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Post by thetyrantlizard on Jan 14, 2008 0:52:44 GMT -5
Arrgh, the 'insects caused the demise of the dinosaurs' nonsense is the featured story on Yahoo US  |
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Post by thetyrantlizard on Jan 14, 2008 1:39:58 GMT -5
From the "why-is-this-considered-news" department--paleontologists have described Baryonyx as a fish eater that ate like a gharial. Haven't we known this for 20 years? Did they have to CT-scan the skull to tell us the obvious?
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Post by richard on Jan 16, 2008 19:00:31 GMT -5
well, yeah obviously, but these are good news since with this technology paleontoligist can give us much more information about dinosaurs and their life. And besides, they can scan the dromaerosaurus fossils and prove they didn't have feathers
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Post by thetyrantlizard on Jan 20, 2008 4:37:58 GMT -5
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Post by thetyrantlizard on Jan 23, 2008 16:59:43 GMT -5
Researchers have determined that the platypus lineage actually dates back to the Cretaceous. Amazingly they somehow survived the K-T boundary.
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Post by Señor Pilty on Feb 27, 2008 5:19:22 GMT -5
Piltdown Chickenraptor on PBS alert!   NOVA had a feature on microraptor, the alleged 'four-winged' [sic] 'dinosaur' [sic]. It was so hilarious, albeit unintentionally so--first, two sets of scientists created 'real-life' models of the microraptor--and the world's greatest anatomists, ornithologists, artistic reconstructionists, and palaeontologists [Xu Xing, Mark Norell, Larry Martin, Julia Clarke, Jacques Gauthier, Ken Dial, et al] couldn't even agree on something so basic as to whether the microraptor could or could not splay its legs like crocodilians, or whether they were held straight under the body like birds! Then, given the pro-dino-bird bias of the show, the producers chose the "microraptor as dinosaur" model and sent it through a wind tunnel, with the alleged 'feathers' on its hindlegs. Well, guess what, in almost EVERY scenario they put the 'bird' through, microraptor COULD NOT FLY OR GLIDE at all. The only posture that worked was a scenario in which microraptor folded its hindwings {oh, so sick} to form a "canopy" ?!  over the tail--I couldn't make this up even if I wanted to! Of course, they found out it could fly in that position, but it couldn't land--so apparently during landing the microraptor had to bring down its legs and re-position its feathers like a biplane (it couldn't fly like a biplane, but it had to land like one?!) Of course, this lack of conclusive proof of microraptor "flight" [sic] didn't stop the show's producers from featuring several sequences of a purported microraptor easily gliding from treetops (though the CGI was so dreadful, it looked as if someone shot the microraptor and it fell from the tree ;D ) This program, far from convincing me that microraptor was either a four-winged bird or a feathered dinosaur, has confirmed me in my belief that the four-winged microraptor is a hoax, perpetrated by someone with excellent practice in traditional Chinese calligraphy. So my screen ID still stands  ;D |
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Post by Señor Pilty on Feb 27, 2008 20:33:23 GMT -5
Norwegian scientists have confirmed that the "Monster" pliosaurus found in an Arctic island a few years ago is the biggest pliosaur/marine reptile ever discovered--approximately 20% larger than Kronosaurus. No official name yet though  Apparently its jaws were large enough to bite my car in half Here's a painting giving a sense of scale to the Monster. Not as big as a blue whale yet though  Stupid mammalian krill eaters  |
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Post by richard on Feb 27, 2008 22:08:30 GMT -5
Norwegian scientists have confirmed that the "Monster" pliosaurus found in an Arctic island a few years ago is the biggest pliosaur/marine reptile ever discovered--approximately 20% larger than Kronosaurus. No official name yet though Apparently its jaws were large enough to bite my car in half Here's a painting giving a sense of scale to the Monster. Not as big as a blue whale yet though Stupid mammalian krill eaters and liopleurodon?? |
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Post by Señor Pilty on Mar 2, 2008 0:03:51 GMT -5
Liopleurodon is alas not as large as the producers of Chased by Sea Monsters made him out to be |
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Post by Señor Pilty on Mar 2, 2008 0:06:27 GMT -5
It has been discovered that the fastest evolving animal on Earth, at least on the level of DNA, is--the tuatara. Apparently rapid changes in the molecules of DNA don't necessarily result in changes in the morphology or body plan. |
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Post by richard on Mar 17, 2008 14:52:53 GMT -5
Liopleurodon is alas not as large as the producers of Chased by Sea Monsters made him out to be nooo! nooooooooo! |
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Post by richard on Mar 17, 2008 14:56:29 GMT -5
I'll tpye later a new I saw on the newspaper, but I really didnot understand, not because of being and idiot but yes because it said something about 60 years. If they forgot the million, it is still impossible because hadrosaurus and all dinosaurs were killed 5 million years before But I need to translate, so, later |
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Post by Señor Pilty on Mar 30, 2008 23:05:12 GMT -5
Horner was wrong after all about pachycephalosaurs (surprise!  ) Pachys DID butt heads: www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,342911,00.html |
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Post by Señor Pilty on Mar 30, 2008 23:29:18 GMT -5
The dinosaur 'mummies' Dakota and Leonardo both indicate that the forelimbs were not able to support the weight of the body. So all those "modern" interpretations of hadrosaurs galloping on all fours are wrong--it turns out the traditional biped stance for duckbills was correct after all.
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Post by Señor Pilty on Apr 1, 2008 5:35:03 GMT -5
Tidbits from the last issue of PT that I didn't mention because of the incessant Papo bashing in the magazine: 1. Some species once assigned to Apatosaurus are sufficiently different from each other for two species to be returned to Brontosaurus (louisae and excelsus). So Brontosaurus is a valid genus--I'm not just a fuddy-duddy after all ;D 2. Tyrannosaurus rex's proper taxonomic name is Manospondylus gigas. (This has been my second independent confirmaton) Let's see what happens to the person who decides to enforce that rule ;D More when I feel better |
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NOVA had a feature on microraptor, the alleged 'four-winged' [sic] 'dinosaur' [sic]. It was so hilarious, albeit unintentionally so--first, two sets of scientists created 'real-life' models of the microraptor--and the world's greatest anatomists, ornithologists, artistic reconstructionists, and palaeontologists [Xu Xing, Mark Norell, Larry Martin, Julia Clarke, Jacques Gauthier, Ken Dial, et al] couldn't even agree on something so basic as to whether the microraptor could or could not splay its legs like crocodilians, or whether they were held straight under the body like birds!
over the tail--I couldn't make this up even if I wanted to! Of course, they found out it could fly in that position, but it couldn't land--so apparently during landing the microraptor had to bring down its legs and re-position its feathers like a biplane (it couldn't fly like a biplane, but it had to land like one?!) Of course, this lack of conclusive proof of microraptor "flight" [sic] didn't stop the show's producers from featuring several sequences of a purported microraptor easily gliding from treetops (though the CGI was so dreadful, it looked as if someone shot the microraptor and it fell from the tree ;D )
;D
Apparently its jaws were large enough to bite my car in half 
Stupid mammalian krill eaters 
) Pachys DID butt heads: