Everything Dinosaur Blog - Dinosaur Models

6 07, 2011

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Ready for Special Grand Opening Event

By Mike|2024-04-22T12:23:50+01:00July 6th, 2011|Categories: Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Dinosaur Fans, Main Page, Palaeontological articles|0 Comments

New Permanent Dinosaur Display to Open on July 16th

Staff at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (California) are busy with the final preparations for the grand opening of their new permanent dinosaur exhibition. The new “Dino Halls”, part of a multi-million dollar refurbishment and development programme at the Museum are being opened on Saturday 16th July.

The all-new, 14,000-square-foot Dinosaur Hall, marks the halfway point of the Museum’s seven-year transformation. Twice the size of the Museum’s old dinosaur galleries, the new permanent exhibition will feature over 300 fossils and 20 complete mounts of dinosaurs and sea creatures.

The hall will rival the world’s leading dinosaur halls for the number of individual fossils displayed, the size and spectacular character of the major mounts, including the world’s only Tyrannosaurus rex growth series, (tyrannosaurs depicted in a family group, that will get Professor Phil Currie and his colleagues very excited no doubt), and the accessible integration of recent scientific discoveries and research into the displays.

We at Everything Dinosaur, have followed the progress of the building work with great interest, to read an earlier article on the refurbishment of the museum: New Ways to Display Your Dinosaurs – Museums for the 21st Century.

In the new, spacious, light-filled galleries, visitors come face-to-face, and in some cases can walk underneath, huge prehistoric skeletons, as well as see the dinosaurs as they were in life, illustrated on giant murals and animated in hands-on interactive and multi-media displays. It is great to hear about such innovative ways in which museum specimens can be shown to the public, we recall the excitement we all felt when we walked into the American Museum of Natural History (New York) for the first time and saw their spectacular mount of the Barosaurus mother and baby fending off an attack from two Allosaurus – simply astonishing.

In addition to views on this grand scale, visitors can also get a very detailed, close-up look at fossils at this Los Angeles County based museum, they can touch several, look at many through magnifying glasses as a scientist would, and in the interactive displays, excavate from simulated dirt and rock as palaeontologists would.

Throughout the exhibition, visitors will encounter science not as static information, but as a vibrant, ongoing investigation into dinosaur mysteries, some resolved, and some still being explored. They will learn that the investigations are still taking place today, reinforcing the fact that discovery is not just something that happened in the past; it is work that is happening now, all around us.

Natural History Museum

In the press release we were kindly sent, an image is incorrectly labelled as a Corythosaurus, we don’t think this is so and we have asked the Dinosaur Institute to clarify (we will keep you posted on this).

Dr Jane Pisano, the Museum’s President and Director commented:

“The new Dinosaur Hall is an exciting realisation of the goal of our institution-wide transformation, which is to bring the Museum’s research and collections vividly to life for a public that is hungry for the real thing, an encounter with authentic fossils and with the genuine, fascinating process of scientific exploration. This exhibition will emerge as one of the great dinosaur experiences in the world, and a major reason why NHM (Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County) is one of America’s leading natural history museums.”

Remarkable Specimen

To provide insight into how scientists puzzle out answers to questions about dinosaurs, to reveal the stories behind these astonishing specimens, the exhibition draws from the ambitious discovery and research programmes of the NHM’s in-house Dinosaur Institute (DI), directed by world-renowned palaeontologist and exhibition lead curator, Dr Luis Chiappe. The DI’s field research programme has located key specimens all over the world, from the dinosaur-rich “Badlands” of the American West to remote parts of South America and Asia.

The centrepiece of the exhibition is the T. rex growth series, containing an extraordinary fossil trio of the youngest known baby, a rare juvenile, and a recently-discovered young adult, one of the ten most complete T. rex specimens in the world.

The Dinosaur Hall’s other standout exhibits include an imposing new Triceratops; the armour-backed Stegosaurus; the predator Allosaurus; a 68-foot, long-necked Mamenchisaurus; and giant marine reptiles that swam in the oceans covering what is today California. Two-thirds of the full fossil skeletons have never been displayed before. Specimens that were previously seen have all been re-articulated into more dynamic new poses based on recent scientific findings.

Dr Chiappe, outlining his aspirations for the new “Dino Halls” stated:

“We hope to inspire new generations of scientists, since this exhibition highlights the experience of going outdoors and finding treasures, and then understanding how they fit within the current scientific record. Most dinosaur exhibitions are organised around specific types of dinosaurs or by periods of time. Our approach is to use new discoveries and research findings to bring visitors into the world of dinosaurs, exploring the great questions of how they lived, behaved, and died, and whether they still exist.”

A Remarkable Experience

For those people not lucky enough to visit this museum over the opening weekend, here is a quick guide to the extensive exhibits on display at these newly refurbished galleries as provided by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County to staff members at Everything Dinosaur.

The Dinosaur Hall extends through two conjoining two-story galleries. One is a part of the recently restored 1913 Building (the Beaux-Arts structure that was the Museum’s original home). The second belongs to the newer 1920s building, which has been seismically renovated and outfitted with floor-to-ceiling windows that give passers by in Exposition Park a peek at the giants inside.

One of the exhibit goals was to bring visitors closer than ever to the real specimens,85 percent of the exhibition’s fossils are the real thing, not casts or reconstructions, and remove barriers whenever possible. To accomplish this, the major fossil skeletons were placed on special platforms that allow the fossils to be shown without glass barriers, and to pass directly underneath a dinosaur neck and stand under a T. rex skull.

This is a key to the exhibition’s visitor experience, as many of these fossils were prepared and articulated in recent years, using modern methods that forgo the thick layers of shellac used by palaeontological conservators of decades past. Never-before-seen details of the fossils are revealed. Some specimens have rich red and green hues, coloured by the minerals in the lands where they were found. Some contain visible traces of skin textures, respiratory systems, and in one instance, the stomach contents of a last meal.

