Main Page - Part 397

6 06, 2010

The Remarkable Plesiosaurus – “A Snake Threaded Through the Shell of a Turtle”

By Mike|2024-04-19T13:52:48+01:00June 6th, 2010|Categories: Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Dinosaur Fans, Everything Dinosaur News and Updates, Main Page|0 Comments

Re-Reading old Papers on Plesiosaurus

Everything Dinosaur team members take a look at the remarkable marine reptile known as Plesiosaurus.

There was a time before the naming and describing of the Dinosauria, that ancient marine reptiles were the strange and bizarre creatures that puzzled those academics and erudite clergy and gentlemen who were at the dawn of the science of palaeontology. It is fascinating to re-visit some of the early papers and scientific reports; the language used is often very colourful and quite flowery as various “antediluvian” (means before the Biblical flood) beasties are described. Many of the papers written in the 18th and early 19th Centuries use modern, extant animals as comparators with the extinct animals for example, William Stuckley wrote in 1719 about a part human/part crocodile skeleton that had been unearthed. Careful not to be accused of heresy, Stuckley described the reptilian features of this strange half human, half crocodile person but went onto add that this poor fellow drowned in the great flood that covered the Earth as stated in the Bible. He even gave an approximate date for the demise of this person, saying that the fossil (as that was what it was); was at least 3,000 years old.

Despite William Stuckley’s great care and studious work, he was approximately 230 million years out or so in his estimate of the bizarre animal’s age. For he was describing the partial remains of a Triassic nothosaur, an early marine reptile, a group of animals that were amongst the first terrestrial animals to return to a life in the sea. Some of these long-necked, fish eaters reached lengths in excess of 8 metres and it is believed by a number of scientists that these types of creature are the ancestors of the better known plesiosaurs and pliosaurs of the Jurassic.

To view a model of a Jurassic plesiosaur and dinosaur toys, take a look at the CollectA Prehistoric Life model range: CollectA Age of Dinosaurs Prehistoric Life Models.

We have just been reading some of the old papers written about Plesiosauria – the name of the order to which animals such as the genus Plesiosaurus belongs. Although, fossils of these marine reptiles had been found in the 16th and 17th Centuries it was not until Mary Anning unearthed a nearly complete and articulated specimen at Lyme Regis (Dorset, England), in 1821 that the genus was named. As a woman, Mary Anning’s contribution to the academic study of these ancient creatures could not be recognised, nor could she be permitted to work alongside the principal scientists or publish work in her own name. It was the English geologist and Dean, William Conybeare who was given the responsibility for describing and naming these strange fossilised animals. It was William in collaboration with another English geologist Henry de la Beche, who first used the term Plesiosaurus and it was Dean Conybeare who named and described the holotype specimen of Plesiosaurus in 1824.

A Scale Drawing of Plesiosaurus (P. dolichodeirus)

Plesiosaurus scale drawing.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

The name Plesiosaurus is from the Greek, it means “near to lizard”. This is in reference to Conybeare’s comparison between plesiosaurs and the the ichthyosaurs, that had been discovered a few years earlier. Conybeare thought that the plesiosaur represented a transitional form between the ichthyosaurs and modern crocodiles. This is reflected in the title of his scientific paper on Plesiosaurus written in 1824 and presented to the Geological Society – “Notice on the discovery of a new fossil animal forming a link between the Ichthyosaurus and the Crocodile”.

The description and careful drawings of the fossils of Plesiosaurus led the Reverend William Buckland, the English clergyman and geologist who named and described the first dinosaur (Megalosaurus) to remark that Plesiosaurus resembled “A snake threaded through the shell of a turtle”. Again, wonderful Georgian language, colourful and in the case of Plesiosaurus we can see what the Reverend Buckland was on about, indeed the plesiosaurs may be more closely related to the Squamata (snakes and lizards) than they are to the Dinosauria.

5 06, 2010

Lack of Burps from Megafauna Helped Cause Global Cooling

By Mike|2023-03-06T07:12:49+00:00June 5th, 2010|Categories: Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Educational Activities, Geology, Main Page|0 Comments

Calls for the Start of the Holocene to be put Back 2,000 Years due to Lack of Mammoth Belches

American Scientists have linked the extinction of mammalian megafauna by humans to the loss of methane from the atmosphere which in turn led to a global cooling event. In a paper published in the scientific journal “Nature Geoscience” a team of scientists from the University of New Mexico have put forward a theory that the killing off of a number of large mammal species by humans led to the removal of a substantial amount of methane from the atmosphere. This brought on a period of substantial cooling that severely affected temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere.

This cooling period is known as the Younger Dryas and scientists claim that this event was brought on when the extinction of the mega fauna led to the loss of their planet warming burps.

Mammalian Megafauna

Studies of ice cores indicate that the Younger Dryas event began about a thousand years after mass human migrations into the Americas from across the Bering Strait land bridge that linked Siberia to Alaska. With mass human migrations into the Americas this put pressure on the populations of giant herbivores such as Mammoths, Mastodons and ancient camels as these animals were hunted by the human migrants. With the extinction of these animals, the atmosphere would have lost the methane they contribute caused by the process of digestion of tough plant material.

The scientists postulate that the loss of these methane producing animals contributed to the cooling event known as the Younger Dryas which saw temperature drops in parts of the Northern Hemisphere ranging from 4 degrees to 8 degrees Celsius.

According to ice core studies, the Younger Dryas event began about a thousand years after mass human migrations into the Americas 13,400 years ago, near the end of the last ice age. Within a thousand years of the human migrations more than 114 species of large plant-eaters became extinct and the study links the loss of the methane these animals would have produced with the cooling event. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, twenty times more effective than carbon dioxide when it comes to trapping heat in the Earth’s atmosphere and contributing to global warming.

As they digest plant material, large herbivores give off the gas, which, contrary to popular belief, escapes via the head in the form of burps and belches.

Could the Extinction of Mega Fauna Helped Cause Global Cooling?

Extinction of the mammalian megafauna.

Picture credit: Schleich of Germany

Could the extinction of mega fauna such as the Woolly Mammoth (M. primigenius) have led to a change in the Earth’s climate?

To view a range of prehistoric mammal soft toys and dinosaur stuffed animals: Prehistoric Animal Soft Toys.

Study leader Felisa Smith of the University of New Mexico, stated that the methane was not released as these animals broke wind:

“Eighty to ninety percent of methane produced is in the form of a burp.”

At the onset of the Younger Dryas cooling event, atmospheric methane concentrations dropped two to four times faster than at any other period in our planet’s history according to the ice core studies. The fall was caused by all those missing methane burps that would have been produced by the herbivores.

Felisa Smith added:

“We estimate that just under ten teragrams [about ten million tons] of methane would have gone missing when these animals went extinct.”

Ice Age Atmospheric Conditions

As Ice Age atmospheric methane concentrations were about one third of what they are now, the missing emissions would have had a magnified impact, accounting for at least 12 to 15 percent of the methane reduction the researchers claim.

Traditionally geologists have said humans are now living in the Holocene epoch, which began 11,500 years ago. Smith and her team are among scientists who argue that Earth has entered a new age, characterised by widespread, human-wrought change, the Anthropocene. Other scientists have claimed the onset of the industrial revolution in the 18th Century should mark the dawn of a new geological age, highlighting the profound effect mankind has had on the Earth’s climate. However, if it is assumed that humans were responsible for the Ice Age die-offs, the advent of the Anthropocene should be pushed back to 13,400 years ago, into the Ice Age, the study authors say.

Felisa Smith commented:

“Any way you spin it, humans had a discernible effect on the environment prior to the beginning of the Holocene.”

4 06, 2010

Anglo/U.S. Research Co-operation on Gomphotheres Announced

By Mike|2024-04-19T10:12:36+01:00June 4th, 2010|Categories: Animal News Stories, Everything Dinosaur News and Updates, Main Page|0 Comments

Help from the United States to Sort out Derivation of Amebelodon

As team members at Everything Dinosaur make the final preparations for the new Procon/CollectA, Papo and Carnegie Models to arrive, the fact sheets that our experts have prepared to accompany each new replica are checked and re-checked.

Everything Dinosaur

Amongst the twenty-five fact sheets that have been compiled, there is one for Amebelodon, a member of the elephant family (Proboscidea – animals with trunks), in preparation for the receipt of the Amebelodon model from Carnegie Safari, part of their Prehistoric Life range.

A Scale Drawing of Amebelodon (A. fricki)

A scale drawing of Amebelodon.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

To view our current range of Safari/Carnegie models and other dinosaur toys: Safari Ltd. Wild Safari Prehistoric World Models.

In the course of our research on this particular member of the Gomphotheriidae, our team members became stuck when we tried to interpret the meaning of the genus Amebelodon. The elephant family can be traced back to the Eocene Epoch and they have a long and diverse lineage. The unique shovel-like shape of the lower (mandibular) incisors has led to amebelodonts being called “shovel-tuskers”, but this we knew was not the exact derivation of the Latin (or Greek) name.

A quick email to Mark Hallett, a palaeo-artist and writer of a recent and most informative article on the history of North American Mastodons; featured in the magazine Prehistoric Times and our problem was solved. According to Mark, who co-incidently had been emailed by a Prehistoric Times reader on this subject just a few days earlier, the name Amebelodon is derived from the Latin/Greek for “shovel” and “dart” plus “dont” (which means tooth). So we get the descriptive name “shovel-dart tooth”. The name is apt as this ancient elephant had two pairs of tusks, a dart-like pair similar to those of an extant elephant in the upper jaw, and the shovel-like tusks in the lower jaw.

Amebelodon

Amebelodon was formerly named and described by the eminent American geologist and palaeontologist Erwin Hinckly Barbour following the discovery of lower jaw material in Nebraska. With two pairs of tusks, one like a set of darts, the second shaped like a shovel, the name Amebelodon is particularly appropriate.

Our thanks to our friends across the Atlantic for helping us out. Old World and New World co-operation with regards to primitive elephants is particularly appropriate. These animals are believed to have originated in Africa (the Old World) and then over the Neogene Period to have migrated across land bridges to Europe, Asia and the New World of the Americas.

