Dinosaur news

[delta]

i would pay that if i had the money to lol

[thetyrantlizard]

A very sad day here. There is supposedly amino acid evidence that tyrannosaurs are closely related to chickens I suppose I can start buying funeral plans now.

*Revives Papo rex* "There's some mistake! This is an insidious plot to smear my reputation!" he said before fainting again.

Edit: Now I am very angry. All these articles and experts are talking about how the bird-dinosaur link is now a theory, yet if you actually read the article, you will find out that not all the collagen amino acid sequences found are similar to those of chickens. Two of the seven in fact are more closely identified with the proteins of--frogs and newts. Only 3 proteins are attributable to chickens, while 2 are similar to those of different species including chickens and salamanders. So really there is just as much evidence that birds are dinosaurs as that dinosaurs are newts! Yet no one is saying bullfrogs are descended from tyrannosaurs! But why are they now saying birds are descended from dinosaurs from the same data?

Of course, given the bird-dino hysteria, only the chicken-rex connection is emphasized in the articles' title and the text and interviews. Most of the articles don't even mention the dinosaur-salamander protein connection.
In fact, you would have to look REALLY hard, like reading the fine print of a software licensing agreement, to find out that some of the proteins are more similar to those of amphibians than birds.

This just goes to show this is junk science, of people interpreting the evidence the way they want to and not the way the evidence stands, weak as it is--they found no actual unique tyrannosaur genetic markers.

By the way, the study was a collaborative effort, or should I say conspiracy, that included our dear Jack Horner.

*Sends Papo rex to eat paleontologists*

(As a side note: it thus turns out that using frog DNA to reconstruct the genome sequence of t-rex in Jurassic Park was actually scientifically correct after all ;D )

Edit: Just what I expected--google through the news releases about the dinosaur protein and the headline will make some reference to chickens. Buried way deep in the article is any mention that the proteins are also similar to those of newts. Typical media ignorance and gullibility and palaeontological inanity

[thetyrantlizard]

They found leg bones of titanosaurs in Australia that were just as huge as Argentinosaurus.

news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070503/sc_nm/australia_dinosaur_dc_2;_ylt=Agx_RRYiT9jphZsNC.beBxEiANEA

[thetyrantlizard]

A close cousin of dilophosaurus hunted fish and sharks for dinner. They found the dino, along with several species of fish and a new shark, in what was once a giant lake. There were also scrapings and claw marks clearly indicating the dinosaur waded into the water looking for the fish. The tooth wear is similar to that of spinosaurus and suchomimus.

It would actually make sense if the dilophosaurus and its relatives ate seafood. The unusual kink on its snout is usually found in animals that hunted fish.

[thetyrantlizard]

Papo rex is extraordinarily pleased today. A study just came out about the bite force of the tyrannosaurus. The strength of a rex's bite comes from its fused nasal bones, which are unique to tyrannosaurs. The scientist called it a 'zoological superweapon'. A medium sized tyrannosaur could easily outbite even a larger-headed carcharodontosaur (and never mind a spinosaurus, despite JP3 and Horner ). Tyrannosaur jaws at 200,000 newtons could lift a tractor trailer, and its neck muscles could throw a human 50 feet into the air in a split second.

www.livescience.com/animals/070518_dino_nose.html

Vivat rex!

[thetyrantlizard]

Lots of dinosaur and prehistoric news recently.

1. They found a primitive ornithischian dinosaur from the Triassic in South Africa in 1993. They just released a study of the remains, and it is a new dinosaur called Eocursor parvus. It has been compared to a roadrunner of its day.

2. They found a giant oviraptor as large as tyrannosaurus rex. Unfortunately, they are talking about its feathers -- although, as is usual, no feathers were found, they still insist it did have feathers. Anyway, the giant oviraptor is named Gigantoraptor.



