Paleontology
Category archives for Paleontology
Dinosaurs Biting Other Dinosaurs In The Face
Posted by Greg Laden on April 13, 2015 
The number one rule of the Taphonomy Club is don’t talk about marks on bones … without placing them in context. Many marks on bones could have multiple causes, such as putative cut marks caused by stone tools on animal bones found on early hominid sites. In that case, hard sharp stony objects in the…
Bully for Brontosaurus
Posted by Greg Laden on April 8, 2015 
Much is being made of Brontosaurus. Brontosaurus is a genus name for a large dinosaur, known to watchers of “Land Before Time” as “Long-Necks.” That generic name dates to the 19th century, but in the early 20th century it was eliminated as a proper Linnaean term and replaced with Apatosaurus. This made us sad. Most…
Developing The Waco Mammoth Site
Posted by Greg Laden on April 7, 2015 
I got a press release about the Waco Mammoth Site that I thought I’d pass on to you: National Park Service Director Jarvis Participates in Public Meeting about Waco Mammoth Site WACO, TX – Today, National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis heard from the citizens of Waco regarding the community’s vision to preserve, protect…
Pterosaurs by Mark Witton
Posted by Greg Laden on September 15, 2014 
Pterosaurs: Natural History, Evolution, Anatomy by Mark P. Witton is a coffee-table size book rich in detail and lavishly illustrated. Witton is a pterosaur expert at the School of Earh and Environmental Sciences at the University of Portsmouth. He is famous for his illustrations and his work in popular media such as the film “Walking…
Giant Semiaquatic Predatory Dinosaur
Posted by Greg Laden on September 11, 2014 
It is called Spinosaurus aegyptiacus but it sounds a bit more like Godzilla. Spinosaurus is a theropod dinosaur (that’s the groups birds evolved within) found in what is now NOrth Africa, between about 112 and 97 million years ago. It was first discovered about one century ago, though those bones were destroyed during WW II.…
Titanic Fearless Dinosaur Unearthed
Posted by Greg Laden on September 5, 2014 
I’m sure you’ve heard. The most complete skeleton of a titanosaur, a newly named species, Dreadnoughtus schrani, is being reported from Argentina. It is not a bird. I mention that because we’ve been talking about how birds are dinosaurs lately (see:”Honey, I shrunk the dinosaurs” and “Flying Dinosaurs: A new book on the dinosaur bird…
Flying Dinosaurs: A New Book on the Dinosaur Bird Link
Posted by Greg Laden on September 3, 2014 
Flying Dinosaurs: How Fearsome Reptiles Became Birds by science writer John Pickrell is coming out in December. As you know I’ve written a lot about the bird-dinosaur thing (most recently, this: “Honey I Shrunk the Dinosaurs“) so of course this sounded very interesting to me. In a way, Pickrell’s book is a missing link, in…
The Amazing and Compelling Story of the Tethys Sea
Posted by Greg Laden on December 17, 2012 
I remember finding out about the Tethys Sea and being really excited. I was just beginning my studies of Old World prehistory, Africa, and Human Evolution. What I learned about was the remnant sea separating Africa and Eurasia called Tethys, though it is much more than that (see below). Imagine a Eurasia with no Alps,…
Greenhouse of the Dinosaurs
Posted by Greg Laden on November 28, 2012 
You all know Don Prothero. He is an active member of the Skeptics and Science Blogging community. He is the author of several books, one of which you are totally supposed to own and if you don’t it’s kinda lame: Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters. It occurred to me today that…
How to find dinosaurs!
Posted by Greg Laden on September 29, 2011 Study hard and get this guy’s job: I love that book, but when I was a kid they didn’t have dinosaurs yet.