The Dinosaur Hall is organised around a series of questions: What is a dinosaur? What was their world like? How did they live, grow and behave? And finally, what happened to them? Such a layout is indeed innovative and will permit the curators to continually update the exhibits in the light of new scientific research.

A quick walk through the exhibit reveals these main ideas, as they appear on large, colourful mural illustrations. For visitors who crave more background, context, and stories of discovery, multi-layered content is available for readers in text and in touchscreen kiosks, and for young non-readers, in simple mechanical, manual games.

Upstairs on the mezzanine are displays about the lab and field aspects of palaeontology. These are hands-on experiences, with touchable specimens, magnifying glasses, and a look at the tools and tricks of dinosaur research, from a camping supply list for a fossil hunting expedition, to Dr Chiappe’s hand-written field journals.

Gallery One

As visitors enter the exhibition’s first gallery, they are immediately greeted by a magnificent, never-before displayed Triceratops, mounted on a contoured platform with details of the new research that has re-interpreted, via the animal’s forelimb, how this huge creature walked in life. Forelimbs of Triceratops in the fossil record are extremely rare, we think that this was one of the “choicest cuts” and as they were eminently portable, at least to an adult Tyrannosaurus rex most carcases lost their forelimbs so they had little chance of being preserved in the fossil record.

Images show the fantastic views visitors can get of the museum specimens. The state-of-the-art supporting armature, permits this Triceratops to be posed in such a way that visitors can look right into the fossilised skeleton, revealing details not seen by members of the public before – terrific!

Framing the gallery is a 40-foot “fossil wall” showcasing 100 diverse dinosaur specimens, an artful take on traditional palaeontological display, with bones, teeth, eggs, footprints, skin patches, and coprolites (fossilised droppings). Two touch-screen kiosks work as virtual indexes here, allowing visitors to explore what each bone is, and in some cases, turning them around 360 degrees on the screen.

The exhibition’s largest specimen, a 68-foot Mamenchisaurus, stands in front of the gallery’s large central windows with its long neck and tail sprawling throughout the gallery. This is one of the exhibit’s few casts, most other mounts include real fossils. We suspect that posing such an impressive beast using the real fossils would have been a health and safety nightmare – so for once a replica fossil specimen is used.

Suspended from the ceiling overhead, and also viewable from the gallery’s new mezzanine, are marine reptiles that lived in the warm sea that once covered California. Here, visitors will come face to face with the exhibit’s marine monsters.

The mosasaur Plotosaurus and the plesiosaur Morenosaurus are both cantilevered over the main floor in a breath-taking, gravity-defying scene. In some cases, large fossil plaques show animals still encased in dirt and rock, a display method that offers staggering glimpses of prehistory. There is a mosasaur plaque, for instance, that reveals traces of a partial body outline, skin colour markings, external scales, a down-turned tail, branching bronchial tubes, and evidence of the animal’s last meal 85 million years ago – fish.

At the end of Gallery One, visitors will get an insight into the field experiences and work done by the Dinosaur Institute expedition teams, led by Chiappe. On five television screens, video from a recent field expeditions in Utah shows the often gruelling conditions and exciting moments of discovery that characterise Dinosaur Institute excursions. Nearby, a specimen is displayed, in the plaster “jacket” with which it was transported out of the quarry it was found in.

Gallery Two – Tyrannosaur Growth Series

The show-stopping centrepiece in this gallery is the platform featuring a very special trio: the young adult Tyrannosaurus rex nicknamed Thomas after the discoverer’s brother (34 feet, and approximately 17 years old) joined by a 20-foot juvenile (approximately 14 years old) and an 11-foot baby (2 years old). The growth series is a fascinating look at the ways that T. rex specimens grew, a process that included incredible growth spurts and body changes. After hatching as a 2-foot, 6-pound baby, for example, a T. rex could reach 30 to 35 feet (10,000 to 12,000 pounds) in less than two decades – if it was lucky.

But the growth series is also a snapshot of dinosaur life; the terrain on which they are mounted finds Thomas and the baby standing on one side, while the juvenile lurches toward the carcass of a duck-billed Edmontosaurus. Though nearby content is careful to point out that theories about a long-extinct animal’s behaviour are just that, the scene intends to raise questions about the behaviour of the T. rex. A nod perhaps towards Professor Phil Currie and his fellow researchers at the University of Alberta and the IVPP (Beijing) who have recently re-inflated the debate about pack behaviour in large theropods.

In another panel, the mystery of how and when the large dinosaurs died out is introduced, with evidence for a mass extinction event at the end of the Mesozoic. This section also highlights the evolutionary connection between dinosaurs and birds, providing compelling evidence about why the latter should be considered living dinosaurs.

The second level of the exhibition takes a closer look at the science behind these specimens, from how we know where to look for specimens to the work we do in palaeontology labs. One area focuses on field work and the surprising data that a quarry can reveal in addition to its fossil treasures and examples of excavation methods (which, unlike lab work, have not changed drastically over the last several decades). Multi-media interactive kiosks allows visitors to “excavate” specimens and investigate the finds. The companion area focuses on laboratory discoveries, research tools that have evolved to include high-tech microscopes, CT scans, and genome studies.

This is a project five years in the making with hundreds of contributors. Inside NHM, the Dinosaur Hall was supervised by Dr Karen Wise, VP of Education and Exhibits. Dr Chiappe was its lead curator; Jennifer Morgan was its project manager.

The exhibition was designed by Brooklyn-based Evidence Design, with graphics from Los Angeles’ Kim Baer Design Associates (KBDA). Lexington was the fabricator, and New York-based United Field created its multi-media assets. Two of North America’s finest fossil mount makers worked on the exhibition. Phil Fraley Productions, the company that headed the articulation of Sue, the iconic T. rex of Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History; undertook the T. rex specimens, the giant marine reptiles, and the Triceratops. The Ontario, Canada-based Research Casting International remounted the exhibition’s largest specimen, the 68-foot Mamenchisaurus and six additional medium-sized mounts.

