Why No Giant Mammals?
Hank Green gives a quick run-down of the reasons scientists think the land mammals of today are nowhere near the size of the largest sauropods. Some of them might surprise you!
Call Me Stormy
Finding righteous currents in turbulent times
Archive for the tag “Dinosaurs”
The Dinosaur Wars
Find out about rival paleontologists whose near-simultaneous discovery of dinosaur bones has sparked a century-old debate: Should the familiar dinosaur be called an Apatosaurus or a Brontosaurus? Alex Dainis fills us in on the back-story in this edition of Bite Sci-zed.
Oldest Dinosaur Found?
Researchers say they’ve possibly pinpointed the earliest dinosaur to roam the Earth. Nyasasaurus parringtoni existed about 245 million years ago. The fossils were unearthed from Tanzania in Africa. H/T NewsyScience
“Eye of Sauron” Dinosaur
A dinosaur species has been named Sauroniops pachytholus, Greek for “Eye of Sauron.” No word if the beast fed on Hobbits, but it was a ferocious meat-eater with blade-like teeth and measured up to 40 feet in length — on par with the dreaded Tyrannosaurus Rex. The Eye of Sauron roamed North America some 95 million years ago. H/T SourceFed
Black Market in Dinosaur Bones
Drug smuggling and the underground trade in human organs might generate more headlines, but now the Feds have busted a more clandestine black market, involving the sale of dinosaur bones, smuggled into the United States and Europe from Mongolia. A Florida man has been apprehended on charges of transporting and selling the bones and related fossils. H/T SourceFed
Dinosaurs Will Never Be Cloned
A New Zealand study has dampened hopes that we’ll ever see dinosaurs in flesh again. While it might be possible to create clones of some extinct species using DNA extracts, this won’t work for dinosaurs because their DNA already has fossilized or broken down into dust, the researchers say. If they are correct, looks like we can kiss goodbye to any fantasies of some day visiting a Jurassic Park and petting the pterodactyls. H/T SourceFed
