Robotic Dinosaur goes Missing from Walking with Dinosaurs Tour

A robotic dinosaur from the “Walking with Dinosaurs” tour has been stolen.

The Mexican leg of the “Walking with Dinosaurs ” world tour has got off to a shaky start after it was discovered that one of the robotic dinosaurs has been stolen from the show.

Robotic Dinosaur

The remote-controlled, robotic dinosaur worth an estimated $100,000 USD is one of the stars of the Walking with Dinosaur stage show, that takes the audience through the evolution of the dinosaurs from the Triassic up to the mass extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous that saw their final demise.  The Walking with Dinosaurs tour opened in Guadalajara, in central Jalisco state on Friday and staff discovered that one of the smaller robots was missing after the show closed that day.

A spokesperson for the tour stated:

“Only in Mexico!  How it happened, we don’t know.  We don’t even know if whoever stole it knows its value”.

To read more about the Walking with Dinosaurs tour: Monster Tour Rocks America.

This is the first time an robotic dinosaur has been stolen from the show.  The Walking with Dinosaurs tour began in Australia and has visited North America and Europe over the last two years, being seen by an estimated four million people.

The theft of the 1.5 metres tall robot is ironic, as a number of critics of the tour have claimed the organisers have “ripped off” families by charging very high prices for the ninety minute show.  In the United Kingdom, tickets to see the event cost around £20.00, rising to £35.00 for better seats.  For a family to go to the event it would have cost nearly £100.00, not a small sum in these difficult economic times.

The merchandise available at the show was very highly priced.  A model of a dinosaur could be purchased for £15.00, a nice souvenir but we did note that the same model part of a set of six from Everything Dinosaur could be purchased from ourselves for a great deal less.  The mark up on the model from the organisers, we estimated was something like 600 percent.

Still, we hope the organisers are able to get their dinosaur back.  Let’s hope that the robotic dinosaur is returned safe and sound, as it would be sad if the audiences on the central American leg of the tour could not see the whole show.

Check out Everything Dinosaur’s website: Everything Dinosaur.

Columbian Mammoth Site Opened to Public

On Saturday, residents of and visitors to Waco in Texas had the chance to get up close and personal to the remains of a number of huge Mammoths as a palaeontological dig site was opened up to the public for the first time.

Prehistoric Mammoth

The Waco Mammoth Site showcases the remains of Columbian Mammoths that died in mudslides and flooding more than 60,000 years ago.  The Columbian Mammoth (Mammuthus columbi) is a species of prehistoric elephant closely related to their more famous cousins the Woolly Mammoth.  These animals thrived in the warmer temperate regions of the United States during the Pleistocene Epoch.  Columbian Mammoths were slightly larger than most Woolly Mammoth types (M. primigenius) and they had slightly less body hair, an adaptation to a warmer habitat.

Visitors to the this new site can walk through a climate-controlled pavilion built over the excavations and watch from walkways as guides explain the story of how these Mammoths came to be buried together.  This marks the completion of the first phase of development, a total of $4 million USD was raised by the Waco Mammoth Foundation.  It is hoped that this site will be recognised as a national monument by Congress. and given national park status.

A Model of a Woolly Mammoth and a Juvenile

The CollectA Deluxe Woolly Mammoth model in 1:20 scale and the CollectA Prehistoric Life Woolly Mammoth calf. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

To view the CollectA Deluxe range of scale models: CollectA Deluxe Models.

To view the range of CollectA not to scale prehistoric animal models: CollectA Age of Dinosaurs Popular Models.

Exploring the Site – Discovered by Serendipity

Like many bone beds the fossils were found by accident.  In 1978, two walkers discovered unusual looking rocks whilst walking along the Brazos and Bosque rivers, one was taken to the Baylor University in Waco, where an expert identified this object as fossilised Mammoth remains.  A number of excavations have taken place subsequently and a total of twenty-four Columbian Mammoths have been found, with perhaps more located on the 100 acre site.  Indeed, the remains of another Mammoth was unearthed when construction work was taking place, building the facilities and the visitor centre.  Other fossils have also been found, most notably the remains of a prehistoric camel.

Initial theories proposed that the Mammoths, possibly a herd, all died together in a mudslide after being trapped in a ravine, but as the site has been studied; a new hypothesis emerged.  It looks like there may have been two local extinction events, the first involving a herd of females and their young (nineteen in total), which died in the mudslide.  One adult specimen was found preserved with the fossils of a youngster close by, perhaps it had died trying to protect the young Mammoth by lifting it out of the mud.  A later flooding event caused the death of the other Mammoths found at this location.

The remains of sixteen animals were removed in the early 1990s, these are now in storage.