3 06, 2010

New Giant Horned Ceratopsian from Mexico

By Mike|2024-04-19T10:20:51+01:00June 3rd, 2010|Categories: Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Main Page, Palaeontological articles|0 Comments

Coahuilaceratops magnacuerna – The First Horned Dinosaur from Mexico

No sooner do we write an article about the discovery of a new genus of ceratopsian (horned dinosaur) from the western United States (Medusaceratops lokii), then the University of Utah, publishes a press release about a new genus of horned dinosaur, the first to be discovered in Mexico.

To read more about Medusaceratops lokii: Mystery Horned Dinosaur from Montana.

Unlike M. lokii, there is no doubting from the fossil remains that this particular ceratopsian is a chasmosaurine, the huge brow horns are a dead give away, and although the scientists admit they have yet to find an entire horn they estimate that the brow horns on C. magnacuerna are some of the biggest known in the fossil record.

New Genus of Horned Dinosaur

This discovery has given scientists fresh insights into the ancient history of western North America, according to a research team led by palaeontologists from the Utah Museum of Natural History at the University of Utah.

“We know very little about the dinosaurs of Mexico, and this find increases immeasurably our knowledge of the dinosaurs living in Mexico during the Late Cretaceous.”

Commented Mark Loewen, a palaeontologist with the museum and lead author of the study.

The 72-million-year-old rhino-sized creature – Coahuilaceratops magnacuerna – would have weighed perhaps as much as 4 tonnes. The fossils date from the (Maastrichtian faunal stage of the Late Cretaceous). The name Coahuilaceratops magnacuerna (pronounced Koh-WHE-lah-SARA-tops mag-NAH-KWER-na), refers to the Mexican state of Coahuila where it was found, and to the Greek word “ceratops” meaning “horned face.” The second part of the name, or the specific name, magnacuerna, is a combination of Latin and Spanish meaning “great horn,” in reference to the huge horns above the eyes of this dinosaur (the brow horns).

An Illustration of Coahuilaceratops magnacuerna

Picture credit: Lukas Panzarin/Utah Museum of Natural History, the University of Utah.

The illustration above shows an artist’s interpretation of the ceratopsian skull material. The huge and strongly re-curved brow horns are depicted.

The study, partially funded by the National Geographic Society, was conducted by Mark Loewen, Scott Sampson, Eric Lund and Mike Getty, palaeontologists at the Utah Museum of Natural History. Also involved were Andrew Farke of the Raymond M. Alf Museum in Claremont, California.; Martha Aguillón-Martínez, Claudio de Leon and Rubén Rodríguez-de la Rosa from the Museum of the Desert in Saltillo, Mexico; and David Eberth of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Alberta, Canada.

Coahuilaceratops magnacuerna

The new species is to be announced in the book “New Perspectives on Horned Dinosaurs” to be released next week by Indiana University Press. The lead author for this publication is Dr Michael J. Ryan and the book will contain more information on the new Montana Ceratopsian M. lokii.

For most of the Late Cretaceous Period, from 97 million to 65 million years ago, high global sea levels resulted in flooding of the central, low-lying portion of North America. As a result, a warm, shallow sea extended from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean, splitting the continent into eastern and western landmasses. This sea is known as the Western Interior Seaway.

The Fossil skull of this Dinosaur

Coahuilaceratops Illustration.

Picture credit: Utah Museum of Natural History, the University of Utah

Dinosaurs living on the narrow, peninsula-like western landmass – known as Laramidia – occupied only a narrow belt of plains that were sandwiched between the seaway to the east and rising mountains to the west. Central America had not formed at the time, which made Mexico the southern tip of this island continent.

Late Cretaceous Dinosaurs

In many ways, the Late Cretaceous is the best-understood time during the Age of Dinosaurs, thanks in large part to more than 120 years of dinosaur hunting in Canada, Montana, New Mexico and the Dakotas. Recent work has revealed new dinosaurs living at the same time in Utah, New Mexico and Texas, yet the dinosaurs from Mexico have remained virtually unknown.

Scott Sampson commented:

“As the southernmost dinosaurs on Laramidia, Mexican dinosaurs will be a critical element in unravelling the ancient mystery of this island continent.”

Loewen described the arid, desert terrain where the dinosaur was recovered as nothing like Mexico during the Late Cretaceous. About 72 million years ago, the region was a humid estuary with lush vegetation, an area where salt water from the ocean mixed with fresh water from rivers, much like the modern Gulf Coast of the southeastern United States (ruptured oil pipelines not permitting). Many dinosaur bones in the area are covered with fossilised snails and marine clams, indicating that the dinosaurs inhabited environments adjacent to the seashore.

The Fossil Material Superimposed on a Line Drawing of the Skull

Fearsome Ceratopsian.

Picture credit: Utah Museum of Natural History, the University of Utah

The neck crest is assumed to be fenestrated (exhibiting holes in the bone, that in life would have been covered by skin). A pair of fenestra are believed to be present, these would have helped lighten the neck crest and the skin patches could have been flushed with blood to make vivid display patterns, perhaps a part of chasmosaurine courtship.

The rocks in which Coahuilaceratops was found also contain large fossil deposits of jumbled duck-bill dinosaur skeletons. These sites appear to represent mass death events, perhaps associated with storms such as hurricanes that occur in the region today.

