I'm currently reading his new book, My Beloved Brontosaurus, and it's delightful! Switek's enthusiasm is irrepressible as he explores our collective relationship with dinosaurs and the disparity between actual science and public perception. He writes about his own life-long obsession and notes important discoveries and shifts in understanding. It's a fun read from a kindred spirit.

You can get tickets for his Town Hall appearance here! See you there!

• Josef Smit/public domain via wikimedia.org

What's Your Dinosaur Personality?

Brian Switek, who I've quoted many times here at Today's Dinosaur News, is speaking on Thursday, May 23. He's written for National Geographic, the Smithsonian's blog Dinosaur Tracking, and plenty of other places. Check out his new book, My Beloved Brontosaurus: On the Road with Old Bones, New Science, and Our Favorite Dinosaurs, and get your tickets to see him speak HERE!

And then Monday, June 24, rock star paleontologist Jack freakin' Horner will be speaking!! Yes, Jack Horner, the guy who discovered the Maiasaura, the guy who's making a chickenosaurus, the paleontologic advisor for Jurassic Park, THAT Jack Horner. Awesome.Get your tickets HERE!

Next Friday, April 5, Jurassic Park is being re-released in 3D at theaters across the country. Between this and Jurassic Park 4 on the horizon, there's been quite a bit of discussion about the merits of the original movie and whether there should be feathers on the theropods in JP4. Some of my favorite commentary has come from David Orr over at Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs. In a recent post he articulates why many of us dinophiles love that movie:

Jurassic Park, it has been widely pointed out, is revolutionary not just for its special effects but from the way the dinosaurs were depicted as real animals. Huge, yes, perhaps monstrous in form, but with the body language and presence of living creatures. When I think of Jurassic Park, my first thought isn't necessarily of raptors in the kitchen. It's of the cocked head and curiously dainty step of the Tyrannosaur as it climbs over the rim of its enclosure. It's of a panicked flock of Gallimimus arcing over a grassy field toward the camera. It's of the closing moment of the The Lost World, where we glimpse a primeval world without humans, where the carnivores don't always roar and the herbivores can go about their business.

Go read the whole thing.

Meanwhile, Vulture has this post ranking all the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, with the velociraptors coming out on top. I think we can do better, Sloggers. Please vote in this binding poll:

• photos.com

Daisy was just 4 when she stumbled upon the fossilized remains of an unknown animal during a family walk on the beach in 2009. The family lives near the coast of England's Isle of Wight — also known as the "dinosaur capital of Great Britain."

...Over the past several years, the bones Daisy discovered have been thoroughly analyzed by paleontologists. The findings were finally published this Monday. The fossilized remains belong to a previously unknown genus and species of a small flying reptile called the pterosaur*.

Daisy, now 9, has accomplished something I only dream of: the new species was named for her, Vectidraco daisymorrisae. Hit the link for more details and to see the world's most ADORABLE amateur paleontologist. More here and here. (Thanks to everyone who sent this tip!)

More dinosaur news after the jump!

Continue reading »

For those of you who are new, Draw A Dinosaur Day is a day that is exactly as simple as it seems. Simply draw a dinosaur, then scan it or take a picture of it and submit it to drawadinosaurday.com, and spend the day looking at the amazing dinosaurs other people have submitted! We're not a super high maintenance holiday, so if you do it a day before or after, that's cool! We get it! Life is busy! The important thing is that you have fun drawing a dinosaur.

This was a holiday created by Todd Page for the joy of drawing and dinosaurs - it was started 7 years ago, and last year it received nearly a thousand dinosaurs. Pee Wee Herman has even contributed in the past. So unless you're too good for fun, spread the word, the love, and the dinosaurs. Get ready to draw!

You can submit your drawing at their Facebook page or at drawadinosaurday.com.

To get you started, here is a tutorial on how to draw a dinosaur... er, dragon... er whatever. [Hint: First you draw an "S". Then you draw a more different "S". Also, the "S" is for "sucks."]

Not satisfied with simply drawing a dinosaur? Perhaps you'd rather help out with actually preparing fossils?! Then check out this entry that Seattle's Burke Museum posted on their Facebook page last week:

Continue reading »

• photos.com/mpt
• "Ladies..."

Persons studied the tails of oviraptors, a group of dinosaurs that had beaks and feathers. Previous research has shown some feathered dinosaurs used their plumage for insulation and flight. Oviraptors could not fly but Persons said their tail feathers were used in much the same way as a peacock...

Previous research has shown other dinosaurs also possessed display structures, such as the small crests over the eyes of Tyrannosaurus rex, showing the animal had “sex on the brain,” Persons said. In a study published last year, a University of Calgary paleontologist found another group of dinosaurs also may have sprouted feathers as a secondary sexual characteristic.

Persons’ research focused on the tails of oviraptors. He found the vertebrae in the tails were tightly pressed together while the joints between the vertebrae were flexible. The vertebrae also had wide attachment sites for muscles that would allow the dinosaurs to raiseand twist their tails. At the end of the tail was a fusion of vertebrae that formed a ridged, blade-like structure called a pygostyle, which acts as the anchor for a fan of feathers in modern-day birds.

You can read more about dinosaur tail feathers here and here.

Why the empty, endless use of the "f" word by The Stranger, even to describe the state budget? They're managing to cheapen the word.

— joel r. connelly (@joelconnelly) December 19, 2012

Jurassic Prank!