The seismic retrofit and historic renovation of the Dinosaur Hall galleries was led by CO Architects Principal, Jorge de la Cal, and Cordell Corporation President, Don Webb, with Matt Construction. We at Everything Dinosaur would like to congratulate all those people who have been involved in the project and one day, perhaps, some of our team members will get the chance to visit such an exciting museum – if only our busy schedules (and our budget) will allow.

For models ane replicas of Tyrannosaurus rex and other dinosaurs (no need to worry about a budget): Natural History Museum Dinosaur Models.

5 07, 2011

Outback Dig Provides Fossils of Rare Giant Wombat

By Mike|2024-04-22T12:24:21+01:00July 5th, 2011|Categories: Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Main Page|0 Comments

Diprotodon – A Monster Marsupial

A set of fossilised giant Wombat bones found at Burketown in north-west Queensland are getting Australian palaeontologists hopping with excitement as they could represent the most complete fossil skeleton of a diprotodontid ever found, beating a 33,000 year old specimen found near Sydney back in 1979.

Giant Wombat

By the Late Eocene Epoch, Australia had become completely isolated from the rest of the world, finally having split from Antarctica with the forming of the Southeast Indian Ridge. This ridge opened up a seaway between these two landmasses and Australia was separated, breaking up the last remnants of the super-continent known as Gondwanaland. Australia began to move north as the seaway expanded, a journey the country is still on, one day it will bash into south east Asia but for the moment this huge area of land, with all its strange fauna and flora are very much on their own.

Fifty-five million years ago, back in the Eocene Epoch this isolated part of the world, complete with its primitive mammals, in particular the marsupials, took a very different evolutionary path compared to the rest of the world, where placental mammals tended to dominate. Australian marsupials flourished, as indeed they do today and if you think that Kangaroos and Koalas are strange beasts then the animals that dominated prehistoric Australia are in another league. It is the remains of one such strange prehistoric beast, perhaps the largest marsupial that ever lived that has got Australian scientists so excited.

Diprotodontids

Scientists are hoping to piece together the world’s most complete Diprotodon skeleton ever sourced from a single specimen. Diprotodontids were a diverse group of quadrupedal, herbivorous marsupials some of which grew to enormous sizes. Diprotodon for example, grew to the size of a modern day hippo and would have tipped the scales at around 3,000 kilogrammes.

Professor Michael Archer, of the University of New South Wales commented:

“What we’re seeing here is the biggest marsupial that ever lived in the world – a three-tonne monster that was walking around this land somewhere between 50,000 and two million years ago. This was its last stand.”

Professor Archer says it is unusual for all the creature’s bones to be found in one place, most large animals would have been scavenged by Thylacines and leopard sized marsupial lions but although dis-articulated the scientists are hopeful that the complete skeleton can be found.

Professor Archer added:

“All the bones are not necessarily in their right position but probably the whole skeleton of this giant is in this one spot where it fell maybe 50,000 years ago.”

Scientists are hoping to piece together the world’s most complete Diprotodon skeleton ever sourced from a single specimen. Australian palaeontologists have benefitted from the remarkable fossil bearing rocks to be found at another remote location in Queensland – Riversleigh. Fossils found at this location date from the Miocene Epoch to the Late Pleistocene and document the bizarre fauna that existed in lush, lowland rain forests up to around 20,000 years ago.

To view models and replicas of prehistoric megafauna: Mojo Fun Prehistoric and Extinct Models.

4 07, 2011

Important Snowmass Excavations Come to an End

By Mike|2024-04-22T10:22:44+01:00July 4th, 2011|Categories: Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Main Page|0 Comments

Scientists Leave Ziegler Dam Site to Engineers

It’s a wrap, literally, as the last of the Ice Age fossils found at the Ziegler Dam location in Colorado are carefully wrapped in preparation for their journey to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. The excavation, the second part of the dig, after the first studies were curtailed by heavy snow falls last Autumn, came to an end on Friday and the researchers, scientists and fieldworkers began to depart over the weekend.

Scientists from the museum, have been working at the site close to Snowmass Village which is believed to be the largest deposit of Ice Age fossils in North America yet discovered. The first fossils were found last October as a bulldozer driver working on the extension to the reservoir uncovered some large fossilised bones.

Scientists quickly moved in and began excavating the fossils from what they believe is the site of a former Ice Age lake. They worked until mid-November, but had to halt activities when the area began receiving heavy snowfall. Then an agreement was reached with the construction company to permit the scientists to return in the late Spring to remove as many bones as they could before the engineering work could move ahead.

Ice Age Fossils

In their first time at the dig site, the scientists, fieldworkers and volunteers recovered portions of eight to ten Mastodons, four Mammoths, four Giant Bison, two fossilised Deer and the remains of a Giant Ground Sloth. We at Everything Dinosaur have followed the work up at Snowmass Village and we have reported regularly on the team’s progress.

The First Discoveries: Huge Prehistoric Bison Skull Discovered in Colorado.

Agreement is reached to continue the excavations: Agreement is Reached to Permit Scientists to Continue their Work.

The Research Continues: Researchers Ready to Return to the Ice Age.

In the second round of excavations, crews discovered many more bones, recovering a grand total of 4,517 fossils from twenty different animals, including additional Mastodon, Mammoth, Bison and Deer bones. They also discovered Camel, Otter, Muskrat, Bat, Rabbit and bird skeletons, among many others, providing scientists with a rare insight into the fauna of this area over the last fifty thousand years.

Crews from the museum moved out of the area on Friday in order to allow construction on the dam to continue. However, a few scientists will remain behind to make sure any additional bones that are discovered are safely transported to the Museum of Nature and Science’s Fossil Preparation Laboratory. Scientists say they are confident the technique they used when excavating the site means the majority of the bones have already been found.