Scott Sampson went on to add:

“Sitting near the southern tip of Laramidia, this region may have been hammered by monstrous storms. If so, such periodic cataclysms likely devastated miles of coastline, killing off large numbers of dinosaurs.”

Until recent years, there have been few large-scale palaeontological projects in Mexico focused on the Mesozoic Era. Indeed Coahuilaceratops is among the first dinosaurs from Mexico to be named.

Coahuilaceratops comes from a rock unit known as the Cerro del Pueblo Formation, which dates to between 71.5 million and 72.5 million years ago. The skeletons, which de Leon discovered in 2001 near the town of Porvenir de Jalpa, approximately 40 miles west of Saltillo, were excavated in 2003. The fossils then were prepared at the Utah Museum of Natural History, requiring two years of meticulous work by skilled volunteer preparator Jerry Golden.

Based on the bone development of the skull and skeleton, the scientists believe that this animal was an adult at the time of death. Remains of a juvenile animal of the same species were also found at the site.

Coahuilaceratops was about 7 metres long as an adult, more than 2 metres high at the shoulder and hips, with a 1.8 metre long skull, it would have weighed more than an adult male Indian elephant.

By far the most obvious characteristic of Coahuilaceratops is its massive pair of horns, one above each eye. While the researchers lack a complete horn, they estimate from fossils they excavated that the horns were more than one metre in length.

Although such horns are common features of ceratopsian dinosaurs, those of Coahuilaceratops appear to be the largest known for the group, exceeding the size of eye horns even in Triceratops horridus. Scientists are uncertain of the massive eye horns’ purpose, but the most widely accepted idea is that they were related to reproductive success, functioning to attract mates and fight with rivals of the same species, although they would have acted as a substantial deterrent against hungry tyrannosaurs.

Mark Loewen explained that Coahuilaceratops represents the first occurrence of an identifiable species of horned dinosaur in southern Mexico.

He added:

“The horned dinosaurs are an extraordinary example of vertebrate evolution. They evolved and diversified on Laramidia along a thin strip of land that stretched from Alaska to Mexico. Finding this horned dinosaur so far south in Mexico offers us a different picture of what the ancestors of Triceratops were like.”

In addition to Coahuilaceratops, the research team found remains of two other horned dinosaurs, which are less well understood. The researchers are hoping to find more fossil material so that they can gain more information on these two other types of ceratopsian.

Other Dinosaurs Found

The latest expedition also recovered remains of two duck-bill dinosaurs, as well as the remains of carnivores, including large tyrannosaurs (smaller, older relatives of T. rex) and more diminutive Velociraptor-like predators armed with sickle-claws on their feet (dromaeosaurs).

Together with an abundance of fossilised bones, researchers discovered the largest assemblage of dinosaur trackways known from Mexico, an extensive area criss-crossed with the tracks of different kinds of dinosaurs. In all, the emerging picture shows a diverse group of dinosaurian herbivores and carnivores, perhaps representing a previously unknown assemblage of species.

Commenting on the rich and diverse fossil material Mark Loewen stated:

“Rather than focusing only on individual varieties of dinosaurs, we are attempting to reveal what life was like in Mexico 72 million years ago, and understand how the unique ecosystem of Mexico relates to ecosystems to the north at the time.”

Few North American dinosaurs from this time period are known outside of the Drumheller region of Alberta. David Eberth explained that researchers now have two points of comparison to examine not only different dinosaurs, but also different environments and ecologies.

As might be suspected, paleontologists are excited about the future palaeontological potential of this area, they are confident that more dinosaur discoveries will be made.

Don Brinkman, a researcher at the Royal Tyrrell Museum (Drumheller, Alberta) added:

“Dinosaurs from this particular period are important because this is a time that is relatively poorly understood.”

Don is studying non-dinosaur vertebrates found at the site, including turtles, fish, and lizards.

He went onto state:

“The locality in Mexico goes a long way to filling in a gap in our knowledge of the record of changes in dinosaur assemblages throughout the Late Cretaceous.”

New Genus of Horned Dinosaur

Everything Dinosaur stocks a wide range of models and figures of Late Cretaceous ceratopsians. For example, the UK-based company stocks the Beasts of the Mesozoic articulated model range: Beasts of the Mesozoic Models.

Everything Dinosaur acknowledges the assistance of a press release from the University of Utah in the compilation of this article.

2 06, 2010

Rare South African “Cradle Hominid” Fossil Given a Name

By Mike|2024-04-19T10:21:29+01:00June 2nd, 2010|Categories: Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Educational Activities, Main Page|0 Comments

Australopithecus sediba – Ancient Hominid Fossil Named by South African Student

A name suggested by a seventeen-year old student at St Mary’s school in Waverley, Johannesburg (South Africa), has been chosen by a team of scientists as the official “nick-name” of a 1.95-million-year-old hominid fossil. Many palaeontologists give names to the specimens that they are working on, whether it be a prehistoric animal, a dinosaur or even a fossil of an ancient hominid.

There is no precedence for doing this as far as we at Everything Dinosaur understand, however, having worked long hours on an individual specimen we can recognise the feeling of attachment that this brings. Also, when referring to the specimen, it is all very well to use the official specimen nomenclature in literature, but nick-names are so much easier to comprehend when having a conversation.

