New Dinosaur Found in China

While learning about fossils and dinosaurs in lecture, scientists in China have stumbled upon a new dinosaur fossil known as the Zhenyuanlong Suni. This newly discovered species is thought to be a relative of the infamous Velociraptor. Paleontologists refer to the two species as close cousins, as fossils show similar feathery layers and bird-like features. Their dense feathers and short wings are evidence that the species probably evolved from aviator ancestors. Although, scientists believe that their wings were vestigial and were used for display and intimidation. This is an interesting topic because it shines yet another light on the Summer blockbuster, Jurassic World. Both critics and scientists agree that the movie was wrong in the way they depicted the well-known creatures. Many believe that they chose to ignore the scientific facts in order to please the movie goers seeking a thrilling film. I agree that the movies had it wrong in the way they depicted the dinosaurs. Scientific evidence shows that many, if not most, dinosaurs had feathers and other different details that were not shown in the movies. 

This is what paleontologists believe the Zhenyuanlong Suni looked like.

Not Your Average Pterosaur

The fossil of a juvenile, late-Jurassic flying reptile has been ignored for the past decade because it appeared to be another of the estimated 120 specimens of the genus Rhamphorhynchus found at the Solnhofen limestone beds in Germany. The reptile is a Pterosaur, which is a flying reptile that resemble dinosaurs, but they are not. More in depth research was done by David Hone of the University of Bristol in England and his colleagues, which resulted in new information pertaining to the 14 centimeter flying reptile. They found that the reptile had fewer teeth and a more flexible tail than other Rhamphorhynchus species that it was once categorized with. Also, the reptile's outermost bone of each wing curves outward, different than any other flying vertabrate, alive or extinct. "The opposite curving wing bones could have made flying harder, but somewhat improved maneuverability for the small reptile", noted David Hone. The researchers are creating a genus called, Bellubrunnus, for this non-average flyer. The fossil pictured is under UV light, which makes it a lot easier to see because the fossil bones are the same color as the rock.
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/342172/description/Not_your_typical_pterosaur
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2012/jul/06/pterosaur-bellubrunnus-dinosaur-uv-light

North America's Biggest Dinosaur

The biggest North American dinosaur is called the Alamosaurs which is a long neck plant eater. At first researchers though that this long neck plant eater was 60 feet long and 30 tons. Except, another researcher found that the femur was not an adult femur and that it was still growing which means that the Alamosaurus was bigger than they thought. Its not easy for researchers to estimate the size of dinosaurs they have to overlap skeletal materials to indicate an estimated size. He Alamosaurus is in the league of Sauropods from South America, and the Argentinosaurus is included. The Argentinosaurus is the biggest dinosaur of all and weighs 70 tons. Now the United States is fighting for the Number one spot and the Alamosaurus is tone of the biggest dinosaurs and the biggest in North America .

Giant fossil ants linked to global warming

The Proceedings of the Royal Society B, a British scientific journal, published on May 4th that their study "Intercontinental dispersal of giant thermophilicants across the Arctic during early Eocene hyperthermals."

The fossil of the winged queen ant is about 50 million years old and lived in the Eacene Epoch.

Its body is is over 5 centimeters long, which is comparable to a humming bird. The ant lived in areas that had hot climates. The researchers also looked at the habitats of the largest modern ants and found that most live in the tropics. Which they believe indicates that in order for an ant to be that large it has to live in hot climates.

During the Eocene Epoch animals and plant species migrated between Europe and North America through the Artic lands. But in order for these ants to migrate through cold temperatures they believe that global warming occured in episodes around this time allowing for the giant ants to do so. They note that also this will help them understand the impacts of global warming on life.

article: http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-05-giant-fossil-ants-linked-global.html

I am a little grossed out that an ant could be that big and I still don't understand a lot about global warming. But this article made a lot of sense on the matter.

New Dinosaur Discovered: "Thunder Thighs"

A new type of dinosaur was recently discovered in Utah. The bones of the dino have been in a museum in Utah for about 10 years, but it was not until recently that paleontologists like Matt Wedel and Mike Taylor took a second look at the bones and unearthed their mystery. The bones belong to a new species of sauropod named Brontomerus mcintoshi, brontomerus literally meaning "thunder thighs" and mcintoshi after John "Jack" Mcintoshi, a world authority on sauropods. The bones belonged to two separate dinosaurs; a larger adult dino (6 tons, 14 meters in length, about the size of an elephant) and a smaller juvenile (200 kg, 4.5 meters, pony-sized) are thought to be a mother and her young. The special feature of this dinosaur is its unusually large hip bone, definitely much larger than that of any other sauropod. The enlarged hip bone protrudes forward, and it is suspected that this animal had very powerful leg muscles (hence the name "thunder thighs") that would have been used for defense against predators and for flattering the ladies ;-]

While the Brontomerus mcintoshi's unusual hip structure and abnormally large thigh muscles place it in the list of most extreme dinos, this discovery is significant for another reason. For the longest time, it was believed and accepted that sauropods were the most prosperous during the Jurassic Age, but died off during the Early Cretaceous Period. In the last 20 years however, new discoveries, including this one, place sauropods in the Early Cretaceous Period as a diverse and fruitful family. It is still believed, however, that they were much less abundant during the Early Cretaceous Period than they were during the Jurassic Age.

I found this new discovery interesting and honestly rather humorous because of the literal meaning of the dinosaur's name. I'm not really into paleontology that much, so I figured most dinosaurs had already been discovered and all were present and accounted for. To see that new dinos are being discovered even today, 110 million years after their existance, is pretty overwhelming. But like I said, the title "Thunder Thighs" is what really caught my eye.

Article found here!

Rotting fish

Could scientists be wrong about where some animals fall into the tree of life?  Some researchers in England think it is possible. They theorize that some primitive animals have been miss classified because of the way their fossils have been found. They believe that important information in missing because these animals are believed to only have soft tissue. They argue that that tissue could have decomposed long before a fossil could preserve the information.   To prove their theory they decided to study the decomposition on some fish with similar characteristics. 

No one was there 500 million years ago to say this is what happened, and without actual fossil records it will be difficult to prove. I think this is an interesting way of gathering information that might help to decode the fossils that did survive. 

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=early-vertebrate-evolution