Blog Archive
News Bite: Brontosaurus revived!
Brontosaurus was an extinct name for an extinct animal, but a new study brings the “Thunder Lizard” title roaring back to life! But how does a name get dropped, and how does it get brought back again? Follow us into the winding world of paleontology taxonomy, the study of names. In the 1870s two giant hip bones were found and named by one of the great paleontologists of the age: Othniel Marsh. He …
Filed under: Apatosaurus, Bone Wars, Brontosaurus, Characters, Dinosaurs, Diplodocidae, Diplodocus, Fossils, History, Jurassic, Marsh, Palaeontology, Paleontology, Phylogeny, Sauropods, Taxonomy
News Bite: Crazy croc diversity in the ancient Amazon!
In a study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Rodolfo Salas-Gismondi and other paleontontologists described the crocodiles from a gigantic wetland that predated the Amazon. Ten million years ago there was the giant Purussarus, the duck-billed Mourasuchus, the tube-snouted gharial-like croc, a coyote-like croc similar to Paleosuchus, and three new crocs with broad teeth perfect fo …
Filed under: Amazon, Cenozoic, Crocodiles, Ecology, Fossils, Miocene, New species, Paleontology, South America, Weird animals, evolution
Quick Bite: Clash of the Triassic Titans!
Under the canopy of an ancient fern forest near the border of Arizona and New Mexico a colossal crocodile-like reptile took a bite out of an even larger, toothy giant. The attack failed and the victim limped on to fight another day, until its carcass was finally pillaged by another scaly monster and smaller, pickier scavengers. Studying bones collected over a century ago, scientists are now able t …
Filed under: Carnivores, Comparative biology, Crocodiles, Food Web, Fossils, Mesozoic, New Mexico, Palaeontology, Paleoecology, Paleontology, Phytosaur, Rauisuchian, Reptiles, Triassic
Video: Iguanodon, History of a Dinosaur!
Iguanodon was discovered before the word “dinosaur” was invented and the story of Iguanodon research is the story of dinosaur research as paleontologists use new fossils to test old ideas about what the animal looked like and how it moved. Was it a lumbering quadruped? A springy kangaroo reptile? A little of both? Join us as we dive into the history of paleontology and the history of Iguanodon, th …
Filed under: Cretaceous, Crystal Palace, Dinosaurs, Dollo, Europe, Feathered, Feathers, Fossils, Functional Morphology, Gideon Mantell, Herbivore, History of Science, Iguanodon, Locomotion, Maiasaura, Mantellisaurus, North America, Ornithiscian, Paleontology, Tyrannosaurus, Velociraptor, Victorian, dinosaur
Episode 14 Field Guide: The Art of Dinosaurs
Conjuring up extinct environments, museums, books, and documentaries rely on art to show extinct animals revitalized in their ancient surroundings: the art of dinosaurs! This type of educational reconstruction is called Paleoart (or Palaeoart for the UK inclined). They are usually striking portraits of the weird place this planet used to be. But, you look at an image of a roaming Tyrannosaurus rex …
Filed under: Art, Behavior, Biology, Cretaceous, Dinosaurs, Ecology, Field Guide, Fossils, Geology, Julius Csotonyi, Mesozoic, Paleoart, Paleobotany, Paleoenvironment, Paleontology, Professions in Paleontology, Reconstruction, Tyrannosaurus
Arctic Alligators!
After an exciting summer looking for fossils in Wyoming and New Mexico, Matt and Adam are back in action with a Past Time Video! Adam is pretty excited about a study based on fossils from the far northwest of Canada, but Matt thinks Adam is losing his touch and is a little too excited about a handful of scrappy fossils. It turns out the scraps are key to unraveling the complicated history of allig …
Filed under: Alligators, Arctic, Bering Land Bridge, Beringia, Biogeography, Bowfin, Canada, Crocodiles, Eocene, Fish, Fossils, Gar, Mammoth, Northwest Territories, Paleobotany, Paleogene, Paleontology, Pike, Pleistocene, Pollen