For example, the Tyrannosaurus rex museum specimen TMP 81.6.1was nick-named “Black Beauty” due to the jet-black colour of the bones, a result of manganese deposited by the surrounding groundwater.

The recently discovered hominid skeleton, representing a new species of Australopithecine (Australopithecus sediba) was given the name “Karabo” in an announcement made yesterday (June 1st), during the seventh annual Standard Bank Past (Palaeontological Science Trust) key lecture by Professor Lee Berger.

Hominid Fossil

It was Professor Berger’s young son, Matthew who made the discovery of this important fossil, appropriate as Matthew was nine at the time and the fossil remains have been identified as being from a 9-13 year-old male. The fossils were found at a site in Gauteng Province (South Africa), known as the “Cradle of Humankind”. The site has twelve or so limestone caves that have preserved the remains of ancient animals, plants and perhaps, most importantly of all – ancient hominids.

The name “Karabo”, which means “answer” in a native South African dialect was submitted by 17-year old St Mary’s pupil, Omphemetse Keepile. It beat more than 15,000 other entries, submitted by students and pupils from schools, colleges and universities from all over South Africa.

A second partial skeleton of Australopithecus sediba has been found, this time scientists believe the bones are from an adult female.

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s award-winning website for models and replicas of ancient hominids: Everything Dinosaur.

1 06, 2010

Young Charlie’s Beautiful Dinosaur Artwork

By Mike|2024-04-19T10:22:10+01:00June 1st, 2010|Categories: Dinosaur Fans, Everything Dinosaur News and Updates, Main Page|0 Comments

Charlie and His Dinosaur Drawings

A few days ago, we sent some of our prehistoric animal images to a customer, who had purchased some dinosaur pyjamas for a young dinosaur fan they knew. We were informed that Charlie, the dinosaur fan and now the proud owner of a set of dino themed pyjamas had been poorly. He had been in hospital for quite a while and we hoped that our dinosaur drawing materials would cheer him up on his return home.

Dinosaur Artwork

Charlie’s mum, gave out the drawing materials and he was soon busy colouring them in, great to hear about such a keen, enthusiastic and young dinosaur fan. Charlie is only three-years of age and below is a snapshot of his dinosaur artwork, we really love the blue Iguanodon.

Charlies’ Dinosaur Artwork

Great dinosaur drawings.

Picture credit: Charlie and Charlie’s Mum

Charlie has done really well to keep his colouring in between the lines, as we have often had to sketch fossils ourselves, these are really impressive, especially for a three-year old. Well done Charlie.

Charlie’s Iguanodon

Charlie’s Iguanodon.

Picture credit: Charlie and Charlie’s Mum

Charlie’s mum, emailed us, enclosing the pictures of the completed drawings. She said that Charlie had been quite ill and had been in hospital for a couple of weeks, it was great to see him at home again and busy colouring in the dinosaur pictures that we had sent.

Always a pleasure and our thanks to Charlie for the drawings and to his mum Veronica for sending the images to us.

Everything Dinosaur

Everything Dinosaur stocks a huge range of creative, prehistoric animal themed toys and games aimed at budding young palaeontologists. To view the range available from the award-winning company: Dinosaur Toys and Gifts.

31 05, 2010

Discovery of New Horned Dinosaur from Montana

By Mike|2023-01-07T11:08:37+00:00May 31st, 2010|Categories: Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Main Page, Palaeontological articles|0 Comments

Huge Chasmosaurine Medusaceratops lokii a Montana Dinosaur Mystery

Scientists at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History have announced the discovery of a new genus of horned dinosaur (Ceratopsian) from Late Cretaceous sediments in Montana. This new dinosaur, that roamed this part of the United States in herds, approximately 78 million years ago, is estimated to have exceeded 6 metres in length and weighed over 2 tonnes. This new prehistoric animal, a member of the same group of horned dinosaurs (Chasmosaurine) as Pentaceratops and Triceratops, has been named Medusaceratops lokii, the genus name relating to the flamboyant crest with numerous epoccipitals (lumps, bumps, and horns around the head crest), resembling the fearsome snake covered head of Medusa from Greek legend. The species name is in deference to the Norse God of mischief – Loki, as when fossils of this dinosaur were first discovered it confused scientists as to whether is was a member of the chamosaurine or centrosaurines (two sub-groups of ceratopsians).

A Model of the Newly Described Dinosaur Medusaceratops

CollectA Age of Dinosaurs Medusaceratops model.

Named after the Greek Gorgon Medusa who had snakes for hair. A CollectA Medusaceratops dinosaur model.

The image (above) shows a replica from the CollectA Prehistoric Life model range: CollectA Age of Dinosaurs Prehistoric Life Models.

Horned Dinosaur

The announcement was made by the distinguished scientist and dinosaur expert Dr Michael J Ryan, who is based at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History (Ohio,United States). The fossils of this new ornithischian ceratopsid have been dated to the Campanian faunal stage of the Cretaceous.

Dr Ryan, the curator and head of Vertebrate Palaeontology at the Cleveland museum has published his findings as lead author of a new book on North American horned dinosaurs; “New Perspectives on Horned Dinosaurs: The Royal Tyrrell Museum Ceratopsian Symposium”.

