paris, avril 2011
Bryony Tidball brings us this fossilized dragon. Yet another example of how the real history of our planet is being hidden from view.
Why did the archeologist go bankrupt? Because his career was in ruins!
What do ancient fossils tell us about life on a hotter planet?
Archaeology pertains to piecing together the past, bit by bit, and attempting to complete the jigsaw. It is a very broad discipline that involves a variety of viewpoints with respect to interpretation of history, and also a number of specializations.
When her father died, leaving her lower-class family in debt, this indomitable woman worked tirelessly and became one of history's greatest fossil collectors.
When her father died, leaving her lower-class family in debt, this indomitable woman worked tirelessly and became one of history's greatest fossil collectors.
Carboniferous of Europe: a swampy palaeoenvironment with tree-like Lepidodendron (lycopsids) forming a dense forest. Also shown is the stem of a giant horsetail – calamites (the one growing at an odd angle). The winged insect climbing a horsetail (equisetum) is a primitive cockroach (Manoblatta sp). The flying insects are the large dragonflies (meganeura). At the top centre of the image is a Homoioptera with a pair of long tails. In the front of its wings, it has a pair of flap-like protonal paranota. Protonal paranota are not found today on winged insects and are probably remnants of the early evolution of insects' wings. Coming out of its burrow is a mesothelae spider. I was told that there is not much information available about these spiders, but they are most likely to have had a segmented body, and may have lived in burrows. There is an amphibian resting beyond the calamite trunk, at the base of a lepidodendron trunk.
The strange beauty of paleo art
INSPIRATIONAL WOMEN Mary Anning loved scouring the beach near her England home for shells and fossils. She fearlessly climbed over crumbling cliffs and rocky peaks, searching for new specimens. One day, something caught Mary's eye: Bones. Dinosaur Bones. Mary's discoveries rocked the world of science and helped create a brand-new field of study: paleontology. But many people believed women couldn't be scientists, so Mary wasn't given the credit she deserved. Nevertheless, Mary kept looking and learning more, making discoveries that reshaped scientific beliefs about the natural world. Educational backmatter includes a timeline of Mary Anning's life and lots of fantastic fossil facts. DETAILS Dinosaur Lady: The Daring Discoveries of Mary Anning, the First Paleontologist Written by Linda Skeers and Illustrated by Marta Álvarez Míguens. Published by Sourcebooks Explore, July 7, 2020. Ages 4 to 8 years 0.5" H x 10.2" L x 10.4" W (1.2 lbs) 40 pages Hardcover
When her father died, leaving her lower-class family in debt, this indomitable woman worked tirelessly and became one of history's greatest fossil collectors.
The Devonian is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic Era spanning from the end of the Silurian Period, about 419.2 Mya
“Sell the cookstove if necessary and come. You must see the Fair.” — Author Hamlin Garland in a letter to his parents Whether sparked by tales of ancestors who traveled to the great fair from s...
It Came From the 1970s! Originally published in Italy in 1971, Prehistoric Animals is part of the Privates Lives of Animals series, which ...
Diplodocus was a long-necked, long-tailed dinosaur that roamed western North America in the Jurassic Period. Its average length was 90 feet (27 meters).
Today we will be looking at one of the earliest dinosaurs. Enter Herrerasaurus ischigualastensis! Herrerasaurus lived in what is now Argentina, in South America, during the Triassic Period, roughly 231 million years ago. The largest specimen on record would have been about twenty feet long from snout to tail, but all adults may not have reached this size, possibly averaging out at around fifteen feet. When alive Herrerasaurus would have eaten meat. The genus name translates to "Herrera's Reptile", in honor of the goat herder who discovered the first bones of this dinosaur, Victorino Herrera. My Herrerasaurus ischigualastensis life reconstruction in watercolors. Herrerasaurus had a boxy profile to its skull, which was armed with a lower jaw that was able to flex back and fourth. This is an unusual adaptation for dinosaurs, but is common in many modern lizards, like monitors, to help manipulate large chunks of food to the back of the mouth to be swallowed. (lizards evolved this trait independently of Herrerasaurus, however.) Herrerasaurus was also armed with extremely long, dagger-like teeth, that curved towards the back of the mouth, implying it was a meat-eater in life. Cast of the first discovered Herrerasaurus skull on display at the Academy of Natural Science in Pennsylvania. Herrerasaurus had strong arms, each armed with three curved claws. It had proportionally short thighs, and long lower legs and feet, suggesting it was a fast runner in life. Its tail was not very flexible because of the bony structures in its vertebrae, which is also a characteristic of dinosaurs that were good runners, to aid in maneuverability. Herrerasaurus had a number of odd characteristics about its anatomy that have caused scientists to dispute over what kind of animal it really was. It walked in a fully erect posture, like all dinosaurs, but the socket where its femurs attached to its pelvis was not as open, or "window-like", as it is with later dinosaurs. It also only had two vertebrae over its hips, called sacral vertebrae, whereas most dinosaurs typically have three. Lastly the bone int its hip, called a pubis, was angled behind the body, which is typical in ornithischian dinosaurs, dromaeosaurs, and birds, the last two wouldn't evolve until millions of years after Herrerasaurus. Herrerasaurus mounted skeleton on display at the Field Museum in Chicago. Herrerasaurus is one of those fossil creatures that has gone through a few identity crises over the years since its discovery. Because it lived so early on in the Mesozoic, before dinosaurs started branching off into more diverse forms, it has proven tricky to place, genetically. At first, because of its teeth and long legs, it was classified as a very early theropod. However, some suggested it had more in common with early sauropodomorphs, like Plateosaurus. Some have suggested that Herrerasaurus, despite its meat-eating qualities, was actually closest to ornithischian dinosaurs, because of its backwards-facing pubis bone. It was even proposed to be not a dinosaur, at all, placed just outside the dinosaur family tree as something more basal to the group. However, as more and more fossils from the Triassic are being unearthed, the latest analysis of Herrerasaurus places it back as a dinosaur, almost at the very base of the dinosaur line, as a kind of very early saurischian dinosaur, related to theropods and sauropods. Further study may yet again change this! References Benedetto, J.L. (1973). "Herrerasauridae, nueva familia de saurisquios triasicos" (PDF). Ameghiniana. 10 (1): 89–102. Bittencourt, J.S.; Arcucci, A.B.; Marsicano, C.A.; Langer, M.C. (2014). "Osteology of the Middle Triassic archosaur Lewisuchus admixtus Romer (Chan~ares Formation, Argentina), its inclusivity, and relationships amongst early dinosauromorphs". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 0 (3): 1–31. Gauthier, J.A.; Nesbitt, S.J.; Schachner, E.R.; Bever, G.S.; Joyce, W.G. (2011). "The bipedal stem crocodilian Poposaurus gracilis: inferring function in fossils and innovation in archosaur locomotion" (PDF). Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History. 52 (1): 107–126. doi:10.3374/014.052.0102. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-09-24. Gilmore, Charles W. (1920). "Osteology of the carnivorous dinosauria in the United States National Museum, with special reference to the genera Antrodemus (Allosaurus) and Ceratosaurus". Bulletin of the United States National Museum. 110 (110): 1–159. Nesbitt, S. J.; Smith, N. D.; Irmis, R. B.; Turner, A. H.; Downs, A. & Norell, M. A. (2009). "A complete skeleton of a Late Triassic saurischian and the early evolution of dinosaurs". Science. 326 (5959): 1530–1533. Novas (1993). "New information on the systematics and postcranial skeleton of Herrerasaurus ischigualastensis (Theropoda: Herrerasauridae) from the Ischigualasto Formation (Upper Triassic) of Argentina". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 13: 400–423. Novas, F.E. (1994). "New information on the systematics and postcranial skeleton of Herrerasaurus ischigualastensis (Theropoda: Herrerasauridae) from the Ischigualasto Formation (Upper Triassic) of Argentina". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 34 (4): 400–423. Padian, K.; May, C.L. (1993). "The Earliest Dinosaurs". In Lucas, Spencer G.; Morales, M. The Nonmarine Triassic. New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science Bulletin. 3. pp. 379–381. Sereno, P.C.; Novas, F.E. (1993). "The skull and neck of the basal theropod Herrerasaurus ischigualastensis". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 13 (4): 451–476.
Human talent knows no bounds, and this holds true both for the people of the past and those in our current times, especially when it comes to crafting impressive structures. These range from small yet stunning creations like hand-carved coins bearing the faces of past rulers to large-scale structures as vast as the Colosseum's Basement in Rome.
Pteraspis was a Devonian heterostracan with a beak-like rostrum in front of its head and wing-like things sticking out of the two back sides...
Just how many different types of trilobites are there? You might be suprised at how many there are. Here is a list of 10 of the most common types of trilobites.
It Came From the 1970s! Originally published in Italy in 1971, Prehistoric Animals is part of the Privates Lives of Animals series, which ...
When speaking to Steve White not so long ago – in relation to his work on Dinosaurs! – he told me about a multi-volume dinosaur encyclopedia he’d also played a part in back in the…
For many years, this dinosaur, one of the largest land animals to roam the Earth, was mistakenly called Brontosaurus.
