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News about dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures. www.thestranger.com/slog |
Fig. 20.—Skeletons of Brontosaurus (above) and Diplodocus (below) in the American Museum. The parts preserved in these specimens are shaded. Scale, 10 feet=1 inch.
(via scientificillustration)
Dinosaurs by Ray Harryhausen
RIP Ray Harryhausen (photo via)
Carnotaurus and Spinosaurus walk cycles for the videogame Primal Carnage. Animation by Maccollo models and textures by Kevin Bryant
Colorado: Stegosaurus Armatus
Meaning “armored roof lizard.” S. Armatus was the first of the stegosaurus genus to be discovered, it was originally named by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1877 from remains recovered north of Morrison, Colorado. . This is one of the species that was discovered during the Bone Wars. Its array of plates and spikes has been the subject of much speculation. The spikes were most likely used for defense, while the plates have also been proposed as a defensive mechanism, as well as having display and thermoregulatory functions.
Today’s Dinosaur News: Daisy Morris, the little girl who discovered a pterosaur and had it named after her, plus more more more!
Drawn with pen, coloured in Photoshop.
Used http://skywalker.cochise.edu/wellerr/students/pachyceph/project.htm as reference
(via fuckyeahdinoart)
‘T. Rex’ of the Seas Called First Top Killer
Newfound fossils of a giant dolphin-shaped reptilian predator are now shedding light on how the world recovered after the most devastating mass extinction in history, researchers say.
This prehistoric sea monster could provide information on how the planet might deal with the mass extinction humans are causing now, scientists added.
The giant marine predator was at least 28 feet (8.6 meters) long, fossils showed. The carnivore was recovered over a course of three weeks in 2008 from what is today a mountain range in central Nevada, and is now kept at the Field Museum in Chicago.
This new species, formally named Thalattoarchon saurophagis — which means “lizard-eating ruler of the sea” — was an early member of the ichthyosaurs, marine reptiles that evolved from land reptiles just as modern whales did from land mammals. Ichthyosaurs cruised the oceans for 160 million years, apparently going extinct about 90 million years ago, some 25 million years before the age of dinosaurs ended.
“They were the most highly adapted of all marine reptiles, acquiring a fishlike shape and giving birth to live young,” said researcher Martin Sander, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Bonn in Germany.
Thalattoarchon possessed a massive skull and jaws armed with large teeth with cutting edges used to seize and slice prey. The researchers say it probably could have tackled victims as large as itself or larger.
(via scientificillustration)
As if Draw a Dinosaur Day wasn’t reason enough to celebrate, Seattle’s Burke Museum is looking for people to help prepare fossils. Check it out at Slog.TheStranger.com