Explaining why the fossils were removed, Anita Benedict, the collections manager at the Mayborn Museum at nearby Baylor stated:

“We couldn’t protect them, because once they’re exposed, the can deteriorate.  We plan to leave these in the ground, but at some point we may do more excavation”.

The first phase of development has now been completed and this site is open to the public, but it is hoped that further funds will be raised and that more work can be done on this ancient elephant burial ground.

Life on Mars – Research adds weight to Theory of Organic Compounds in Antarctic Meteorite

The debate as to whether our neighbour Mars was once capable of supporting life, indeed whether life still exists on the red planet has been given a high profile once more after the results of new research into a Martian meteorite were published.

Martian meteorite

In a continuation of research started by NASA thirteen years ago, a new paper published in the scientific journal Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, the journal of the Geochemical and Meteoritic Society, details the results of high resolution electron microscope analysis that indicates the presence of fossilised ancient microbial life on a meteorite from Mars.  The original NASA team that studied evidence of fossils on the small meteorite, feel vindicated by this new research.  Their claims of evidence of life on Mars was acclaimed when it was first announced, even President Clinton was compelled to make a speech about it.  However, doubts were raised over the validity of the team’s claims.

With the use of high resolution electron microscopy, a technique not available to the original team when they carried out their initial studies, their conclusions have become more valid as this new paper suggests the strange, microscopic structures found on the meteorite were not caused as a result of inorganic processes.

A Remarkable Story

How a piece of Mars came to land on Earth is a remarkable story.  A piece of rock that was part of the original 4 billion year old crust on Mars, was blasted into space when a large ex-terrestrial body impacted with the planet at an oblique angle.  This collision forced material (called ejecta), to be blasted off the surface and into space.  This rock began its journey to Earth and landed in Antarctica some 13,000 years ago, it having formed part of a meteor shower.

In 1984, a US Government scientist picked it up as part of an Antarctic survey looking for meteorites.  The rock was named 84001, as it was the first specimen to be picked up on the expedition.  The Allen Hills Meteorite as it is known, is believed to have carried strong evidence of life on Mars, evidence that is increasingly standing up to scientific scrutiny as new techniques and methods are used to examine the specimen.

High Resolution Microscopy

The high resolution microscopy techniques has enabled scientists to gain more detailed data on carbonate discs and associated, minute magnetic crystals which are present inside this small piece of Martian rock.  The information obtained using this new method supports the idea that these structures are organic in origin and not caused as a result of the thermal shock attributed to the specimen as it was ejected from Mars and entered the Earth’s atmosphere.

Commentators have already indicated that this rock could be the “smoking gun” providing evidence that Mars did once support primitive microscopic life, either on the surface or in subsurface tepid pools of water.

These new findings are expected to be reported upon by NASA in a public statement, this evidence may be involved in helping to shape NASA’s plans for future missions as the answer to the question is there life on other planets? is asked.

The authors of this new study, Kathie Thomas-Keprta, Simon Clement, David McKay (who led the original team in the 1990s), Everett Gibson and Susan Wentworth, all of the Johnson Space Centre are confident that their new data will help colour the debate regarding life on Mars.

The new research involves a close examination of the so-called magnetic bacteria, that on Earth, and perhaps also on Mars, leave distinct “fossil fingerprints” in the rock.  The new data supports the theory that these strange traces were made as a result of organic activity and not by inorganic geological processes.

Strange Objects in the Allen Hills Meteorite

The scanning electron microscope has found strange objects in the Allen Hills meteorite.  Could these by micro-fossils of bacteria?  Evidence from America indicates that these structures, as they contain magnetite crystals could be organic in origin.

Dr Dennis Bazylinski, one of the peer reviewers of the new research is confident that this new data will persuade the scientific establishment of the likelihood of there having been bacteria formed on Mars.  He has reproduced similar structures in laboratory tests at the University of Nevada (Las Vegas).

Discussing the new published research, Dr Bazylinski stated:

“I think the paper is really excellent.  I have no trouble with the paper.”

He went on to add:

“I work on magnetic bacteria, and one indication there was life on ancient Mars are these particular magnetite crystals in the meteorite that look like they came out of magnetic bacteria.  At first [when the data was reported in 1996], I thought there might have been an error.  I have no doubt about that now.  I know there is no error.”

The debate may move on to centre around the reliability of megeto fossils as biomarkers (evidence of organic life forms).

From what we see on our own planet, life is remarkable, able to survive and thrive in the most hostile of places.  Scientists have speculated for generations about life on other planets, Mars could well prove to be the site of the first proof that Earth is not alone in having sustained life in some form or other.

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s award-winning website, it is easy to visit than the planet Mars.

Everything Dinosaur’s website: Everything Dinosaur.