Dinosaur Museum gets Big Financial Boost

Winton in Queensland (Australia) is at the very centre of some important dinosaur research with a number of new dinosaur species having been discovered in recent years.  Now the town is one step closer to getting a world-class dinosaur themed visitor attraction after the Queensland State Government granted an additional $100,000 Australian dollars in funding towards the Winton Dinosaur Museum.

Winton Dinosaur Museum

The Member for Mount Isa, Betty Kiernan, made the announcement yesterday in Winton, north-west of Longreach.  Before the many dinosaur discoveries, Winton’s chief claim to fame was that it was the town where the famous Australian song “Waltzing Matilda” was written.

For models and replicas of Australian dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures: CollectA Age of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life Models.

The Australian Age of Dinosaurs has been planning and constructing the museum east of Winton for several years and is hoping to open stage two by April 2012.

Spokesman David Elliott says the funding will pay for an operations manager to oversee the project for another year.

He stated:

“It is in a bit of a critical stage at the moment with stage two just opening its doors and we’ve put all our resources into that and we have cut ourselves to the bone to do it.  We’ve just got to get back on top now so we can start consolidating, so I am really, really happy about it”.

Commenting on the additional $100.000 dollar contribution David added:

“It is just good to be able to get this support at a time when we’ve put so much money out to pay for variations on the building.”

Although, Winton is relatively remote, it has become a centre for dinosaur research due to the extensive Cretaceous strata that is exposed in the region, leading to the discovery of a number of new dinosaur genera.

To read about some of the dinosaur discoveries found in the Winton area: A Trio of Dinosaurs from Down Under.

Analysis of Compound Eye Fossil Indicates that Apex Predator had Fantastic Vision

Back in June, team members at Everything Dinosaur wrote a brief article on the remarkable research being undertaken by South Australian Museum and University of Adelaide scientists working on fossils of compound eyes dating from more than 500 million years ago.  The fossils from the Emu Bay area of Kangaroo Island show that by the Middle Cambrian some invertebrates had evolved very sophisticated vision, much better than many types of extant insects and crustaceans and perhaps at least as good as those aerial masters the dragonflies.

An Illustration of Anomalocaris

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

This months edition of the scientific journal “Nature” will contain a feature on the work of the research team and the front cover will consist of an artist’s impression of the super predator that the compound eyes probably belonged to – the world’s first apex predator – Anomalocaris.

To read the earlier article on the Kangaroo Island fossils: World’s Oldest Fossil Eye Discovered in Australia.

The international team behind this study includes two Adelaide researchers Associate Professor Michael Lee (South Australia Museum and University of Adelaide) and Dr Jim Jago (South Australia Museum).  From our understanding of the fossil evidence, the advanced compound eye probably belonged to the largest predator known from strata dating from the same geological period – Anomalocaris.  This invertebrate, a member of the Arthropoda, the largest phylum of animals is distantly related to crustaceans such as lobsters and shrimps.

At up to a metre in length, this is the largest animal known from Cambrian strata.  Fossils ascribed to  Anomalocaris have been found in Southern China as well as these from Australia that the scientists studied, but perhaps most famously, this fierce predator is associated with the Burgess Shale deposits of British Columbia (Canada).

Anomalocaris

Anomalocaris is the stuff of nightmares and sci-fi movies.  It is considered to be at the top of the earliest food chains because of its large body size, formidable grasping claws armed with sharp spikes and a circular mouth positioned under the head with its razor-sharp serrations.

Fossils of trilobites contemporaneous to Anomalocaris fossil material are testament to this formidable predator.   Some of the trilobite fossils show signs of severe damage and there has even been some five hundred million year old fossilised poo (coprolite) containing crushed and smashed pieces of trilobite exoskeleton – the remains of an Amomalocaris meal perhaps?

The discovery of superbly preserved eye fossils, the remains of the calcite based compound eyes that were supported on the end of a stiff stalk each side of the head, show astonishing detail of the optical design.  Having excellent vision, far better than its prey would have given animals like Anomalocaris a huge advantage when hunting.  Bio-mechanical studies have shown that Anomalocaris was nektonic (free swimming), but not a very fast swimmer.  However, with much more advanced eyesight than most of its prey, this armoured giant of the Cambrian seas would have been a very effective hunter.

Compound Eyes

The fossils represent compound eyes – the multi-faceted variety seen in arthropods such as flies, crabs and such like.  However, the fossils represent compound eyes that are up to three centimetres in diameter.  They are amongst the largest to have compound eyes ever to have evolved.  Each eye contains up to 16,000 individual lenses, that is like having two 16-kilo pixel cameras perched on stalks either side of the head.  This would have given this predator excellent almost 300 degree vision.