A Scale Drawing of an American Mastodon

American Mastodon scale drawing.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Fossil Site

Kirk Johnson, the Chief Curator and Vice President of the research and collections at the Denver based museum stated:

“The key thing to realise is that the fossils are in the lake bed sediments, and we know exactly where the lake bed sediments end and where the rest of the lake begins, so we’re basically scooping out the sediments. When we finish scooping out the sediments, we’ve basically removed all possibility of finding bones.”

Some of the bones scientists are working with are quite large and the next step is to get all of the fossils back to Denver.

Johnson added:

“We’ve got one gigantic fossil that is in a giant plaster jacket that probably weighs in the vicinity of 10,000 pounds. So that’s going to be a real fun one to move.”

A crane will be required to remove that item. Forty-five additional large, plaster-wrapped fossils, weighing anywhere from 100 to 700 pounds, will be brought to Denver on a flat bed truck. Smaller fossils have been transported to Denver in museum vehicles throughout the course of the dig, some of which Johnson says are already on display in the window of the Fossil Preparation Laboratory.

However, visitors will not have to wait much longer to catch a glimpse of some of the larger finds.

Commenting on the work ahead of the scientists, Johnson said:

“I would say like middle of July you should start seeing big Snowmass fossils in the fossil prep lab window. We’ll probably get some down to the main floor of the museum as well because some of these fossils are too big to get up to the prep lab. So, it’s going to be an ongoing exciting process that you’ll be able to watch unfold in the museum starting in a couple weeks, and lasting for many months.”

The whole project has been a triumph for the museum and its staff and much credit must also go to the construction company and engineers, without whose co-operation many of the fossils, perhaps some of the most important Ice Age fossils ever found in the United States would have been lost forever when the reservoir was extended.

For models and replicas of Ice Age animals including prehistoric elephants: Eofauna Scientific Research Models.

3 07, 2011

New Jersey Mine Could Provide Vital Evidence Regarding Dinosaur Extinction

By Mike|2023-03-08T08:18:48+00:00July 3rd, 2011|Categories: Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Main Page, Palaeontological articles|0 Comments

New Jersey Mine Could Show Exact Moment of Cretaceous Mass Extinction Event

A team of researchers are busily exploring a fifteen-metre-deep hole in New Jersey in a bid to find the exact moment when the Mesozoic ended and the Cenozoic began. The site, part of a greensand mine is one of the last locations on the eastern seaboard of the United States where Cretaceous strata can be studied, The scientists are in a race against time as the site is due to be developed and to disappear under concrete as new houses are built.

The Mesozoic

Palaeontologist Kenneth Lacovara is one of the research team members looking deep into the mine with a view to pinpointing for the exact moment, 66 million years ago, when all dinosaurs, marine reptiles and Pterosaurs perished. That secret could be harder to uncover if the fossil material at this location can no longer be unearthed after a housing and retail development is built on this open cast pit.

Lacovara, an associate professor of biology at Drexel University in Philadelphia, looks at this 40-foot plus deep hole at the end of a dirt road and sees a line in the sand where the Cretaceous period ends. Below that line are dinosaurs, above it, not a single fossil bone belonging to a dinosaur can be found.

He thinks that the creatures his team has been uncovering here all died en masse when an extra-terrestrial body struck the Earth and changed the course of the history of life on our planet. If his theory proves correct, it would be the only burial ground of its kind and provide scientists with a living laboratory to study how the dinosaurs and their cousins the marine reptiles and pterosaurs became extinct.

New Jersey as a state has a special place in the hearts of American palaeontologists. The first nearly complete dinosaur skeleton ever discovered was a Hadrosaurus (H foulkii) found in Haddonfield (New Jersey) in 1858. This dinosaur was named and described by the famous American anatomist Joseph Leidy. But over the years, the numerous silt mines that made for great dinosaur digging were replaced with housing developments and shopping malls.

Today, this site in a southwestern corner of the state is the only remaining mine for greensand, a silt used for fertiliser and water softener. It’s also the only access to the Late Cretaceous Period on the entire eastern seaboard of the United States.

Commenting on the importance of this fossil location Lacovara stated:

“This site is the last existing window into the ancient Cretaceous period in the eastern half of the United States. It’s extraordinary.”

But the township of Mantua, a community of 15,000 people, has other plans for the site. Township officials would like to see the mine closed and a retail and lower cost housing development built in its place. A developer has drawn up plans that include shops and affordable housing. The fate of this location will be decided at a municipal meeting scheduled for July 15th

Inversand, the mine’s owner, has been operating the site since 1926, digging greensand. For years, the company has had a close relationship with palaeontologists, alerting them when they came across large fossils.

Inversand President Alan Davies commented:

“If we find something beyond the routine shark tooth or clam, we call them up.”

The biggest find he recalls happened in the 1960s, when workers came across the skull of a Mosasaurus, a giant marine reptile, that now resides at the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton. Mining for greensand is no longer economically viable for Inversand and the company would like to end operations. If the mine were to shut down and the pump that continuously clears groundwater out of the area were to turn off, the hole would completely fill with water in a matter of weeks, transforming it into a lake. Davis says the mine could shut within three years.

Only a Few Locations in the World Have the Geology to Highlight the End of the Mesozoic

A warm and humid Earth back in the early Mesozoic. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Facing a looming deadline, Lacovara and his team have stepped up their efforts to dig, applying for grants and enlisting students and amateur palaeontologists to shovel the grey, muddy sand for pieces of natural history.

The scientists worry that without this pit, they’ll lose a historic treasure trove. We at Everything Dinosaur, hope that a solution can be found and at least some part of the site can be kept as open access to palaeontologists to allow them to continue their studies.

For models and replicas of North American, Late Cretaeous dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals: Wild Safari Prehistoric World Figures.