We at Everything Dinosaur, have had the pleasure of reading a number of DrcRyan’s publications, as we sit here checking this article, a copy of “Dinosaur Provincial Park”, a volume on the ancient ecosystem of Alberta, Canada, is on a shelf in front of us. DrcRyan was a contributor to this publication and many of the chapters written about Dinosauria contain references to his published work.

Medusaceratops belongs to the Chasmosaurinae subfamily of the horned dinosaur family Ceratopsidae. The other subfamily is Centrosaurinae. The specimen is the first Campanian-aged chasmosaurine ceratopsian found in Montana. It is also the oldest known chasmosaurine ceratopsian known to science

Fossils of Medusaceratops were discovered in a bonebed on private land adjacent to the Milk river in north, central Montana. Fossils and other material was acquired by Canada Fossil Inc. (Calgary, Alberta) in mid 1990s. The company consulted Dr Ryan and his colleagues about the fossils, but at first the scientists were unable to make a positive identification.

Medusaceratops had giant brow bones more than 3 feet long over each eye, and a large, shield-like frill off the back of its skull adorned with large curling hooks. Medusaceratops lokii means “Loki’s horned-faced Medusa,” referring to the thickened, fossilised, snake-like hooks on the side of the frill (the epoccipitals).

Commenting on this discovery, Dr Ryan stated:

“At first we could not figure out what we had. Some of the material looked as if it came from a form related to Centrosaurus [centrosaurine ceratopsian, like Pachyrhinosaurus or Achelousaurus] a centrosaurine noted for having short brow horns. The rest of the pieces had giant brow horns similar to Triceratops [Chasmosaurine]. That’s one of the problems with bonebeds – even though you can collect a large amount of material, much of it is broken and all of it is disarticulated, so the story is rarely clear cut.”

Eventually Dr Ryan found a complete articulated skull of a centrosaur with long brow horns in southern Alberta of what appeared to be the new animal from Montana, and named it Albertaceratops in 2007. At that time, he assumed he was looking at a stray that had literally crossed the international border between what was to become Canada and the United States.

To read an article on the discovery of Albertaceratops: “Alberta Horned Face” – An Ancestor of Triceratops.

Medusaceratops lokii

After re-examining the material from Montana, Dr Ryan realised that at least some of the material in the Montana bonebed was not Albertaceratops. Some of the elements were much larger than any other horned dinosaur from the same time period, including Albertaceratops. Even though Albertaceratops and Medusaceratops are superficially very similar, the shape and number of the hooks and ornaments along the edge of the frill actually puts them in separate horned dinosaur groups, with Medusaceratops being a chasmosaur and Albertaceratops a centrosaurine.

Commenting on the huge frill on Medusaceratops, Dr Anthony Russell, Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Calgary (Alberta) stated:

“Although the ornamentation on the frill is pretty spectacular, it probably was not used for defence against predators, rather it was more likely prehistoric “bling” used to attract a mate.”

The descriptive terms, used to distinguish centrosaurines from chasmosaurines are often not adequate to permit a genus to be ascribed to the appropriate subfamily of ceratopsians. For example, the centrosaurines are often referred to as “short-frilled” dinosaurs, with large nose horns, often bigger than any brow horns, if brow horns were present. In contrast, the chasmosaurines are known as “long-frilled” dinosaurs with large, neck frills and long snouts. The brow horns are usually much bigger than any nose horn, if a nose horn was present.

An Illustration of Medusaceratops

An illustration of Medusaceratops. Picture credit: Caldey.

Dr Ryan said:

“Medusaceratops is the oldest member of the Chasmosaurinae in North America and shows that the group, like its most famous member, Triceratops, had long brow horns and were fairly large when they first evolved. Later chasmosaurs that are just a bit younger [found in later strata], tend to have much shorter horns and have much lighter, smaller bodies.”

If this large, herbivore evolved large brow horns to fend off the attacks from predatory dinosaurs, then this poses an intriguing question for the scientists. What types of really big predatory dinosaurs shared this environment with Medusaceratops?

A number of tyrannosaurid genera are known from the western part of North America (Campanian faunal stage), perhaps awaiting discovery are the fossils of a large carnivore bigger than Daspletosaurus or Gorgosaurus.

Dr Ryan said:

“Here we have something almost the size of Triceratops, but 10 million years before it lived. T. rex was not around yet, so what was Medusaceratops squaring off against? That’s one of the things we’re looking for in Alberta.”

The research was originally conducted when Michael Ryan was a Ph.D. candidate working with Dr Russell at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. Much of the material, including the holotype, is now in the collection of the Wyoming Dinosaur Centre in Thermopolis, Wyoming (USA), with other material curated at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta (Canada).

30 05, 2010

Another Bonhams Auction – Prehistoric Items and Rare Objects up for Sale

By Mike|2023-02-07T09:24:46+00:00May 30th, 2010|Categories: Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Main Page|0 Comments

Bonhams and Butterfields Auction of Rare Prehistoric Items

The latest prehistoric relics and strange object auction took place last Thursday at Bonhams and Butterfields auction house (New York). If you have ever fancied owning your very own mounted, fossil skeleton of a Woolly Rhino or perhaps the skull of a Cave Bear then the New York auction house on Madison Avenue was the place to go. Dinosaur fossils were also represented including a tooth from a T. rex that scientists believe was swallowed by another dinosaur.

