Dinosaur Fish Doomed To Extinction

The Pallid Sturgeon is a fish that lives in the Missouri River, which flows from Montana to where the river empties in Mississippi River. These fish are considered "dinosaur fish" and have survived for millions of years. They have no teeth, no rib cage, and are covered in bony scales, yet have managed to survive longer than dinosaurs have.

However, due to the recent installation of dams along the river, their population has dwindled down to about 125 fish. The fish deposit eggs into the water, that must move along with the current. The dams, however, do not allow the eggs to continue on their travels and they get caught in reservoirs, that are filled with bacteria and don't allow the eggs to get oxygen. In turn, the eggs suffocate and eventually die. This has had a serious effect on the population of pallid sturgeons, which has been been very concerning. The only way to save these creatures is to change the dams into an pump irrigation system. This switch is anywhere from $80 to $138 million. With that cost the fate of these dinosaur fish is left up to the court. 

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.

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 .

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!

Color of Dinosaur Feathers Identified

A paper that was recently published in the magazine 'Nature', reports that for the first time, we can identify the color of some feathers on dinosaurs and early birds. This discovery has helped resolve a debate about the original function of feathers. The fact that the discovery was made on dinosaurs that existed before winged creatures roamed the earth acknowledges feather were not originally used assistance in flight. Also, the feathers were not in sufficient quantity and location on the dinosaurs to indicate that they would have been used for insulation purposes. This leads us to the conclusion that the original function of feathers was as a display feature. Melanosomes are color-bearing organelles, buried within the structure of the feathers, which have survived for hundreds of millions of years due to their rugged construction. These melanosomes are the key to the discovery of feather colors and patterns on these ancient creatures. This fantastic step forward in science has created a link in our understanding of nature that will allow us to discover the steps of the feather over its long evolutionary travel.

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