2 07, 2011

Welsh Scientists Helping to Tame Real Life Dragons

By Mike|2023-03-08T08:20:03+00:00July 2nd, 2011|Categories: Everything Dinosaur News and Updates, Main Page|0 Comments

Cardiff University Researchers Tagging Saltwater Crocodiles in Bid to Reduce Attacks

Researchers from Cardiff University, working in a field centre in Malaysia are attempting to track male Saltwater crocodiles in a bid to reduce attacks on plantation workers. Since a summit was held last year, a symposium exploring the reasons for the dramatic increase in such incidents, steps have been taken to reduce the threat to people from these large reptiles. The Saltwater Crocodile, otherwise known as the Estuarine Crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) is the largest extant reptile on the planet, with males reaching lengths in excess of six metres and weighing over a tonne. They range over S.E. Asia from Sri Lanka to northern Australia and these animals have a deserved reputation for man-eating.

Estuarine Crocodiles

Now scientists and researchers from Cardiff University (Wales) have the opportunity to work with real life dragons as they seek to understand more about the movements of these large crocodiles.

Dr Benoit Goossens, School of Biosciences and Director of the Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC), stated:

“The use of land for plantations here has considerably decreased the amounts of prey available for crocodiles. This makes for a far more dangerous environment and attack rates on humans near plantations are extremely high compared to those in forested areas.”

The loss of game plus the increased numbers of people working in and around rivers is likely to result in even more crocodile attacks, unless measures are taken to control the crocodile population and to determine how to reduce the likelihood of crocodile/human encounters.

Dr Goossens added:

“By tagging large crocodiles, especially males which are potentially man-eaters, in plantation areas and forested areas, we will try to understand the movements of these large predators.”

The work marks the beginning of a long-term research and conservation programme, initiated following last year’s Human-Crocodile Conflict Symposium in Kota Kinabalu.

Dr Goossens, who is also leader of the Kinabatangan Crocodile Programme, said: the aim was to reduce fatal attacks by using the results from the tracking programme. These would provide a set of guidelines for plantation workers so they could avoid areas where large crocodiles congregate. The survey work will also benefit the crocodiles as it will lead to improved conservation methods as well as perhaps leading to a growth in “crocodile tourism”, with visitors keen to see one of the largest predators to be found in South East Asia.

Danau Girang Field Centre is a collaborative research and training facility managed by Cardiff University and Sabah Wildlife Department. Funding from Cardiff allowed the establishment of a research laboratory, a computer room, a library, the acquisition of research equipment and the employment of a Director.

Researchers haul a recently trapped 4-metre-long male Saltwater Crocodile out of the water so that a tracking device can be fitted to the animal. The crocodile nick-named “Girang” after the Field Centre was released shortly afterwards so that the scientists could begin to follow the creatures movements.

The Difference Between a Crocodile and an Alligator

Crocodile (top) and Alligator (bottom).

It is situated in the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary in Sabah, Malaysia and is surrounded by a mixture of lowland dipterocarp forest types, ranging from primary forest to disturbed secondary forest, in a matrix landscape with significant human impact including villages, small scale agriculture and oil palm plantations.

A team from the Danau Girang Field Centre, in collaboration with the Sabah Wildlife Department, recently fitted a four-metre-long male crocodile with a satellite tag so that its movements can be monitored.

For models of crocodiles and alligators (whilst stocks last): Mojo Fun Prehistoric Life Models.

1 07, 2011

Taking the Bio-Synthetic Pathway – On the Road to Identifying the Colour or Extinct Animals Thanks to New Research

By Mike|2024-04-22T09:54:32+01:00July 1st, 2011|Categories: Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Dinosaur Fans, Main Page, Palaeontological articles|0 Comments

Manchester University Leads the Way in Determining the Colouration of Extinct Animals

Powerful X-rays are helping scientists to determine trace element composition of fossils, these in turn are helping researchers to work out what colour long extinct animals were. The technique applied to an Early Cretaceous bird as well as fossil fish and invertebrates in this study, has implications for all fossilised animals including dinosaurs. Determining what colours T. rex and Triceratops were may not be long away. We might be close to working out the colour of dinosaurs.

Published in a Journal

Publishing their findings in Science, the researchers have been able to show a remarkable relationship between copper and pigment within exceptionally preserved feathers and other soft tissues.

Results include important species such as the oldest beaked bird yet found, the 120-million-year-old Confuciusornis sanctus, and also the 110-million-year-old Gansus yumenensis, which looks similar to the modern Grebe and represents the oldest example of modern birds.

Pigment is a critical component of colour. The team can map the presence of pigments over whole fossils, revealing original patterns. The team’s findings indicate that pigment chemistry holds the future key to the ultimate goal of discovering the colour palette of past life, from dodos to dinosaurs and beyond.

Colour has played a key role in the processes of evolution by natural selection that have steered all life on Earth for hundreds of millions of years. This unique scientific breakthrough can allow palaeontologists to reconstruct colour patterns in extinct animals, as well as provide an understanding of the way in which biological compounds are preserved in specific environments over deep time.

This could give them a far greater understanding of the feeding habits and environments occupied by extinct creatures, as well as shedding light on the evolution of colour pigments in modern species.

Confuciusornis sanctus Synchrontron Imaging Reveals its Colouration

Confuciusornis sanctus. Pigmentation in extinct animals.

Confuciusornis sanctus a primitive bird but it had a beak.

Picture credit: University of Manchester

The imaging technology has revealed that ancient birds like C. sanctus had dark heads and necks with paler feathers on the wings.

The X-ray team, led by Dr Roy Wogelius, Dr Phil Manning and Dr Uwe Bergmann, took the unique approach of using the synchrotron to analyse the soft tissue regions of fossil organisms. The application of X-ray physics to palaeontology has shed new light on the tangled tale of prehistoric pigments in deep time and how to recognise its chemistry in fossils that are hundreds of millions years old.

Dr Wogelius, lead author on the paper and University of Manchester geochemist, said:

“Every once in a while we are lucky enough to discover something new, something that nobody has ever seen before. For me, learning that copper can be mapped to reveal astonishing details about colour in animals that are over 100 million years old is simply amazing. But even more amazing is to realise that such biological pigments, which we still manufacture within our own bodies, can now be studied throughout the fossil record, probably back much further than the 120 million years we show in this publication.”

