of a Baryonyx

Picture credit: Isabelle Freer 2009

This particular artist is just two and a half years old. We were delighted to receive her drawing of a Baryonyx, lovely choice of colours and she has done really well to keep within the lines.

Dinosaur Drawings

In our office and warehouse we have large cork boards that are used to display all the drawings and pictures that we receive. They certainly make a colourful exhibit and since Isabelle is obviously a very talented young lady we thought it would be nice if we displayed her particular drawing on line as well as on our display board.

A Dinosaur Drawing

Colourful early Cretaceous predator – Baryonyx.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Well done Isabelle, a super drawing of Baryonyx.

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s child-friendly webiste: Everything Dinosaur.

14 11, 2009

Scutosaurus – A Favourite Amongst Wargamers

By Mike|2022-12-31T15:30:49+00:00November 14th, 2009|Dinosaur Fans, Everything Dinosaur News and Updates, Main Page|0 Comments

Wargamers opt for Scutosaurus

Often the introduction of a new model from a manufacturer can have unforeseen consequences. Many new models find themselves helping to illuminate an information point at a museum display. It is always helpful to see an accurate scale model of the animal whose fossilised bones are featured in the glass case. A model can help bring an exhibit alive and help visitors to picture the animal as it would have looked like.

Scutosaurus

However, the introduction of the Scutosaurus model, part of the Safari Carnegie Wild Dinos series has proved to be a surprising hit with one particular group of hobby fans – wargamers.

Scutosaurus was a large, heavily armoured plant-eating reptile that lived before the first dinosaurs evolved. It was a member of the Pareiasauridae, a group of parareptiles that included a variety of forms, most were small and lizard-like, others evolved into giants with huge tusks, horns and dermal armour. Scutosaurus was one of the largest, living in the Late Permian of northern Europe. At nearly 3 metres long and weighing an estimated 1,000 kilos, it was at the time one of the largest land animals that had ever existed.

A Picture of the Safari Scutosaurus

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

This fearsome looking beast, with its huge, squat body, powerful legs, yet stumpy comical tail that was too short to reach the ground, is proving a big hit with wargamers. These clever resourceful people are always on the look out for good quality models to add to their wargaming collection and Scutosaurus certainly looks the part.

To view models and replicas in the Wild Safari Prehistoric World range: Safari Ltd. Wild Safari Prehistoric World Models.

It is very appropriate that this giant Pareiasaur should prove popular with wargaming communities, although scientists are not sure how aggressive these animals were, they certainly looked frightening and the name Scutosaurus means “shield lizard”. It is a great addition to the Wild Safari Dinos prehistoric animal model range.

13 11, 2009

Scientific Research over Warm-Blooded Dinosaurs Hots Up!

By Mike|2024-04-18T07:31:38+01:00November 13th, 2009|Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Main Page, Palaeontological articles|0 Comments

Endothermic or Ectothermic or Somewhere in-between New Research adds to the Debate

The controversial area of vertebrate palaeontology exploring the theory of warm-blooded dinosaurs hots up once again.

The hotly debated (no pun intended), issue of whether dinosaurs were warm-blooded (endothermic) or cold-blooded (ectothermic) continues to attract research and a new paper has been published from a team of U.S. based researchers this week that adds to the amount of data available on this controversial subject.

Warm-blooded dinosaurs?

The debate over the metabolism of dinosaurs has raged for over a hundred years, many scientists in the 19th and early 20th centuries believed that dinosaurs were cold-blooded, that is; they controlled their internal body temperatures by their behaviour. Basking in the sun to warm up and seeking shade when they needed to cool down. This sort of behaviour could be seen in extant species such as lizards and snakes, (reptiles that are around today). A number of researchers kept lizards and other small reptiles in glass laboratory tanks, altering the temperature of the environment and then monitoring how active or inactive the creatures were. From their observations, they concluded that cold-blooded reptiles were sluggish when it was cooler and their activity was highly dependent on the surrounding temperature. It was from studies such as these that the impression of slow, ponderous sluggish dinosaurs came about.

Was Tyrannosaurus rex Warm-Blooded?

