Amazing Number of Dinosaur Footprints Discovered in Utah

Amazing Concentration of Prehistoric Animal Tracks Discovered

The use of all terrain vehicles (ATVs) in the countryside can be a thorny issue. There are the drivers and enthusiasts who love the thrill of pitching themselves and their machines against what Mother Nature has to offer, whilst on the other side there are those folk who consider them to be noisy, intrusive beasts; leaving a trail of destruction wherever they go. Certainly, in parts of Southern England, such as the historic, ancient Ridgeway track on the South Downs; such vehicles have damaged the countryside, but in America, a popular off-roading area has provided scientists with a fascinating glimpse of life from the early Jurassic.

A Lucky Find of Prehistoric Footprints

Mummified Hadrosaur Remains - Unlocks Duck-Billed Dinosaur Secrets

Amazing Duck-Billed Dinosaur From Dakota A Mummified Fossil

Dinosaur bones are rare, well-preserved ones are exceptionally rare and for some palaeontologists the discovery of fossilised bones in association with each other or bones in articulation are the find of a life-time. However, for one young, American scientist, Tyler Lyson, his discovery of a remarkably well-preserved duck-billed dinosaur, complete with fossilised skin, ligaments and tendons is a discovery to beat most other discoveries.

Lucky Find by PhD Student in Dakota Badlands

Tyler, who is currently completing his Doctorate in Palaeontology at Yale University, found the amazing fossil whilst on a fossil hunting expedition in a remote part of North Dakota.

The Strangest Dinosaurs of All - The Therizinosaurs

The Most Bizarre of All the Dinosauria - "Scythe Lizards"

Looking back over various text books, journals and papers from the 1960s, 70s and 80s you can get an impression of how our knowledge of dinosaurs has changed over time. New fossils and new techniques used to study existing specimens have yielded much more data, whhch when interpreted has provided palaeontologists with a great deal of information about these prehistoric animals. However, the Mesozoic fossil record is still full of surprises and the emergence of the Therizinosaurs, this bizarre group of meat-eaters turned plant-eaters illustrates this point nicely.

A Dinosaur Designed by a Committee?

Evidence of Dinosaurs Hunting in Packs

Chinese Fossilised Track Ways Provide Evidence of Dinosaur Pack Hunting

For many years scientists have speculated that the speedy, carnivorous raptors (more appropriately termed Dromaeosaurs), such as Velociraptor and Deinonychus were pack hunters. Movies such as "Jurassic Park" popularised theories about these animals, making them out to be vicious, ruthless, yet intelligent killers.

Hollywood's depiction of these swift hunters stretched the truth to say the least, the likes of Velociraptor became a man-sized predator when in truth it stood about one metre tall. Even the sickle-shaped foot claw on the second toe was blown out of proportion to some extent.

Why Did Baby Diplodocus Dinosaurs Have a Short Neck?

The Joys of Working with Baby Dinosaurs

Ask any young dinosaur fan to draw a Diplodocus, an Apatosaurus and even a Brachiosaurus and they will most likely produce a picture of a big animal with a large body, a long tail and of course a very long neck, just the way these animals are depicted in books, CDs and television programmes. These dinosaurs, known as Sauropods, are also commonly called long-necked dinosaurs as one of their distinguishing features is of course their elongated, muscular necks.

Baby Dinosaurs Looked Very Different

However, when it comes to working on a museum exhibits that depict a baby Diplodocus, our thoughts about the typical long-necked dinosaur shape have to be discarded.

Duck-Billed Platypus Lived Alongside Duck-Billed Dinosaurs

The Duck-Billed Platypus - One of the Oldest Type of Mammals

The Platypus is a bizarre looking Australian mammal, one of the few monotremes left in the world - a mammal that lays eggs. When this strange-looking creature, which can grow up to 50 centimetres long, was first studied by western scientists they thought the bill had been glued or sewn into place, few could believe that this animal was real and many dismissed drawings as total folly or an elaborate hoax. However, this highly specialised freshwater mammal rather than being an oddity might just have remained unchanged for 120 million years. This would make the humble Platypus one of the oldest kinds of mammal on the planet, with its origins now traced back to the middle of the Cretaceous. Animals similar to the duck-billed platypus and ancestral to the species now found in Australia may have shared their environment with dinosaurs, ironically even duck-billed dinosaurs.

Trying to Trace the Dinosaur Family Tree

Assessing Taxonomic Relationships Amongst the Dinosauria

Trying to organise Dinosauria into clades or family groups has kept many palaeontologists burning the midnight oil. Unfortunately, unlike extant animals; when it comes to organising the family tree of extinct animals such as dinosaurs, a new fossil find, or some new research into existing specimens can throw everything into confusion.

What were once accepted relationships are often questioned and new fossils provide tantalising glimpses into the true nature of the relationship between different types of prehistoric animal.

Two Great Groups Classified

More Prehistoric Turtle Remains From a Columbian Coal Mine

Giant Turtle with a Rounded Shell - Reptiles Ruled When Dinosaurs Died Out

Palaeontologists and field workers have been marvelling at the latest discovery of huge reptile fossils from Columbia's Cerrejon coal mine. After the dinosaurs died out, there were many gaps in ecosystems, these were rapidly filled by animals that had survived the Cretaceous mass extinction event that saw the demise of the Dinosauria. In the geological time period that followed the Cretaceous, known as the Palaeogene, global temperatures soared and planet Earth became a paradise for those reptile genera that survived.

Sixty Million Year Old Giant Turtle

The research team have uncovered the carapace of another enormous freshwater turtle from the coal mine.

Why Did Spinosaurus Have a Sail on Its Back?

Theories on Spinosaurus - The Sail-Backed Dinosaur

Spinosaurus was one of the most spectacular looking meat-eating dinosaurs. Like most of the big carnivores, fossils of this bizarre animal are extremely rare. As animals move up the food chain, their numbers become smaller and they make up an ever decreasing proportion of the ecosystem, which means it is less likely for any of them to be preserved as fossils. For example, scientists in Canada and the western United States can conduct studies on duck-billed dinosaurs (herbivores) that involve hundreds of skeletons, yet in contrast there are only about 30 known fossils of Tyrannosaurus rex.

Spinosaurus is even less well-known, this is because a number factors have conspired to leave us with little fossil evidence of this dinosaur.