Largest Touring Exhibition of Chinese Dinosaur Fossils opens at the Maryland Science Center

The Maryland Science Center, based in Baltimore (United States), is playing host to the largest touring exhibit of Chinese dinosaur fossils this Summer, providing visitors with the opportunity to get up close and personal with “Sino – Dinosaurs”.  The exhibit, which runs daily until September 7th consists of more than 20 mounted prehistoric animals, including the spectacular sauropod Mamenchisaurus with the longest neck of any dinosaur known.

Chinese Dinosaur Fossils

As well as amazing plant-eating dinosaurs there are plenty of meat-eating dinosaurs on display including the fleet-footed, Jurassic theropod Szechuanosaurus, a member of the allosaur family and one of the top predators around China in the Jurassic.  Szechuanosaurus is classified as a member of the Sinraptoridae, a group of fierce meat-eating dinosaurs with strong jaws and powerful grasping forelimbs.

An Artist’s Impression of a Typical Sinraptoridae Dinosaur

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

These animals were certainly very impressive, and some of the these fascinating prehistoric creatures have been brought to life as the exhibit also features a number of animatronic models.  As well as marvelling at the wonderful fossils, visitors will also be given the chance to see how palaeontologists interpret the fossil record and recreate dinosaurs with the wonderful robotic animals on display.

A Model of a Sinraptor (PNSO Dinosaur Models)

Sinraptor dongi was formally named and described in 1994. The species name is in honour of the eminent Professor Dong Zhiming, one of China’s most celebrated palaeontologists.

To view the PNSO Sinraptor model and other PNSO prehistoric animal figures: PNSO Age of Dinosaurs Models and Figures.

Chinasaurs: Dinosaur Dynasty is open daily at the Maryland Science Center, for further information visit the Maryland Science Center website.

T. rex Statue Removed from Beach by Public Health and Safety Officials

A six-metre-long metal sculpture of the skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex has been impounded by safety officers after it was sited on a Dorset beach.  The large model, approximately half the size of an adult Tyrannosaurus was towed out into Weymouth Bay in Dorset (England) and deposited there, in a publicity stunt to promote the UNESCO world heritage site, claim the sculptures owners.

The unusual sight of the skeleton a large meat-eating dinosaur in the middle of Jurassic coast caused some amusement amongst the watching holiday makers but the local council and police failed to see the joke.  Stating that this statue was in breach of health and safety rules, council employees assisted by the local police removed T. rex from his watery resting place and have impounded the sculpture.

Tyrannosaurus rex

The owner of the statue, Mr Paul Swaffield is demanding that the local council return the sculpture, which he has nicknamed “Tex”.  The model was made several years ago to help promote a maze maize that Mr Swaffield owns.  We note that the placing of the statue in Weymouth Bay coincides with the opening of many maize mazes at the start of the school holidays and being cynics we suspect that the promotion of the UNESCO world heritage site was secondary to the need to generate publicity for the opening of a maze tourist attraction.  It certainly is a novel way of generating publicity, but the local authorities don’t see the funny side of the story.

Mr Swaffield commented:

 “I just wanted people who saw it to say whether it is a good idea.  The model is on wheels and I used a 110hp tractor to tow it down the slipway and into the sea at low tide.  I drove it as far as I could – about 150 yards out – and left it there.  It was an incredible sight and people thought it was the funniest thing that had happened in Weymouth for many a year”.

Unfortunately, for Mr Swaffield and Tex, local officials and beach lifeguards soon condemned the publicity stunt and demanded that the statue be removed.

He went on to state:

“Members of the public saw the reaction of the officials as the typical state the country is in today, which is lacking in fun.”

Fearing that the dinosaur may cause harm to bathers the local council called Dorset police and they helped to remove the statue to a local police compound.  A spokesperson for the council stated that Mr Swaffield did not have any permission to put the statue up and the model had to be taken away for public safety.

The spokesperson added:

“It was quite a hazard so we had to take it away.  It had metal spikes so we could not leave it on the beach.  The dinosaur had to have a police escort when it was taken along the road as it was not a safe structure”.

This is certainly a novel way of generating publicity for a tourist attraction, but we can’t condone what has taken place at the Dorset beach.   What may be a good idea for the likes of Anthony Gormley, does not seem to be every-body’s cup of tea.  Besides, the idea of a Late Cretaceous theropod being used to promote Jurassic marine sediments is a little bizarre in the first place.  Had the statue been a life-size model of a plesiosaur, then who knows what the council officials might have said.

For models and replicas of dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus rex, visit the models section of the Everything Dinosaur website: Prehistoric Animal and Dinosaur Models.