The debate over warm-blooded dinosaurs hots up after a new scientific paper exploring endothermy within the Dinosauria is published. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Whether an animal is ectothermic (cold-blooded) or endothermic (warm-blooded) is very important as depending on what sort of metabolism an animal has will influence behaviour, activity and even potential intelligence.

So why all the fuss over cold or warm-blooded dinosaurs?

The chemical reactions that take place in an animal’s body work best at set temperatures and if these fluctuate then the body will cease to function efficiently. Cold-blooded animals like amphibians, snakes and lizards rely on external factors such as sun or outside air temperature to warm their bodies. When they get too hot they seek shade or shelter. Warm-blooded animals on the other hand, convert the food they eat into energy to help keep them warm and to maintain the correct body temperature. When warm-blooded animals get too hot, they have to cool down and various adaptations for cooling down can be seen in mammals today (endothermic creatures). For example, we humans sweat, dogs pant and elephants wallow in mud or flap their ears to cool the blood that flows through them.

If dinosaurs were warm-blooded then creatures such as Tyrannosaurus rex would have been athletic, active animals with high metabolic rates that would have permitted them to survive in all sorts of climates, even cold, harsh ones at high latitudes such as polar environments. Palaeontologists, have found dinosaur fossils in Antarctica and at high latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. Now although these parts of the world were not the frozen wastelands of today, they were much warmer in the Mesozoic, dinosaurs would still have had to endure months without daylight and freezing temperatures below 0 degrees Celsius.

This new study from scientists at the University of Washington, St Louis appears to confirm that many types of dinosaur were endothermic, or warm-blooded just like mammals or birds.

Dr Herman Pontzer and his colleagues analysed the leg bones of extinct species as well as living animals and calculated the amount of energy required to move about. In recent research, this team had demonstrated that the energy required to move about, to walk, trot and run was strongly associated with leg length. The height of the hips above the ground, as well as determining stride pattern and stride length, could be used to predict the observed energy cost of locomotion with a 98% accuracy for a wide range of terrestrial animals.

Dr Pontzer’s team applied this concept to an analysis of fossilised dinosaur leg bones, calculating the actual volume of leg muscle dinosaurs would have needed to move about efficiently. In total, fourteen different species of bipedal prehistoric animal or dinosaur were studied. Animals studied in the research include the early dinosaur Heterodontosaurus, the first bird in the fossil record Archaeopteryx, as well as Triassic saurischian dinosaurs such as Plateosaurus. Theropods made up the bulk of the extinct animals studied, dinosaurs such as Allosaurus, T. rex, Microraptor and Velociraptor. The reason why mainly bipedal animals were chosen for this particular study is quite simple; there was less need to make assumptions over weight distribution between bipedal animals as compared to animals which had a four-footed stance.

The findings indicate that these extinct animals had an endothermic metabolism. That these dinosaurs were warm-blooded, they required too much energy to move about efficiently and that ectothermic bodies could not supply this energy in enough quantities. This research has been published in the on line scientific journal PLoS One (Public Library of Science).

The team commented:

“These results strongly suggest endothermy for larger bipedal dinosaurs, because other explanations require physiological adaptations or locomotor limitations unseen in living terrestrial vertebrates.”

The research team have indicated that the characteristic of warm-bloodedness evolved very early in the age of reptiles and perhaps this type of metabolism existed in the common ancestor to the dinosaurs and pterosaurs. The scientists concluded that having an endothermic metabolism and a subsequently high metabolic rate would have contributed to the evolutionary success of the Dinosauria.

Endothermic Dinosaurs

However, not all dinosaurs may have been endothermic, indeed the cold-blooded v warm-blooded dinosaur debate is likely to continue. For example, Dr Tom Rich of the Museum of Victoria, a palaeontologist famous for excavating dinosaurs at locations such as the famous dinosaur cove and at East Gippsland has commented on these research findings. Dr Rich and his colleagues are famous for researching into a polar-like paleogeographic environment. The site of their dinosaur excavations, in the Australian state of Victoria, during the Early Cretaceous would have been much further south, at approximately 75 degrees south. Dinosaurs such as Leaellynausaura and Atlascopcosaurus would have inhabited a polar forest environment putting up with freezing temperatures and prolonged periods without sunlight. It has been argued that only endothermic dinosaurs could have survived in these conditions. It is not known whether these dinosaurs were permanent residents or Summer migrants to the area.