The number of lenses and other aspects of their optical design suggest that Anomalocaris would have seen its world with exceptional clarity whilst hunting in well-lit waters.  Only a few arthropods, such as modern predatory dragonflies, have similar resolution.

The international research team conclude that the existence of highly sophisticated, visual hunters within Cambrian communities would have accelerated the predator/prey “arms race” that began during this important phase in early animal evolution over half a billion years ago.  Such a predator/prey relationship would have helped to speed up evolution, perhaps helping to explain the rapid diversification of marine animal forms during this geological period.

Powerful Compound Eyes

The discovery of powerful compound eyes in Anomalocaris confirms it is a close relative of arthropods, and has other far-reaching evolutionary implications. It demonstrates that this particular type of visual organ appeared and was elaborated upon very early during arthropod evolution, originating before other characteristic anatomical structures of this group, such as a hardened exoskeleton and walking legs.

The superb artwork, that is featured on the front cover of “Nature” was painted by Adelaide based artist Katrina Kenny.  Katrina has a passion for fossils and her love of the subject plus her skills in biological illustration have helped bring back this fearsome predator of the Cambrian.  The painting was commissioned by the University of Adelaide.

The South Australia Museum and the University of Adelaide have summarised the research in a short video.

To view models and replicas of ancient arthropods, including Anomalocaris (whilst stocks last): CollectA Age of Dinosaurs Popular Figures.

Research Team Reveals Evidence of Titanosaurs Having lived in Antarctica

The discovery of a single, fossilised bone could help scientists solve a puzzle concerning the largest land animals of all time – the sauropods.  Fossils of these giant, long-necked dinosaurs have been found on every continent, except one, the land mass of Antarctica.  However, a team of Argentinian scientists have unearthed evidence that one group of sauropods – the titanosaurs may have roamed the southernmost continent after all.  A newly published study suggests Antarctic titanosaurs.

Antarctic Titanosaurs

The fossil, believed to represent a portion of the dinosaur’s tail (caudal vertebra), was discovered on James Ross Island by an Argentinian-led team.  The bone measures almost twenty centimetres in length and is believed to have come from the middle third of the dinosaur’s long tail.  Although, it is not possible to identify the dinosaur genus from such a fragment of the skeleton, the scientists have stated that the bone probably belongs to a “lithostrotian titanosaur”.  The Lithostrotia are a clade of titanosaurs (a group of anatomically and probably closely related, similar titanosaurs), which are associated with Upper Cretaceous strata from South America and Madagascar.

The discovery was first presented at a recent palaeontological conference held in Nevada, but it has just been published in the German scientific journal -Naturwissenschaften  (translates as “The Science of Nature”).

Authors Dr Ignacio Alejandro Cerda, from the Conicet research institute in Argentina, and colleagues wrote:

“Our finding indicates that advanced titanosaurs achieved a global distribution at least by the Late Cretaceous.”  

During the Cretaceous the super-continent of Gondwanaland in the Southern Hemisphere continued to break up, Antarctica had once formed part of this huge landmass along with India, Australia, South America and Africa but by about ninety million years ago, only Australia remained joined to Antarctica.  As the break up continued, the land bridges that connected Antarctica to Australia became more and more tenuous until by the end of the Cretaceous, Antarctica was isolated.  For much of the Cretaceous Antarctica was covered by lush, conifer and fern forests and it was much, much warmer than it is today, for this remaining part of Gondwanaland was heated as a result of ocean currents sweeping down from the equator.  However, by the Late Cretaceous the climate on Antarctica had begun to change dramatically and this landmass became much colder.

An Illustration of a Typical Titanosaur (Saltasaurus)

Scientists don’t know whether the Antarctica titanosaur had dermal armour.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

A Single Fossil Vertebra

The discovery of this single vertebra raises intriguing questions.  For example, if there was a large, herbivorous dinosaur living on what was to become Antarctica as late as seventy million years ago (Campanian faunal stage), then the flora must have been rich enough to support such large animals.  If there was a large herbivore in the ecosystem, could there have been a large, theropod predator?  Perhaps a “living fossil” such as an allosaurid, a type of meat-eating dinosaur that had become extinct elsewhere in the world by the end of the Cretaceous but may have hung on in isolated pockets where other theropods such as abelisaurids or tyrannosaurs could not reach due to the lack of land bridges.  This is further prove that dinosaurs lived in Antarctica.

There have been fossils of other long-necked dinosaurs found on Antarctica before, but as far as we at Everything Dinosaur know, these fossilised bones represent very primitive, early members of the Sauropoda family, know as Sauropodomorpha.  An example would be the Early Jurassic Glacialisaurus which was discovered in 2007.

To read more about the discovery of this early, long-necked dinosaur: Primitive Long-necked dinosaurs from Antarctica.

