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Geology News
Dinosaurs Current Events

Molecular analysis on a T. Rex femur revealed that the dinosaur’s closest modern-day relatives are chickens and ostriches. A similar study also linked mastodons and elephants.

A 25-foot-long, 65-million-year-old triceratops skeleton found in North Dakota was purchased by an American at a Paris fossil auction for $942,797.

The Komodo dragon has dental characteristics similar to those of dinosaurs, in addition to similar feeding habits. Interestingly, the fearsome creature has a relatively fragile skull structure. How can it be such an efficient killing machine? Scientists found that it is a combination of the animal’s powerful muscles, razor-sharp teeth, and the particular way its bones are arranged that make it such a formidable predator.

Christie’s is holding an auction today at which they will sell various prehistoric bones and fossils, including a 7.5 meter-long (24.6 feet) Triceratops skeleton. Since the auction of “Sue”, a Tyrannosaurus Rex sold in 1997, it is the first specimen of comparable quality to be put up for auction.

This new species, perfectly preserved in sandstone, has given scientists more detailed information than any other plesiosaur fossil to date. It has now been declared the first member of a new genus.

Students in a Mesalands Community College paleontology class field trip found a hip bone from an unidentified Triassic period creature that lived about 200 million years ago. Although the bone has some similarities with a coelophysis, it is thought to represent a previously undiscovered early dinosaur or proto-dinosaur.

Paleontologists in France have been analyzing a lump of amber containing seven downy feathers. The perfectly-preserved specimens have given rise to the theory that some dinosaurs may have had downy feathers for insulation.

Learn about some of the lesser-known killer dinosaurs that roamed the Earth. This illustrated slideshow describes the beasts’ hunting and dining habits.

Researchers have found a new species of duck-billed dinosaur in the Coahuila region of Mexico. The new plant-eating hadrosaur has been named Velafrons coahuilensis.

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Researchers at the University of Southampton have shown that the Bristol Dinosaur, Thecodontosaurus, lived on subtropical islands around Bristol, instead of in a mainland desert as previously thought. The researchers believe that the dinosaur’s small size of two meters in length compared to mainland equivalents being ten meters might have been caused by island dwarfing.

Researchers at the University of Michigan suspect that modern birds might have originated before the demise of dinosaurs.

Members of the Chinese Academy of Science and Chinese Academy of Engineering selected ten achievements for 2007. Three of them were related to earth science: Ultra-deep drilling rig developed, World’s largest bird-like dinosaur fossil found, and, “Chang’e-1″ successfully launched and clear moon surface images obtained.

Scientists have discovered a fossilized skull of the largest rodent ever recorded in Uruguay. This rodent weighed a ton, was 3 meters long and lived between two and four million years ago.

Ray Stanford has an unconventional background for being one of the best dinosaur trackers on the planet. For the past 13 years he has been discovering dinosaur tracks in the Washington, DC suburbs.

“What Bugged the Dinosaurs?” is a new book that proposes that insects and disease may have played a more important role in the demise of the dinosaurs. It is authored by George Poinar (Oregon State University) and Roberta Poinar (retired research scientist). It was published by Princeton University Press.

Scientists have long known that whales are mammals and that their ancestors walked on land. Researchers have discovered and documented a series of fossils that reveal the evolutionary steps between land and sea.

GEOTIMES has 2007 highlights for six topics. These pages feature short stories and links to detailed articles that appeared through the year.

• Changing Climate
• Energy Shifts
• Hazards
• Deep Earth
• Planetary Exploration
• Ancient Life

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There has been recent news about a mummified dinosaur - one with soft tissues preserved. This article gives some details about Tyler Lyson, the student who discovered the fossil, and tells the story from his initial sighting of it in 1999 at age 16 through the story being released through the media.

Here is an interesting site by the University of Texas at Austin. It features four locations in Texas and provides interesting content about them suitable for teachers and students. Featured are Franklin Mountains, Dinosaur Footprints, Central Texas and Galveston Island.

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In North Dakota, fossil hunters have found a fossil of a 67 million-year-old duck-billed hadrosaur that has soft tissue preserved. Skin, muscle, tendons and other tissues are preserved in this specimen. This will provide a rare opportunity to check the accuracy of some of the previous ideas that have been inferred from skeletal information alone.

Andrew Alden shares some photos of sedimentary structures, dinosaur tracks, burrows, trackmarks, dinosaur bones and outcrops at his about.com Geology site.

The Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh was one of the first public exhibits of dinosaur paleontology. Now, they are just four days away from reopening with a fully redone exhibit. Many of their specimens were completely remounted in ways that incorporate the most up-to-date understanding of dinosaur science.

A new species of giant dinosaur has been discovered in 80 million-year-old, rocks of northern Patagonia. Futalognkosaurus dukei was a herbivorous dinosaur that reached lengths of up to 112 feet and is one of the three largest dinosaurs known. The specimen found is one of the most complete giant dinosaurs found to date.

A footprint found in Montana’s Hell Creek formation could have been made by a Tyrannosaurus rex about 65 million years ago. Based upon the shape and size of the print, researchers are confident that it was made by either Tyronnosaurus rex or by Nanotyrannus.

A new species of ceratopsian dinosaur has been discovered in Montana. It is thought to be a long sought link between the dinosaurs of Asia and those of North America.

In 1998 a nearly complete skeleton of a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex was excavated north of Belle Fourche, South Dakota, on leased land. Since then, ownership of the fossil has been in dispute. Was the lease valid or were the fossil hunters trespassing when they removed the fossil? Its finally going to court.

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Nels Peterson of Montana State University is developing methods to use LIDAR (light detection and ranging) that will produce a three dimensional computer model of dinosaur bones as they are excavated. This will provide valuable information about the animal’s resting place and perhaps some detail about how it lived or died.

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James Fassett, geologist emeritus of the US Geological Survey has dates on a number of dinosaur fossils from New Mexico that date about one million years after the KT Extinction. Could they have survived the extinction only to die out a million years later?

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From the article: “His methods have upset numerous academics, but Larson has become the world’s most successful dealer in the bones of Tyrannosaurus rex and countless other prehistoric specimens retrieved from the great western plains of Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota. Ten years after his release from a federal prison when he fought off damaging allegations of bone-stealing, Larson is riding a new palaeontology boom.”

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Paleontologists have long thought that dinosaurs coexisted with their immediate predecessors for a very short time before they replaced them as Earth’s dominant land animals. A new discovery by researchers of the American Museum of Natural History; University of California, Berkeley; and other institutions suggests that dinosaurs and their predecessors coexisted much longer than previously believed.

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The Wyoming Dinosaur Center has a program that allows anyone to join them for one day on a dinosaur dig at their Warm Springs Ranch. During that day you are introduced to the dig site, fossil stabilization, excavation, quarry mapping, and documentation. The participation fee is $150 for adults and $80 for children. If you are really good at the work you might be able to earn “Volunteer” status and participate in future digs without charge.