Dr Rich has commented on this new research published in PLoS One, arguing that not all dinosaurs may have been warm-blooded. The large sauropods would have faced a number of problems maintaining a constant body temperature, and no remains of sauropod-like dinosaurs have been found in polar paleogeographical environments, as far as team members at Everything Dinosaur can recall. It has been suggested that sauropods such as Diplodocus and the titanosaurs may have been cold-blooded or possibly somewhere in-between an ectothermic and truly endothermic metabolism.

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

12 11, 2009

Unique “Samson” Going to a Museum

By Mike|2024-04-18T07:30:22+01:00November 12th, 2009|Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Main Page|3 Comments

Tyrannosaurus rex Mounted Skeleton Going to a Museum Thanks to Private Buyer

The mounted T. rex skeleton known as “Samson” has finally been sold and is destined to be put on display thanks to the intervention of a private buyer according to a press release from the auctioneers Bonhams & Butterfields.

This sounds like a happy ending for the 40-foot long exhibit that failed to sell at an auction of fossils and other artefacts at a Las Vegas auction last month.

To read more about the intended sale of “Samson”: T. rex under the hammer.

To read about the actual auction results: “Samson” fails to bring the house down at auction.

T. rex Skeleton

Tom Lindgren of auctioneers Bonhams & Butterfields has commented that the private buyer is talking with several museums in North America with regards to allowing this mounted exhibit to become part of a public display. The identity of the buyer is being kept secret, he (or she) stepped in when “Samson” failed to reach its pre-auction estimates of between $5-$8 million USD when part of the auction held at the Venetian hotel/casino on the Las Vegas Strip last month.

A Tyrannosaurus rex Skeleton on Display

Titus the T.rex exhibit. A T. rex skeleton on display.

The spectacular Titus the T. rex exhibit at Wollaton Hall. A typical T. rex skeleton on display.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

The spokesman for the auctioneers did reveal that the price paid was near the pre-auction estimates for the Tyrannosaurus specimen. It is hoped that as well as permitting the public to view such a rare exhibit, that scientists will be able to complete a study of the fossilised bones.

We think that “Samson” was the Z-rex specimen that was discovered in South Dakota in 1992. When much of the excavation had been completed, the fossilised bones were sold to a private collector in Kansas. Hopefully, after seventeen years, this T. rex specimen will finally go on public display.

To view models and replicas of T. rex such as those from the Safari Ltd range that are available from Everything Dinosaur: Wild Safari Prehistoric World.

11 11, 2009

Dinosaur Calendar a “Roaring” Success

By Mike|2023-03-03T17:22:35+00:00November 11th, 2009|Everything Dinosaur News and Updates, Everything Dinosaur Products, Main Page|1 Comment

Dinosaur Calendar sells out in a Week

Our dinosaur calender is proving to be a “roaring” success with lots of copies sold.

The Everything Dinosaur 2010 prehistoric animal calendar is proving to be very popular in the run up to Christmas. Already the first production run has sold out and more have been printed to keep up with demand.

Dinosaur Calendar

No one knows what colour dinosaurs were as pigment does not normally fossilise. Palaeontologists have to make assumptions when it comes to the colouration of dinosaurs such as Pachyrhinosaurus, Triceratops and T. rex. Now young dinosaur fans have the chance to show how they would illustrate these prehistoric animals as they are all featured in the Everything Dinosaur 2010 calendar.

The Everything Dinosaur 2010 Dinosaur Calendar

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Each month features an illustration of a different prehistoric animal, young scientists have the chance to colour them in and illustrate dinosaurs the way they think they looked. Time for your imaginations to run riot. The calendar is certainly proving to be extremely popular with a large number of them being snapped up already.

To view the Everything Dinosaur website: Visit Everything Dinosaur.

Looks like our printers are going to be busy up to Christmas.