To unlock the stunning colour patterns, the Manchester researchers teamed up with scientists at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (USA) and used the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource to bathe fossils in intense synchrotron X-rays. The interaction of these X-rays with the chemistry of each fossil allowed the team to recognise the chemistry of eumelanin, the molecule that provides the dark coloured pigmentation, in feathers from some of the most pivotal species of dino-birds and even pigment from within the eye of a 50-million-year-old fish.

Extinct Animals

The key to their work was identifying and imaging trace metals incorporated by ancient and living organisms into their soft tissues, in the same way that all living species do today, including humans.

Without essential trace metals, key biological processes in life would fail and animals either become sick or die. It is these essential trace metals that the team has pinned down for the first time.

Dr Phil Manning, a senior author on the paper and University of Manchester palaeontologist, added:

”The fossils we excavate have vast potential to unlock many secrets on the original organism’s life, death and subsequent events impacting its preservation before and after burial. To unpick the complicated chemical archive that fossils represent requires a multidisciplinary team that can bring in to focus many areas of science. In doing this, we unlock much more than just palaeontological information, we now have a chemical roadmap to track similar pigments in all life.”

Results show that chemical remnants of pigments may survive even after the melanosome (biological paint pots) containing pigment has been destroyed. Some of the samples they publish clearly preserve a chemical fossil, where almost all structure has been lost in the sands of time. The chemical residue can be mapped to reveal details of the distribution of dark pigment (eumelanin), probably the most important pigment in the animal kingdom.

This pigment gives dark shading to human hair, reptile skin, and bird feathers. Using rapid scan X-ray fluorescence imaging, a technique recently developed at SLAC, the team was able to map the residue of dark pigment over the entire surface of a large fossil, for the first time giving clear information about fundamental colour patterning in extinct animals. It turns out that the presence of copper and other metals derived from the original pigment gives a non-biodegradeable record of colour that can last over deep geological time.

Dr Uwe Bergmann, SLAC physicist and co-author on the paper stated:

“Synchrotron radiation has been successfully applied for many years to many problems. It is very exciting to see that it is now starting to have an impact in palaeontology, in a way that may have important implications in many other disciplines. To work in a team of such diverse experts is a privilege and incredibly stimulating. This is what science is all about.”

Using this novel method to accurately and non-destructively measure the accumulation of trace metals in soft tissues and bone, the team also studied the chemistry of living species, including birds.

Dr Wogelius added:

“This advance in chemical mapping will help us to understand modern animals as well as fossils. We may also be able to use this research to improve our ability to sequester toxic materials such as radioactive waste and to devise new strategies for stabilising man-made organic compounds”.

For models and replicas of prehistoric animals and extinct creatures: PNSO Age of Dinosaurs Models.

30 06, 2011

World’s Oldest Sophisticated Eye Fossil Discovered in Australia

By Mike|2023-03-08T08:22:13+00:00June 30th, 2011|Categories: Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Main Page|2 Comments

Sophisticated Compound Eye with 3,000 Individual Lenses in 515 Million Year Old Fossil

Trilobites may have had some of the earliest recorded eyes in the fossil record, but 515 million years ago, there was a sharp-eyed predator that probably preyed on trilobites and its eyes were the most complex and sophisticated known from the Cambrian Period.

Eye Fossil

The eyes of trilobites are compound eyes, as seen in other arthropods today such as flies and other insects. Each eye had many lenses and each lens provided an image of the world, the more lenses the better the impression of the surroundings. The trilobite lens was made of calcite and the preservation potential of these lenses were as good as the rest of the exoskeleton, which was also made of calcite.

However, the eyes of trilobites from 515 million years ago are not a patch on the fossil eyes of as yet unknown arthropod that have been discovered on Kangaroo Island, South Australia.

Mike Lee, an evolutionary biologist who is leading the joint South Australian Museum and Adelaide University fossil study commented that the researchers were unsure at this stage what sort of creature had these advanced eyes, but they speculate it was a predator.

Dr Lee stated:

“This particular animal had by far the most powerful vision of its time. These fossils are absolutely unique because no other fossil site in the world has produced eyes of this complexity.”

As details of the research are published in the scientific journal “Nature” other scientists can learn a little more about the Australian team’s studies of the fauna of a Cambrian marine environment. A spokesperson for Everything Dinosaur agreed with the initial findings that the eye fossils probably belonged to a predator.

“It is a fair assumption that these eyes belonged to a predatory arthropod of some sort, perhaps some kind of large shrimp-like creature. Firstly the eyes are very sophisticated and good vision would have been extremely useful for an animal that hunted. In addition, at over 1 cm in diameter, the eyes are big so they probably belonged to a big animal and in the Late Cambrian predators were generally larger than prey.”

Could the fossil eyes belong to an arthropod similar to an Anomalocaris, a fearsome predator of the Middle Cambrian, whose kith and kin survived into the Ordovician.

A Drawing of an Anomalocaris

Anomalocaris drawing. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

To read about giant Anomalocarids of the Ordovician: Anomalocarids – Bigger than Previously Thought.

Dr Lee said other specimens from the Emu Bay site (Kangaroo Island) had vision equivalent to about 100 pixels, allowing them to differentiate between light and dark and perhaps pick out shapes and movement. However, these particular eyes had the equivalent of more than 3,000 pixels, or about 3,000 individual calcite lenses, making this vision system as sophisticated as that of modern prawns.

Dr Lee went on to add:

“With 3000 pixels, you can start to tell friend from foe.”

The strata in which these fossils were found dates to around 515 million years ago (Late Cambrian). Around 545 million years ago, one of the most significant events in the history of life on our planet occurred. There was a sudden burst of evolution, resulting in the rapid expansion and diversification of organisms (as recorded in the fossil record). A wide variety of creatures, especially those with hard, mineralised shells and other body parts suddenly appeared. Within a few million years, most of the animal Phyla that are in existence today had evolved.