…a few dozen people in Columbus, Ohio got surprised by an animatronic T-Rex set loose by local comedians Roman Atwood and Dennis Roady.

The Sketch Empire duo donned a realistic looking T-Rex costume, which they purchased from KHA Entertainment in New York. "Kojo," as the T-Rex is named, is actually available to rent by KHA.

Atwood and Roady then set up a series of "Jurassic Pranks" to surprise and scare random strangers.

• Mary P. Traverse

My boyfriend and I were in Holyoke for my sister's wedding (which was beautiful, congrats Maureen and Zack!!) and decided to hang in Boston for a day before heading home for Halloween. Last night we found out we are stranded here until at least Wednesday night, so it looks like we'll be spending Halloween on a plane. Sad face.

But! Let me share some dinosaur news because that always cheers me up! First, on our way to the rehearsal dinner on Friday we spotted a turn-off for dinosaur tracks, so we trotted down the trail in our dress clothes and checked it out. The area is part of the Connecticut River Valley, which is known for its abundance of dinosaur tracks. (That's my hand in one of the medium-sized prints.) According to the interpretive signage at the site, Yale University professor John Ostram identified three species from the tracks in the early '70s: Eubrontes giganteus, Anchisauripus sillimani, and Grallator cuneatus.

Continue reading »

• Keith Schengili-Roberts/wikipedia.com Creative Commons License
• A Pachycephalosaurus skeleton on display at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto.

I was under the impression that paleontologists were already reasonably confident on the issue, but a presentation at the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology's 72nd Annual Meeting revealed "some of the most direct evidence for this antagonistic behavior":

Peterson, a professor in the University of Wisconsin geology department, and his colleagues took CT scans of the skulls and compared the distribution of lesions to those on the skulls of birds, crocodilians, and mammals- particularly mammals with horns.

The investigations reveal that "larger domed pachycephalosaurs such as Pachycephalosaurus may have been head-butting like Dall sheep or head-shoving like bison, while smaller, high-domed taxa such as Stegoceras may have been flank-butting like mountain goats," Peterson said.

One time I had a dream I was riding a subway and some pachycephalosaurs were head-butting each other in the train car. (Most of my dreams with dinosaurs have them in urban environments.) Man I wish I was at the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology's 72nd Annual Meeting...

The National Park Service and the American Geological Institute are partnering to host the third annual National Fossil Day on October 17, 2012 during Earth Science Week. National Fossil Day is a celebration organized to promote public awareness and stewardship of fossils, as well as to foster a greater appreciation of their scientific and educational value.

In celebration I bring you this fossil news: an ancient marine reptile, previously known as Predator X (which sounds like a terrible sequel) has been officially classified as a new species. Now known as Pliosaurus funkei (which makes me think of this), the fossil was initially discovered six years ago.

"They were the top predators of the sea," said study co-author Patrick Druckenmiller, a paleontologist at the University of Alaska Museum. "They had teeth that would have made a T. rex whimper."

• Photo courtesy of Oregon State University

“This juvenile spider was going to make a meal out of a tiny parasitic wasp, but never quite got to it,” said George Poinar, Jr., a professor emeritus of zoology at Oregon State University and world expert on insects trapped in amber. He outlined the findings in a new publication in the journal Historical Biology.

“This was a male wasp that suddenly found itself trapped in a spider web,” Poinar said. “This was the wasp’s worst nightmare, and it never ended. The wasp was watching the spider just as it was about to be attacked, when tree resin flowed over and captured both of them.”

Sadly, amber can't provide us with DNA. A recent study shows that:

As it turns out, the so-called half-life of DNA—the span of time it takes for half of the molecular bonds in the genetic material to break—is just 521 years.

Bummer.

Continue reading »

• Tyler Keillor/The University of Chicago

From a NYTimes.com article on the subject:

In a report published Wednesday in the online journal ZooKeys, Paul C. Sereno, a paleontologist at the University of Chicago and a dinosaur specialist, described the strange anatomy of the newfound member of the heterodontosaur family and gave the new species the name Pegomastax africanus, or “thick jaw from Africa.” He also apologized in an interview for not getting around sooner to this piece of research.

When he first viewed the specimen at a Harvard laboratory, Dr. Sereno said, “My eyes popped, as it was clear this was a distinct species.”

More on this weird little guy here and here; some photos of a model of Pegomastax africanus (pictured above) by Tyler Keillor, and a video of the making of that model.

• "Tough break, kids, I am totally happy hangin' out naked!"

If you’re one of those people who loathe dinosaur feathers, there’s a group that will commiserate with you: creationists.

Creationists are on a campaign to “take dinosaurs back.” Earlier this year, the creationist crackpot Ken Ham, president of Answers in Genesis—the organization that established the fundamentalist funhouse called the Creation Museum—said, “Dinosaurs have been held hostage for decades” by his mortal enemy, the nefarious “secular humanists.” Ham is determined to appropriate dinosaurs for biblical literalists.

That's right, the same people who deny the fossil record want dinosaurs for themselves.

Still prefer your T-Rex naked? Then please enjoy these shoes as seen all over the internet. (thanks Slog-tippers Vic and John!)

I'm officially an old man: I look forward to complaining about the litter at the bus stop in front of our house. When I turn the corner from Olive onto 23rd, I have a look and sternly say out loud, "What savages!" when I'm by myself. I no longer say it when my wife is with me in the car, because I'm sure she's tired of hearing it.

Continue reading »