Happy Birthday Mary Anning

On this day in 1799, Mary Anning the famous fossil hunter from Lyme Regis was born.  Mary along with her brother Joseph was responsible for the discovery of some highly significant fossils from an area of Dorset which forms part of the UNESCO World Heritage site known as the “Jurassic Coast”.

Mary Anning 1799-1847 (Famous Fossil Collector from Dorset)

Picture credit: Mary Anning Rocks

Mary Anning

Like many children growing up in Georgian England, Mary had very little formal education, but she was able to read and in her later life she taught herself, geology and anatomy as well as becoming quite adept at scientific illustration.

She became well known for her fossil discoveries and she supplemented the family’s meagre income by selling some of her fossil finds to wealthy members of society who were encouraged to holiday in England whilst the Napoleonic Wars raged in Europe.

During her lifetime, she did not receive full credit for her discoveries including the first pterosaur (flying reptile), to be found outside Germany.  For example, as a woman, she was not permitted to join the Geological Society of London, an institute that was to remain closed to women members until 1919.

In 2010, the Royal Society named Mary Anning as one of the ten British women who have most influenced the history of science.  Learning the story of Mary Anning and her fossil discoveries is often integrated into the “Rocks and Fossils” scheme of work which forms part of the Year 3 science curriculum in England.

The Everything Dinosaur website: Everything Dinosaur.

Adalatherium hui – “Crazy Beast” from Madagascar

Scientists have published a scientific paper in the academic journal “Nature” that describes a cat-sized mammal that lived alongside the dinosaurs at the very end of the Cretaceous.  The furry little creature has been named Adalatherium hui and its fossils have been found on the island of Madagascar.

Madagascar started to  break away from the super-continent of Gondwana around 88 million years ago and so animals such as Adalatherium evolved in relative isolation, separated from other populations of mammals on larger landmasses.  At around three kilograms in weight and not being fully grown when it died, it challenges the perception that all mammals were very small during the time of the dinosaurs.

A Life Reconstruction of the Late Cretaceous Mammaliaform Adalatherium hui

Picture credit: Reuters

“Crazy Beast”

Adalatherium lived around 72 million to 66 million years ago (Late Cretaceous).  The genus name translated from the Greek and native Malagasy means “crazy beast”, as the discovery of skull and postcranial fossil material of this badger-like creature challenges a lot of scientific assumptions about the evolution of mammals during the latter stages of the Mesozoic.

The snout had a large congregation of nerves within it, making the nose of this animal extremely sensitive.  This suggests that sense of smell was very important and therefore, it has been proposed that Adalatherium lived underground, that it was a burrowing animal (fossorial – an animal adapted to digging and living in burrows).

Adalatherium shared its island home with a number of predatory dinosaurs, including abelisaurids, dromaeosaurs and noasaurids as well as at least three species of crocodilians, both ancient forms and distant relatives of today’s living crocodiles (Neosuchian crocodilians).

Perhaps living underground was a very sensible strategy when surrounded by large predators.

Teaching Extensions Associated with Adalatherium

• Make a list of animals alive today that live in burrows
• What similarities do they have?  What differences can you spot?
• Can you design a dinosaur that could live underground?  What sort of adaptations would this animal have?

For further information about educational resources: Email Everything Dinosaur.

There were Feathered Dinosaurs but not all Dinosaurs were Feathered

Research conducted by palaeontologists at the London Natural History Museum suggests that whilst dinosaurs that were closely related to modern birds (Aves), were probably feathered, other types of dinosaurs such as the Late Cretaceous horned dinosaurs and the duck-billed dinosaurs probably were not covered in feathers.

A book tracing the evolution of feathers is being written and as part of the background to this forthcoming publication, Professor Paul Barrett of the Museum conducted an evolutionary analysis looking at the preserved skin fossils of the 77 dinosaur species where evidence of skin has been preserved.

A Preserved Skin Impression from a Tyrannosaurus rex

Picture credit: Biology Letters

Evidence of Reptilian Scaly Skins

The study suggests that the first types of dinosaurs were probably covered in scaly skin and not feathered.  Professor Barrett and his colleagues found no evidence of the earliest members of the Dinosauria being feathered.  Most of the fossil evidence supports the view that a specific proportion of the Theropoda (mostly meat-eating dinosaurs), the Coelurosauria – were feathered.  No evidence for a feathery covering in long-necked, plant-eaters (Sauropodomorpha) has been identified to date.

Sinosauropteryx – The First Dinosaur with Feathers to be Described

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

The First Feathered Dinosaur Fossils were Found in China

The picture (above) shows a life reconstruction of Sinosauropteryx. It is a model from the PNSO range of prehistoric animals.

To view this range: PNSO Age of Dinosaurs.