Say Hello to Nothronychus graffami

A New Species of Nothronychus

The discovery of the most complete fossilised skeleton of a species of Nothronychus in the United States has been announced in the online scientific publication the Journal of Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.  It is hoped that this new fossil of a therizinosaurid (scythe lizards), discovered in southern Utah, will help improve our understanding of these bizarre theropod dinosaurs.

The therizinosaurid group (pronounced Ther-ih-zine-oh-sore-id), are theropod dinosaurs a suborder of the Saurischia which possess adaptations for plant-eating, although many of their relatives were fierce meat-eaters.  Hopefully, the fossils of this new species Nothronychus graffami may help explain how these animals evolved such characteristics and where in the Late Cretaceous ecosystem they fitted.

Such fossil remains may provide evidence of the evolution of vegetarian theropods, an adaptation that may be older than previously thought.  Famous predatory dinosaurs such as the dromaeosaurs (Troodon and Velociraptor for example), may have evolved from less fearsome, plant-eating ancestors.

Nothronychus graffami

N. graffami was named after Merle Graffam a member of the University of Northern Arizona’s excavation team who first discovered the beautifully preserved fossil remains of this 4-metre-high dinosaur.   The fossil skeleton has been dated to approximately 93 million years ago (Cenemanian faunal stage) and the scientists estimate that this species of Nothronychus pre-dates the other Nothronychus species known from the United States Nothronychus mckinleyi.  When N. mckinleyi was formerly named and described in 2001, it became the first therizinosaurid to have lived outside of Asia.  It is likely that these strange sloth-like animals (Nothronychus means “sloth-like claw”),evolved in Asia and migrated into other parts of the northern hemisphere during the Cretaceous.

The small head, had a beak, this was perched on a long, slender neck.  The teeth are leaf shaped and adapted to eating tough plant material.  The heavy, pot-belied body with broad hips was carried along by short stumpy hind legs, the strong arms ended in three-clawed hands.  The claws are very characteristic of “scythe lizards”, indeed this is how this particular group of dinosaurs got their name.  In the case of N. graffami, the three fingered hands ended in broad, claws over 20 cm long.

New Dinosaur Species

It is believed that therizinosaurs may have been covered in primitive feathers and that they may have lived like giant sloths, using their strong, powerful claws to pull down branches so that they could graze on the leaves.

Commenting on the strange-looking creature Lindsay Zanno of the Field Museum in Chicago stated:

“It takes a lot of gut-time to digest plants, plant-eaters have to develop long digestive tracts to get the energy they need to survive”.

Pictures show the restored and mounted manus (hand) of this dinosaur, the curved, sickle-like claws can be clearly seen.  Scientists believe that the therizinosaurids are a type of maniraptoran dinosaur, although most maniraptoran dinosaurs are believed to have been meat-eaters this new fossil has helped shed light on the evolution of the group as a whole.

The Evolution of Theropods

In a bid to find out more information regarding the evolution of theropods and in particular the herbivorous forms, Dr  Zanno and her colleagues compared the anatomy of the newly discovered genus of Nothronychus with specimens from seventy-five other types of theropod.  Their research indicates that the therizinosaurids are perhaps the most primitive group of maniraptorans.  This could mean that maniraptorans also originated in Asia, before migrating across the ancient dinosaur world.

The team conclude that plant-eating may have been a trait of early maniraptorans, certainly several types of maniraptoran dinosaur show adaptations for a partial herbivorous or at least an omnivorous habit.  The ornithomimosaurs and the oviraptorids are examples of this type of dinosaur with adaptations for a non meat specific diet.

Dr Zanno commentated:

“Before this we thought that plant-eating theropods like therizinosaurs were a rare occurrence.  We knew they must have evolved from meat-eaters somewhere in their ancestry, but before our study it seemed like plant-eating was the exception not the norm for maniraptoran theropods”.

Studying the Maniraptora

Rather than being the exception to the meat-eating rule, Dr Zanno and her fellow researchers claim that eating plants exclusively or in combination with meat can be traced back to the origins of the maniraptoran group as a whole.  It is possible that many types of maniraptoran dinosaurs ate some portion of vegetable matter in their diets, an inherited trait from the common ancestor of the whole maniraptoran group, the scientists state.  The American based team have speculated that the ability to eat plant matter may have allowed the maniraptorans to migrant to new areas and exploit new niches in the Mesozoic ecosystem as plants themselves evolved.  This may help to explain their variety and diversity.

The therizinosaurs are certainly very strange animals, although these new fossils will help shed more light on the group they remain very enigmatic and extremely rare in the fossil record.

Model makers are beginning to recognise the therizinosaurs and recently a number of models of these types of dinosaur, including a Nothronychus have been introduced.

The CollectA Nothronychus Model

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

To view the model of the Nothronychus and other feathered dinosaurs: CollectA Prehistoric Life Models.