One of the most striking examples of evolutionary transition in all biology history is the evolution of modern birds. Their group of land vertebrates is the most diverse on Earth, with more than 10,000 extant species worldwide (Brusatte et al. 2015). This evolutionary transition from an animal very much alike Tyrannosaurus rex, date back to …
Carnivorous dinosaurs were thought to have ferocious bites that are unimaginable compared to the animals we see today. However, new research suggests that the bite force of some of these meat eaters was not as threatening as we might perceive. In addition, the formation of their teeth also made the “puncture and pull” method more …
An asteroid may have hit the planet and caused the mass extinction of the dinosaurs, but what happened to Earth before then? As it turns out, a previous mass extinction may have paved the way for the dinosaurs. Recently, researchers took a look at all of the tetrapod tracks published over the past few decades. …
We know that dinosaurs preyed on one another when they roamed the planet, but we haven’t always had strong evidence of how the food chain may have worked millions of years ago. Now, one dinosaur “bite” is helping researchers gain a glimpse into what it might have been like to live in a “Dog Eat …
Could amber hold the key – or tick – to determining how feathered dinosaurs once lived? A new discovery is pushing the boundaries of what we already know. Recently, scientists came across a form of ancient Burmese amber specimens that had been originally purchased online by private collectors (Peñalver et al., 2017). One of the …
What if an asteroid hadn’t wiped out the dinosaurs and they still walked the Earth? According to a new study, the asteroid that took out some of the world’s most magnificent creatures was just shy of leaving a few of them alive. The space rock that hit Earth about 66 million years ago was approximately …
Was the world’s largest dinosaur finally unearthed last year? One paper that was just published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. claims that this may be the case. (Phillips, 2017) According to a new report, the Patagotitan might be the largest dinosaur to have ever walked the earth. The name, which was just given …
Dinosaurs were some of the most menacing creatures to ever walk the planet, but what about crocodiles? Believe it or not, there was once a fearsome crocodile-like animal that roamed the Earth and struck fear into the hearts of dinosaurs. The Razanandrongobe sakalavae, or Razana for short, lived during the Middle Jurassic period in Madagascar. …
When archaeologists stumble upon a new dinosaur fossil, they never know what they’ll turn up. In some cases, they are fragmented remains that are difficult to analyze. In other instances, the fossils are in impeccable condition. Needless to say, researchers always hope for the best, and that’s exactly what they recently found in Montana. (Arbour & …
Although it might feel like every dinosaur that ever walked the planet has been discovered, we’re still turning up new fossils in the year 2017. Scientists have announced the discovery of a new dinosaur that may have been the “smaller African contemporary” of the North American Tyrannosaurus Rex. It has been named Chenanisaurus barbaricus, and …