The authors conclude in their paper:

“Our discovery, and subsequent report, of these sauropod dinosaur remains from Antarctica improves our current knowledge of the dinosaurian faunas during the Late Cretaceous on this continent.”

The Fossilised Bone and Illustrations showing the Complete Vertebra

Twenty centimetre long fossil bone reveals presence of advanced Titanosaurs in Late Cretaceous Antarctica.

Picture credit: Cerda/Naturwissenschaften

The picture above shows the fossil bone (pictures a-c) with illustrations (d-f) showing the fossil fragments in association to the rest of the single tail bone.  The fossil is actually a centrum (central, cylindrical component of a vertebra).  It is the concave/convex shape of the anterior and posterior portions of the centrum that have enabled scientists to identify this fossil bone as belonging to an advanced titanosaur from the lithostrotian clade.

The picture shows the caudal vertebra centrum viewed from the front (anterior view) in “a” and “d”; viewed from the right side (right lateral view) in “b” and “e” and finally from the rear (posterior view) in “c” and “f”.

To view prehistoric animal figures including titanosaur dinosaurs: Wild Safari Prehistoric World Replicas.

Pensioner Unearths Iguanodontid Bone in Sunderland Garden

Iguanodon fossils, although rare, do sometimes get found in southern England, places such as East Sussex and the Isle of Wight for example, but to have an iguanodontid vertebra turn up in a garden 300 miles further north from where most of the UK iguanodontid fossils come from is bizarre.

The fossilised bone about the size of a football, has been identified as belonging to an Early Cretaceous ornithopod dinosaur – an iguanodontid, but the single bone and its unusual location makes it very difficult to tie down to a specific genus.

Palaeontologists remain puzzled as to how a bone from a Cretaceous dinosaur ended up in a pensioner’s back garden in Sunderland.  Team members at Everything Dinosaur has been informed of this remarkable discovery several weeks ago and a spokesperson for the company commented:

“When we were first told about the fossil find, we could not believe our ears.  We asked for clarification and it was only when we saw the pictures that we believed this story.”

The pensioner, who wishes to remain anonymous took the specimen to a local museum, where experts confirmed it was a dinosaur bone.  Staff at the Natural History Museum (London) have confirmed this and concluded that the bone probably came from a large Iguanodon, a herbivorous dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous.

Iguanodontid Bone

How the bone came to be in Sunderland remains a mystery.  The underlying strata is much older than rocks which contain dinosaur bones this means the bone must have been deposited there later on.

Many of the iguanodontid fossils unearthed in the UK were found in the East Sussex area, more than 300 miles to the south of Sunderland.  They lived 130-115 million years ago, at a time when southern England was a warm, lush tropical paradise in which dinosaurs and pterosaurs flourished.  Experts will never know how the bone made it to Wearside , but glacial disturbance or human interference were considered most likely.  Rocks could have been transported by glacial action and re-deposited or perhaps this specimen was found in southern England and brought up north by an amateur fossil hunter.

An Illustration of an Iguanodon

A drawing of Iguanodon.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Jo Cunningham, manager of Sunderland Museums, stated:

“We’re very grateful to our museum visitor for bringing this amazing find in to us; it will always remain a mystery as to how it found its way there, and if they hadn’t been digging up their garden it could have lain undiscovered.”

She went onto add:

“The person who found it wishes to remain anonymous, but has kindly agreed to loan it to Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens so that the people of the region can enjoy this unusual find.”

Most of the underlying strata in the Wearside area dates from the Late Palaeozoic era, being composed of mainly limestones, mudstones and sandstones dating from the Permian period.  There is a small band of Permian rocks which run roughly in a line from Nottingham in the East Midlands, northwards to the city of Sunderland before disappearing out under the North Sea, these rocks are largely devoid of fossils.

Dr Angela Milner, from the Palaeontology Department at the Natural History Museum, London, said:

“The bone is the solid part (the centrum) of vertebra from the tail of an Iguanodon-like dinosaur.  It is not complete enough to identify it more precisely.  The rocks around Sunderland are much too old to contain dinosaur bones so there are only two explanations as to how it got there – either by glacial transport or a one-time souvenir from the south coast of England where Iguanodon bones are not infrequently found by fossil hunters.”

Team members at Everything Dinosaur have heard of dinosaur bones turning up in some very unusual places, one staff member literally tripped over a number of caudal vertebrae belonging to an Edmontosaurus when inspecting a motocross trackway in Alberta – you just never know what might turn up.  However, to find a dinosaur fossil bone in a garden in Sunderland must go down as one of the more bizarre locations to find the remains of a dinosaur.

To view models and replicas of ornithopods including iguanodontids: PNSO Age of Dinosaurs Figures and Models.