The book is due to be published later on this year, a spokesperson from Everything Dinosaur commented that it would add to the growing list of books aimed at the general reader that helped to explain some of the areas of research currently being conducted on the Dinosauria.

For further articles about feathered dinosaurs and research:

Tyrannosaurus rex loses its feathers: T. rex Sheds its Feathers.

The origins of feathers: Feathers came first, then Birds Evolved.

Did all Dinosaurs have feathers? Did all Dinosaurs have Feathers?

Extension Ideas

• What evidence can you find for dinosaurs having feathers?  Can you draw up a simplified family tree of the Dinosauria identifying which types of dinosaurs were feathered?
• What are the reasons for large animals such as the sauropods probably not having a feathery covering?  A hint, think surface to volume ratios and how large animals need to prevent overheating.
• Create a poster/chart comparing a bird to a meat-eating dinosaur.  What are the similarities, what are the differences?
• Why do you think some dinosaurs were feathered?  Can you come up with a theory?

Visit the Everything Dinosaur website: Everything Dinosaur.

Everything Dinosaur Supporting Teachers and Home Educators

For the staff at Everything Dinosaur, the interests of our customers, our team members and our communities are at the very heart of all that we do.  At this particularly challenging time with the continuing Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, we want to do our best to help all those people having to teach children either at home or in school.

We want to let you know that you remain our top priority and we are doing all we can to assist schools, parents, guardians, nurseries and home educators.

To date, Everything Dinosaur has provided hundreds of free downloads of teaching materials and other resources.

Take for example, this free junior word search and crossword that we have been sending out.  Aimed at young children with a fascination for dinosaurs, our word search contains seven words associated with dinosaurs and prehistoric animals, can you find them all?

Everything Dinosaur Providing a Free Dinosaur Themed Crosswords

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

The Benefits of Word Games

Word games such as word search puzzles and crosswords have many benefits.  Firstly, they assist with the development of pattern recognition, a key cognitive function in humans.  For young dinosaur fans, our word search also improves spelling, assists in vocabulary development and above all, it is fun.

The word search puzzles (and the answers), can be requested by simply emailing Everything Dinosaur: Email Everything Dinosaur.

A spokesperson for the UK-based company commented:

“Over the last few weeks, we have all been working very hard to support teachers and home educators.  With many children now at home and unable to go to school, we have been providing lots of helpful teaching resources and other learning materials to help assist with home schooling.”

An Extension Idea

How about creating your own wordsearch?  It could be about dinosaurs or any other subject that you wish.  If you are learning about the Romans, why not try creating a Roman-themed word search that you can try out on a family member.  Perhaps, you could record the time it takes for each person to complete the challenge and create a chart to display the results.

The Everything Dinosaur website: Everything Dinosaur.

“Wonderchicken” Fossil Reveals Origin of Modern Birds

The oldest fossil of a modern bird yet found, dating from the very end of the Cretaceous, has been identified by an international team of palaeontologists led by researchers from the University of Cambridge.  Sophisticated CT scans (computerised tomography), of a limestone rock, not much bigger than a pack of cards, revealed the exquisitely preserved fossil skull.  Fragments of bone exposed on the rock’s surface suggested that there were more bones buried deep in the rock, but the scientists were not expecting to find the near perfect fossilised skull of a modern bird (neornithine), once the CT scans had been completed.

Fossil Skull Study

The bird has been nicknamed “wonderchicken” as its skull shows characteristics found in modern ducks and chickens.  This suggests it is close to the last common ancestor of these types of birds.

An Early Bird in the Hand – Confuciusornis Model

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

The picture (above) shows a PNSO early bird model (Confuciusornis).

To view this range: PNSO Prehistoric Animal Models.

The fossil comes from a limestone quarry on the Netherlands-Belgium border, making it the first modern bird from the age of dinosaurs to have been found in the Northern Hemisphere.

Named Asteriornis maastrichtensis, this quail-sized bird (to which it is distantly related), exhibits a previously undocumented combination of galliform-like (landfowl) and anseriform-like (waterfowl) anatomical traits.  Its presence alongside a previously reported Ichthyornis-like bird from the same quarry provides direct evidence of the co-occurrence of crown birds and avialan stem birds.

Small Size Could Have Saved Modern Birds from Extinction

Asteriornis was quite small, certainly much smaller than the pterosaurs that it shared the skies with.  The fossil has been dated to 66.8-66.7 million years ago, a few hundred thousand years before the dinosaurs and lots of other animals including many types of bird, died out.

The authors of the scientific paper (published in the journal Nature), speculate that as it was small and it lived by the sea, this way of life, fitting a particular niche in the Late Cretaceous ecosystem, may have helped the ancestors of today’s birds to survive the end-Cretaceous mass extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs.

The Everything Dinosaur website: Everything Dinosaur.