They might also rewrite the history of megaraptors as we know them.
New Antarctic Dinosaurs on Display at Field Museum
It’s a great way to spend an afternoon or a day off.
Mass extinction event 232 million years ago paved the way for the dinosaurs
The dinosaurs started and ended with a bang.
Scientists turn alligator scales into primitive ‘feathers’
The research suggests the same pathway may have been taken by dinosaurs as they transitioned to birds.
Dinosaurs might have still been alive today had apocalyptic asteroid fallen somewhere else 66 million years ago
Dinosaurs had a 9/10 chance they’d make it — but they drew the short straw.
Oldest dinosaur relative looked nothing like scientists imagined
The 245-million-year-old fossils overturns the established view that early dino relatives were the size of a chicken and feeble.
New paper explains why predatory dinosaurs walked on two feet while mammals stayed on all fours
It’s all about the tail.
Dinosaur eggs may have needed as much as half a year to incubate. Too long for their own good
Unlike birds, dinosaurs spent a lot of time incubating their eggs.
Flamboyant dinosaur headgear linked with outrageously big carnivorous dinosaurs
T-Rex was the king of dinosaurs, and he had the bling to prove it.
Newly found dwarf pterosaur species might re-write the ancient flying reptile’s evolutionary history
Not all flying reptiles were big.
Dinosaurs probably cooed, not roared
Dinosaurs might not have been as terrifying as we thought.
Dino bird wings found in fossilized 100-million-year-old amber look simply stunning
The specimens discovered by the researchers are one of a kind and, unlike previous amber fossils, the feathers were attached to tissue, too.
Brain before brawn: T-Rex first evolved a clever brain
T. Rex grew its way to the top of the food chain. To get there though, the dinosaur first had to evolve a big brain with keen senses, a new research suggests.
Research team grows “dinosaur legs” on a chicken for the first time
Researchers have manipulated the genome of chicken embryos so that they develop dinosaur-like bones in their lower legs.
Dinosaur love dance impressed on sandstone offers first glimpse of dino courtship
Birds are literally dinosaurs, so many scientists suspect millions of years ago dinosaurs shared similar courtship tactics like fancy plumage or complex dances to impress potential mates. While fossils can teach us so much about how dinosaurs looked and, in some instances, behaved (herd behavior, diet, hunting patterns etc.), inferences on mating rituals have been speculations at best thus far. A paper published in Scientific Reports offers some of the first tantalizing evidence that supports the idea that dinosaurs indeed employed similar courtship displays to modern birds. The researchers at University of Colorado, Denver found tracks etched into sandstone surfaces to create nest displays, hoping to attract a female to mate with. These scrapes are one of a kind, found nowhere else in the world.
Newly discovered beaver-like mammal took over after the dinosaurs disappeared
An asteroid impact wiped out the dominant life forms on the planet, both on land and in the oceans, some 65 million years ago. Like in all matters of life, there are winners and losers, and incidentally those who had most to profit from the demise of the dinosaurs were also the weakest: mammals. Small, battered and restricted to only a couple of ecological niches, not only were the mammals more adapted to a post-apocalyptic Earth devoid of sunshine and with little food to spare, but once everything cleared they simply took over. Now, paleontologists have come across a totally new genus of ancient mammals that used to share the planet with the dinosaurs, but managed to survive the fallout and continued its lineage for millions of years after.
Blood and collagen found in 75-million-year-old ‘crap’ fossils
Traces of soft tissue and red blood cells were discovered by accident by a team of paleontologists and biologists while they were playing around in the lab with so-called “crap” fossils dug up more than 100 years ago in Canada. Usually, museum curators are very proud and picky about the works they display or hold in storage, and any analysis that involves breaking or sectioning a fossil is most often than not strictly forbidden. But these fossils – like a claw from a meat-eating therapod, the limb from a duck-billed dinosaur and even the toe of a triceratops-like animal – were fragments in poor conditions that nobody really cared about. One man’s trash, another man’s treasure.
Oldest avian ancestor of modern day birds found in Chinese siltstone slabs
A group of paleontologists have unearthed fossils preserved in pristine condition belonging to a new ancient avian species that lived some 130 million years ago. Dating suggests it’s the oldest ancestor to modern day birds found thus far, beating the previous record holder by about six million years. The findings also suggest that different bird groups were already well established and spread through the world even in the early Cretaceous.
Why birds survived the dinosaur apocalypse: they were small enough
Some 65 million years ago an asteroid impact caused countless species of land, marine and plant life to become extinct, including the mighty dinosaur which dominated the planet for millions of years. Not all species of the dinosaur group vanished, however. You’ve guess right: birds! Now, a new study sheds light on why birds were able to survive – they
Fossilized insects trapped in the act of mating for 165 million years [SFW]
Fossils that capture a kinetic moment are truly fascinating because they surprise a scene or picture from millions of years ago, effectively acting as a time capsule. Paleontologists have found along the years all sorts of such scenes, be them dinosaurs engaged in battle before an unlikely event engulfed and preserved them or some other preservation in the heat of