For space fans there were meteorites and other rare minerals and rock on which to place bids. For us, one of the highlights of the auction was the fully mounted and almost complete fossilised skeleton of a fearsome fish predator from the Late Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway.

Dinosaur Fossils

This fishy lot consists of the beautifully preserved specimen of a Xiphactinus (pronounced zie-fak-tin-us), a bony fish that was streamlined and powerful hunter of the Late Cretaceous. The mouth of Xiphactinus could open very wide, and fossils of this bony fish have been found with the remains of smaller fish that had been swallowed whole. These carnivores could reach lengths of up to 6 metres long, about as long as a Great White Shark.

A Replica of the Fearsome Prehistoric Fish Xiphactinus

The CollectA Deluxe 1:40 scale Xiphactinus prehistoric fish model.

Dinosaurs up for Auction

However, don’t expect to snap up this particular exhibit for small fry, the auctioneers estimate that this lot will sell of around £120,000 GBP.

If you want something with a more sensible price tag, then we recommend the CollectA Deluxe 1:40 scale Xiphactinus replica, check it out and other prehistoric animal models here: CollectA Deluxe Prehistoric Life Models.

29 05, 2010

Dublin Team Announces Discovery of New Pterosaur

By Mike|2023-03-06T07:16:37+00:00May 29th, 2010|Categories: Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Dinosaur Fans, Main Page|0 Comments

Earliest Known Member of Azhdarchidae Pterosaurs Announced

A team of Dublin scientists have published a paper in the on line scientific journal PLOS ONE on the discovery of the fossilised remains a 95-million-year-old pterosaur, found on the Moroccan/Algerian border. The fragile and delicate fossils represent the earliest known specimen of an azhdarchid pterosaur, the family of the Pterosauria that persisted until the very end of the age of Dinosaurs, and led to the evolution of some of the largest pterosaurs of all.

Azhdarchid Pterosaur

Expedition leader and University College of Dublin doctoral research scholar Nizar Ibrahim commented on the field work which took place in south-eastern Morocco, close to the border with Algeria:

“Before you go, you dream of finding something special.”

Scientists from the UK, Ireland and Morocco visited the Kem Kem plateau, a parched an arid environment today, but during the middle of the Cretaceous this area was a lush river basin with a diverse flora and fauna. The pterosaur fossils have been dated to approximately 95 million years ago (Cenomanian faunal stage of the Cretaceous).

The researchers had suspected that this terrain carried a high chance of finding the low density bones of pterosaurs that needed to be flimsy and lightweight for flight.

Nizar stated:

“We heard of this locality that nobody had explored before.”

Pterosaur Jawbone

The research team excavated a large pterosaur jawbone. It had been broken into three pieces, these elements and some partial cervical vertebrae (neck bones) have led the team to identify and name a new genus of flying reptile. This new azhdarchid pterosaur has been named Alanqa saharica, the genus name has been derived from the Arabic word al-anqa, which means phoenix, the species name honours the desert environment, from which the delicate fossils were extracted.

This new azhdarchid pterosaur had an estimated wingspan of approximately 6 metres, making it far larger than any extant bird species today. Although, a large animal, the hollow bones and delicate body would have made this animal extremely light, perhaps weighing no more than a medium sized dog. The largest known azhdarchids are from the very end of the Cretaceous with creatures like Quetzalcoatlus (Q. northropi) having wingspans in excess of 10 metres.

A Scale Drawing of an Azhdarchid Pterosaur (Hatzegopteryx)

Hatzegopteryx illustrated. An illustration of an azhdarchid pterosaur.

Hatzegopteryx – giant Pterosaur from southern Europe. An illustration of an azhdarchid pterosaur.

Nizar Ibrahim commented:

“They [azhdarchid pterosaurs] appeared late in the age of the Dinosaurs, and we don’t have many fossils of animals from this group.”

The scientists have noted that this pterosaur had a remarkable lower jaw. The toothless jaw was shaped like a lance, the lower jaw being very narrow and ending in a sharp point. It is not known what this animal ate, but the scientific team have described the jaws as “heron-like” indicating that this animal probably ate fish. The fossilised remains of two other types of pterosaur have also been recovered from the Kem Kem plateau by the team, indicating that in this part of the world during the Cretaceous pterosaur numbers may have been quite large.

To view models and replicas of pterosaurs: Wild Safari Prehistoric World.

28 05, 2010

“Grinding Mouth and Wrinkle Eye” – American Scientists Announce New Dinosaur Genus

By Mike|2023-03-06T07:19:17+00:00May 28th, 2010|Categories: Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Dinosaur Fans, Main Page, Palaeontological articles|1 Comment

Jeyawati rugoculus A new Genus of Basal Hadrosaur from New Mexico

A team of American palaeontologists have announced the discovery of a new primitive duck-billed dinosaur from western New Mexico (United States). This new ornithopod is just one of a number of discoveries made in the state of New Mexico that is permitting scientists a glimpse into life in a Cretaceous ecosystem, that until fifteen years ago was unknown to science.