Quite why there was this sudden burst of evolution referred to as the “Cambrian Explosion” remains unknown. However, scientists have suggested that the evolution of an “arms race” between predator and prey may have led to this considerable advance in life on planet Earth. Certainly, whatever sort of creature had eyes with 3,000 pixels is a testament to speed of evolution in the Cambrian Period.

Pictures show a beautifully preserved compound eye, the individual lenses can just be made out in the photograph.

The new fossils reveal that some of the earliest known arthropods had already acquired visual systems similar to those of living forms, underscoring the speed and magnitude of the evolutionary innovation that occurred during the Cambrian Explosion, the researchers conclude. As the eyes were found isolated, researchers can’t say with certainty what sort of animal had them. But the fossils were found in the same rock as an array of ancient marine animals, providing the scientists with an impression of what the environment and ecosystem was like for this particularly advanced animal.

With 3,000 pixels, the newly discovered ancient animals would have seen three times better than the modern horseshoe crab. But its eyesight would have paled in comparison to the modern dragonfly, a few of which have been emerging from our office pond over the last weeks. Extant dragonflies have over 28,000 lenses in each eye.

To view replicas of prehistoric animals like Anomalocaris and trilobites: CollectA Age of Dinosaurs Popular Model Range.

29 06, 2011

Head Butting “Bone heads” New Evidence Strikes a Blow for the Pachycephalosaurs

By Mike|2023-03-08T08:24:12+00:00June 29th, 2011|Categories: Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Main Page, Palaeontological articles|0 Comments

New Study Suggest Pachycephalosaurs may have Clashed Heads After All

The pachycephalosaurs (the name means “thick-headed lizards”) are often referred to as the “Bone-heads” as the most striking feature about these bird-hipped dinosaurs was their incredibly thick skulls, which in many cases were adorned with bony nodules. Related to the ceratopsians, scientists believe that these bipeds evolved in the Early Cretaceous and survived up to the very end of the Age of Reptiles.

Pachycephalosaurs

Most of what we know about this particular group of dinosaurs comes from skull material as many genera have been named and described on the basis of the discovery of skull bones. This is in stark contrast to other types of dinosaur, the sauropods for example, where bones relating to the head are exceptionally rare. The thickened skulls with their solid bone domes had excellent fossil preservation potential. Such thick bones could withstand the stresses of the fossilisation process.

Perhaps the most famous of the pachycephalosaurids is Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis, (from which this group of dinosaurs was named). P. wyomingensis is known from just skull material but it has been estimated to have reached lengths in excess of 8 metres, making it the largest pachycephalosaur dinosaur discovered to date.

An Illustration of Pachycephalosaurus (P. wyomingensis)

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

To read more about Pachycephalosaurus: Pachycephalosaurus – The “Bone-headed” Dinosaur.

Why did these dinosaurs have such thick skulls? It was not to protect a particularly large brain, these dinosaurs had brains no bigger than any other comparable sized ornithischian, perhaps these animals evolved well-protected heads as they engaged in head-butting contests just like some sheep and antelope do today. The ideas of pachycephalosaurs indulging in such behaviour was first put forward by the American palaeontologist Ed Colbert in 1954.

Debating the Theory

This theory has been debated ever since. Perhaps the most famous challenge to the theory of intra-specific conflict amongst pachycephalosaurs came in 2004 when the head-butting activities of these dinosaurs was examined by two American researchers, Mark Goodwin and John “Jack” Horner. These researchers discovered that the radiating bone structure that was thought to provide strength to the dome of the skull was only present in juvenile specimens, and not in mature adults. It was assumed, just like in extant animals the adults would have indulged in any head-butting, not young dinosaurs.

However, new research from the University of Calgary published in the online scientific journal “PloS One” suggests that these Cretaceous dinosaurs may indeed have used their thick heads for head butting contests. The Canadian based research team compared the fossilised skulls of two types of pachycephalosaur with the skulls of modern herbivores some of which were known to be “head-bangers”.

Bio-mechanical Studies

They concluded that previous bio-mechanical studies may have suggested that these dinosaurs butted heads, but this had been challenged by studies on how the skull bones grew and developed as the animals matured. However, new computer analysis and modelling using advanced statistical methodologies do support the theory first put forward by Colbert, back in 1954 – that the skulls of these dinosaurs could have withstood the impact from a clash of heads. These dinosaurs could have been head-butters after all.

The two pachycephalosaurs involved in the study were Stegoceras validum and Prenocephale prenes. The fossil skulls of these two dinosaurs were compared to ten skulls of artiodactyls (even-toed ungulates), known to indulge in various forms of intra-specific combat including head butting. The team found that the bony anatomy of some pachycephalosaur domes are better at protecting the brain than in any modern head-butter.

Co-author Dr Eric Snively commented:

“Pachycephalosaur domes are weird structures not exactly like anything in modern animals. We wanted to test the controversial idea that the domes were good for head-butting. Finding out brings us closer to their social lives: were pachycephalosaurs more likely just showing off their domes like peacocks with their tails, or were they also cracking their heads together like musk oxen?”

Using CT scanning and the new statistical method for diagnosing behaviour in fossil animals, the researchers compared the bony-headed dinosaurs with modern ungulates (hoofed animals) that engage in different kinds of combat.

Dr Snively stated:

“Our analyses are the closest we can get to observing their behaviour. In a way, we can get inside their heads by colliding them together virtually. We combined anatomical and engineering analyses of all these animals for a pretty thorough approach. We looked at the actual tissue types in the skulls and heads of the animals.”

Co-author and fellow researcher Dr Jessica Theodor (Associate Professor in the Biological Sciences Dept. at the University of Calgary said:

“Head-butting is a form of male-to-male competition for access to females. It’s pretty clear that although the bones are arranged differently in the Stegoceras, it could easily withstand the kinds of forces that have been measured for the living animals that engage in head-butting.”

Studying the Skulls

Describing the skulls of animals known to crack heads as “like a good motorcycle helmet”, the team stated that the skull of a typical head-butter was hard on the outside with a sort of spongy impact absorbing material just beneath the outer surface and then a stiff, really dense coat of hardened material to protect the brain.