Heh-heh, it appears they have a problem on their hands--if oviraptor was related to birds, then one would expect its relatives to become smaller and lighter so they could fly. But it turns out the opposite is true--oviraptors became bigger as time went by. Which can only mean they are not related to birds! But since the dino-bird paleos have to spread their bird-dinosaur propaganda, somehow they say that it is bird like (Imagine a 3000 pound bird. Yeah, right )

3. They found another late Triassic gliding reptile. It has been called Mecistrotrachelos. It had a long neck, so it is considered a relative of tanystropheus.

BREAKING NEWS EDIT UPDATE: Sinosauropteryx, the alleged fuzzy dinosaur from Liaoning, had no feathers at all--it was bald. The "feathers" (which actually look like filament-like hair structures that had no resemblance to feathers whatsoever) were collagen fibers found on the skin. So no feathered dinosaurs! YIPPEE!!!

news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/06/070601-dino-feathers.html

The usual dino-bird paleos are fuming of course, but this is not unexpected. Most ornithologists don't believe the "birds are dinosaurs" nonsense peddled in the media by attention-hogging palaeontologists (like Horner ). Any genuine scientist who has actually studied the matter, instead of palaeontological quacks merely appearing on 'documentaries' on the bird-dino link, knows full well there is NO scientific evidence--none whatsoever-- that birds are descended from dinosaurs. Unless one wants to believe that a 3000 pound oviraptor can be the ancestor of hummingbirds.

This is why palaeontology has such a dreadful reputation as a science. Paleontologists were the very last people to accept the fact that the dinosaurs were killed off by the asteroid that struck the earth 65 million years ago--even after the crater was found. They would prefer it had something to do with disease spreading. Imagine that--the tyrannosaurs died off from diarrhoea!

[Thorondor 33]

Interesting news, glad to see the dino-bird scientists were defeated again.

That big Oviraptor is awesome!

TTL, I used your Sinosauropteryx thing on the 'other site'. Hope you don't mind.

[thetyrantlizard]

Yet another nail in the coffin of the fuzzy dinosaur theory. Since it is assumed that dinosaurs are birds, some supposed paleontologists suggested that dinosaur hatchlings would be covered in down feathers for 'insulation'. Prehistoric Park even had ornithomimus chicks covered in feathers, like ugly ducks And the book "In the Presence of Dinosaurs" had a painting of a feathery parasaurolophus baby.

Well, a study of titanosaurus embryos concluded that they were covered by scaly bumps, which would have hardened into body armour to protect the titanosaur hatchling as it grew, like crocodiles.

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20038582/

[tomhet]

What's with the feathers? I mean, is it a fad or what? They're trying to put friggin feathers to everything! Science is sick since the media took control.

[thetyrantlizard]

Just about every theropod, and not just theropods, has been portrayed with feathers recently. There's one book that even had adult allosaurs with feathers , and another with a fuzzy dilophosaurus And every newly written children's book that feature velociraptor or deinonychus clads the raptors with lots of feathers. Of course there is no evidence whatsoever that any dromeosaur had feathers, but that has not stopped the supposedly enfant terrible paleontologists (and since they are now in their 50's and 60's and curators of museums the enfant terrible pose is wearing very thin) from insisting that since dinosaurs are birds, ergo dinosaurs had feathers

[tomhet]

The same thing happens with physics: somebody has an implausible but attractive theory (which cannot be proven) and then he becomes famous.

[thetyrantlizard]

Ack, physics was my worst subject (along with phys ed ;D ). I never understood string theory.

[tomhet]

Physics is tough, I had to do some extra studying, but in the end I liked it. What I really hate is chemistry.

The point is, now you don't have to be a great scientist to be succesful, you only have to propose something crazy and people will believe it.

[Thorondor 33]

I am going to get killed in chemistry this year.

[thetyrantlizard]

tomhet said:

The point is, now you don't have to be a great scientist to be succesful, you only have to propose something crazy and people will believe it.

I'm reading a book that in a few paragraphs refers to the relationship between scientists and the media and how new ideas are disseminated, and it wasn't flattering to the scientists. It has more to do with securing grant money than actually increasing knowledge.