nonaviannerd-blog reblogged
For the Shields and Spears art show: an albino Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai at sunset. Brooks Range, Cretaceous Alaska.
nonaviannerd-blog reblogged
The wounding tooth, Troödon (1856)
Phylum : Chordata Class : Reptilia Order : Saurischia Suborder : Theropoda Family : Troodontidae Genus : Troödon Species : T. formosus, T. inequalis, T. asiamericanus?
One of the last theropods to evolve and prosper before the K/T Extinction 65 million years ago, Troodon was unusually brainy by dinosaur standards: paleontologists think it may even have been as smart as small, primitive mammals like opossums (that may not sound like much of a compliment, but you have to remember that most dinosaurs of the Mesozoic Era, especially the plant-eaters, were about as bright as tree stumps). Troodon doubtless owed its advanced brain to its equally advanced predatory arsenal, which included a fast, bipedal gait, stereo vision, and probably a sharp sense of smell.
A relatively slender theropod closely related to the small, feathered dino-birds of the late Cretaceous period (most notably Saurornithoides), the human-sized Troodon lacked the brawn to match its brain—which may explain why it occasionally resorted to feeding on the eggs of other dinosaurs. As to its own reproductive habits, there’s voluminous evidence that Troodon cared for its own hatchlings after birth, a behavior shared by a few known species of hadrosaurs, or duck-billed dinosaurs (the most prominent examples being Maiasaura and Hypacrosaurus).
Troodon has been the subject of an amusing bit of speculation by paleontologist Dale Russell, who wondered if this dinosaur might have evolved advanced intelligence if it had managed to survive the K/T Extinction. Russell even created a model of an eerily human-looking “reptoid” derived from the Troodon lineage—sort of a snapshot of what Troodon might have evolved into if it had managed to live to the present day.
(More about Troödon)
nonaviannerd-blog reblogged
drawingdinosaurs
No-one with an interest in Mesozoic reptiles will have missed the week of controversy following Ibrahim et al.’s (2014) new reconstruction of Spinosaurus. The most important debate has focused on the allegedly reduced Spinosaurus hindlimbs, which are integral to the proposed locomotor and lifestyle hypotheses proposed for the ‘new look’ animal, but also difficult to reconcile with presented data. Scott Hartman, who’s no stranger to producing high-quality skeletal reconstructions, blew this whistle first when he found the reconstructed proportions of the Spinosaurus neotype specimen - a series of vertebrae and hindlimb elements - were questionably scaled against measurements of the bones themselves. Lead author of the Spinosaurus study, Nizar Ibrahim, publicly responded and suggested that the measuring landmarks Scott used in comparing vertebral and hindlimb elements may be wrong. When reviewing the controversy before the weekend, I attempted my own scaling effort, using Nizar’s suggested landmarks, but ended up replicating Scott’s results almost exactly. I concluded “[s]omething - the original measurements of the specimen or the reconstruction - just doesn’t add up, and I suspect the latter, as I figure someone would have owned up to and corrected simple numerical errors in the paper by now.” It turns out that I’ve got to eat a few of those words.
Tl;dr, Nizar Ibrahim and Simone Maganuco, two authors from the new Spinosaurus paper, have provided Mark Witton with an explanation to the hindlimb-scale controversy, which they have kindly allowed him to share publicly.
Stumpy-legged Spinosaurus looks to be genuine, folks.
nonaviannerd-blog reblogged
C’mon guys. Those are just cat paws with long nails.
nonaviannerd-blog reblogged
Ikrandraco avatar: look upon my chin, ye mighty, and despair!
nonaviannerd-blog reblogged
Three ornithischians
nonaviannerd-blog reblogged
Today, after weeks of rampant internet speculation the new-look Spinosaurus was revealed. And it certainly didn’t disappoint: the paper by Ibrahim et al. musters a range of evidence from bone density, bone isotope data, facial innervation, osteology, etc., to suggest that Spinosaurus not only was a fish-eater (i.e. piscivorous) but was adaptive to that lifestyle to a greater degree than other known spinosaurids. Not only do they claim that Spinosaurus spent most of its life swimming in the water with adaptations that would rival early whales, but Ibrahim et al. specifically claim that the altered limb proportions would require Spinosaurus to have been an obligate quadruped on land, a first for a theropod. Unfortunately, there seems to be something fishy with those new proportions…
nonaviannerd-blog reblogged
rhamphotheca
New findings out of Morocco reveal that Spinosaurus was the only known swimming Dinosaur… (read more: Science News/AAAS)
illustrations by Davide Bonadonna
nonaviannerd-blog reblogged
So, I made a mistake with the tail feathering of Jinfengopteryx, but here’s the correction. Luck nobody noticed, eh?
Source: johnconway.co
nonaviannerd-blog reblogged
KENTROSAURUS “Sharp point lizard”
Late Jurassic, 155-150 million years ago
Kentrosaurus had a small head and a tiny brain - about the size of a walnut. It made up for lack of smarts with a double row of fierce, protective spikes down its back. The plates near the neck may have been filled with blood vessels and served as temperature regulators. You may recognize a few marked similarities with its famous relative, Stegosaurus! Kentrosaurus saw nothing but their differences.
These are amazing, follow this blog.
nonaviannerd-blog reblogged
Available as T-Shirts & Hoodies, Stickers, and Tote Bags
Get 15% off any of my Redbubble stuff with the coupon code GET15, I don’t know how long this will last so act now!
nonaviannerd-blog reblogged
Commission; characters from the Dinoverse books.
nonaviannerd-blog reblogged
The gang’s all here (at the LA Natural History Museum)
Anyone who knows anything about Mesozoic dinosaurs will be – or certainly should be – familiar with the fact that our view of what these animals ...
Give this a read!
nonaviannerd-blog reblogged
deadly birbosaur