Images show sections through the skulls of the dinosaur Stegoceras validum, the small African antelope known as a Duiker (Cephalophus leucogaster), regarded as morphologically close to this type of pachycephalosaur and a Bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis).

The CT scans reveal similar dome structure. A. In the Stegoceras specimen, compact bone (z1 and z3: zones 1 and 3), occurs deep and superficial to a cancellous region (z2: zone 2:). Moderately dense compact bone shows as a green band at the base of zone 3 (white line); note cancellous bone (blue) above the line in the anterior portion of this zone. B. Cephalophus. C. Similar stratification is evident in the sectioned Ovis cranium, with nearly identical zones of cancellous and compact bone broken by a ventral sinus.

The Stegoceras had an extra layer of dense bone in the middle. Stegoceras was a small pachycephalosaur approximately three metres long, that lived in north America during the Late Cretaceous.

The researchers concluded that Llamas would crack their skulls if they indulged in head-butting. Giraffes would not be very good at head-banging contests – their skulls could not withstand the force of too many collisions. Musk ox and Big Horn Sheep have the sort of adaptations to help them cope with bouts of head-butting. In this way they have similar skulls to Stegoceras, so this could be evidence to support head-banging pachycephalosaurs.

Perhaps, Colbert was onto something after all.

To view models and replicas of pachycephalosaurs and other dinosaurs: Papo Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal Models.

28 06, 2011

My Favourite and Most Popular Prehistoric Mammal – Woolly Rhinoceros

By Mike|2024-01-02T06:52:47+00:00June 28th, 2011|Categories: Animal News Stories, Everything Dinosaur News and Updates, Main Page|0 Comments

Woolly Rhino – Proves to be Very Popular

At Everything Dinosaur, we get lots of letters, drawings, emails and other sorts of correspondence from young fans of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals. Our team members read every one and we try to respond as quickly as we can to all those that require a reply. Today, we reveal one of our favourites the Woolly Rhinoceros.

Woolly Rhinoceros

We received one letter recently from a young boy who wanted to know more about the Woolly Rhino. He had received as a gift one of our prehistoric mammal soft toys (the Woolly Rhino) and he wanted to ask some questions about these strange prehistoric beasts.

Woolly Rhino Soft Toy (Mum and Baby Woolly Rhinos)

Woolly Rhinoceros soft toys.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

To view the Everything Dinosaur range of prehistoric mammal and dinosaur soft toys: Prehistoric Animal and Dinosaur Plush.

We were able to pass on the information and we ourselves find these soft toys rather cute, much more cute than the real animals would have been that’s for sure.

Woolly Rhinos were widespread during the Pleistocene Epoch, fossils have been found in China (they are believed to have originated in Asia), and as far west as Spain. The Woolly Rhino soft toy depicts an animal called Coelodonta antiquitatis, the genus name is pronounced see-la-dont-ta, its means “old hollow teeth”.

The last Woolly Rhinos are believed to have lived in Western Siberia, but this species finally went extinct approximately 10,000 years ago, at the end of the Pleistocene Epoch. The reason for their decline and eventual extinction is not known but it is likely that these two-tonne grazers were unable to adapt to the rapidly changing climate at the end of the last ice age.

We are delighted to hear that the Woolly Rhino still has many fans, sales of Ice Age soft toys are almost as high as sales of our dinosaur soft toys, especially when prehistoric animals such as the Woolly Rhino are featured in television programmes.

27 06, 2011

Newcastle the “Bahamas” of the North

By Mike|2023-01-19T15:36:33+00:00June 27th, 2011|Categories: Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Main Page|0 Comments

Borehole Provides Evidence of Newcastle’s Tropical Past

Newcastle upon Tyne may not be regarded as a tropical paradise today, but in the past this part of northern England looked very different. In fact geologists working on a project to find hot water underground to heat city centre buildings have found evidence that the area was once part of a warm shallow sea that teemed with life.

In a £900,000 project funded by the Newcastle Science City Partnership and Department of Energy and Climate Change, Newcastle and Durham University geologists have been involved in the drilling of a 2,000 metre deep bore hole at a site just a free kick away from St James’ Park, the home of Newcastle United. The team aim to tap into a reservoir of hot water heated to temperatures in excess of 80 Celsius that is being forced up through faults in a bed of granite rock. The water could then be used to provide clean energy to heat a number of city centre buildings.

The drilling was expected to end this month, but fossils found in core samples taken from the drill site, provide a glimpse into the ancient past of this part of the world. The cores show that in the past this part of northern England was once a shallow tropical sea, as fossils of crinoids (sea-lilies) and corals have been discovered embedded in the limestone portions of the geologist’s core samples.

Newcastle’s Tropical Past

Managers at the nearby Eldon Square Shopping Centre are excited about the project, General Manager Phil Steele stated:

“We can now look forward optimistically to using deep geothermal energy to supply part or all of our future energy needs and we look forward to working with Newcastle University to develop this major scientific enterprise for the city.”

Newcastle Institute for Research on Sustainability director Professor Paul Younger said:

“Our aim is to rise to the challenge of putting a novel form of deep geothermal energy at the very heart of city centre regeneration. It’s an incredibly exciting project. If we’re right and we pump up water at such elevated temperatures, it would mean a fully renewable energy supply for a large part of the city centre. The Newcastle project is similar to one already operating in Southampton, where underground hot water is used along with oil and natural gas for a combined heat and power network.”

It seems that as well as tapping into geothermal resources the geologists and engineers responsible for the project have tapped into some interesting fossil bearing strata, revealing that once upon a time Newcastle resembled the Caribbean.

Typical Limestone Coral Fossils

Coral fossils (Carboniferous).

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Team members at Everything Dinosaur think that the limestone would date from the Carboniferous Period.

For models and replicas of extinct animals from the Palaeozoic: Prehistoric Animal Models and Figures.