Lead author and 2008 University of Nebraska-Lincoln graduate Andrew McDonald, has named this new species of dinosaur based on an incomplete skeleton found on land administered by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

Duck-billed Dinosaur

The new species, dubbed Jeyawati rugoculus, comes from rocks that preserve a swampy forest ecosystem that thrived near the shore of a vast inland sea 91 million years ago (Cenomanian faunal stage of the Cretaceous). Jeyawati is a member of a remarkable assemblage of dinosaurs and other animals that was totally unknown 15 years ago. Although the geology of the United States is extremely well known and has been intensively studied, these new finds will help palaeontologists piece together the varied faunas that existed on the coastal margins of the Western Interior Seaway.

Dinosaurs that co-existed with Jeyawati include Zuniceratops, one of the earliest known North American horned dinosaurs, and Nothronychus, a therizinosaur, strange herbivorous theropod dinosaurs belonging to a lineage that, until the discovery of Nothronychus, were known only from Asia. Jeyawati adds another fascinating character to the story of North America’s dinosaurs.

An Illustration of Zuniceratops

Zuniceratops scale drawing.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Zuniceratops (Zuniceratops christopheri), is the earliest known ceratopsian to have sported a pair of brow horns in North America. Known from several specimens, its presence in New Mexico suggests that ceratopsians with brow horns evolved in North America and not in their ancestral home of Asia.

An Illustration of Nothronychus

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Nothronychus (Nothronychus mckinleyi) is the first member of the therizinosaurids to be found outside Asia. It is also one of the most complete fossils of these bizarre theropod dinosaurs.

To view a model of Nothronychus and other dinosaur models: CollectA Age of Dinosaurs Prehistoric Life Models.

The discovery of dinosaur fossils such as Zuniceratops, Nothronychus and Jeyawati is helping scientists to understand more about the unique fauna of the New Mexico swampland habitat.

The first part of the name Jeyawati rugoculus is pronounced “HEY-a-WHAT-ee,” essentially meaning “grinding mouth,” and is derived from two words in the language of the Zuni people, who have long inhabited western New Mexico. The meaning of the name Jeyawati is a reference to the sophisticated chewing mechanism evolved by the herbivorous lineage of hadrosaurs to which Jeyawati belongs. The second part of the name, rugoculus, comes from the Latin words ruga and oculus and means “wrinkle eye,” describing a unique feature of the new species.

One of the bones that forms the eye socket exhibits a peculiar rough or wrinkly texture on its outer side; in other dinosaurs, such a texture on skull bones has been suggested to have supported enlarged scales on the top of the skull. Thus, Jeyawati rugoculus might have sported one or more large scales above and behind its eye, giving it a strangely striking appearance.

Jeyawati rugoculus

The enlarged scales around the eye, may have developed in mature adults and could have been used to communicate visually with other members of the herd. It is not known whether Jeyawati rugoculus sported these eye markings all the time once it had reached breeding age, or whether the eye markings developed purely for the breeding season each year, in the same way that stags develop their antlers for rutting.

This herbivorous dinosaur evidently endured a hard life. Among the many bits of ribs found with the skull bones, several large pieces have a swollen, rough surface, indicating that the animal suffered broken ribs through some misfortune and that those injuries had healed by the time the animal died.

The partial skull and other fragments including vertebrae of Jeyawati were discovered in 1996 by paleontologist Douglas Wolfe, principal investigator of the Zuni Basin Palaeontological Project, his wife Hazel, and their son Christopher. Subsequent excavation and collection was carried out with the permission of the Bureau of Land Management over the following 13 years with the aid of James Kirkland (State Palaeontologist with the Utah Geological Survey ), volunteers from the Southwest Palaeontological Society, and many other volunteers from around the country.

Fragile Fossils

The fragile fossils were carefully freed from the remaining rock by preparators Harold and Phyllis Bolan and are being stored at the Arizona Museum of Natural History in Mesa.

In 2006, Andrew McDonald, then an undergraduate geology student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln under the supervision of Professor David Loope, began a project to describe the fossil in the university’s Undergraduate Creative Activities and Research Experiences (UCARE) programme. McDonald and Wolfe first met when McDonald was a student at Sacred Heart-Griffin High School in Springfield, Illinois and when it came time for him to look for a UCARE research project, he received permission from Wolfe to work on the specimen.

McDonald’s analysis revealed that the bones were sufficiently distinct from those of other dinosaurs to warrant the naming of a new species. It also became clear that Jeyawati is a close relative of the duck-billed hadrosaurs, which were immensely abundant across the Northern Hemisphere for much of the Cretaceous. However, Jeyawati retains some primitive features of the teeth and jaws that preclude it from being a fully-fledged hadrosaur, so it has been ascribed to basal Hadrosauridae. McDonald, a PhD student, the lead author on the paper featuring this new dinosaur, published in the scientific journal “Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology”, has been a student since 2008 at the University of Pennsylvania, where he works with palaeontologist Peter Dodson.

He has a more extensive project under way to determine the evolutionary relationships of Jeyawati and many of its relatives.

The above article has been sourced from media/newswire press release.