dinosaurs

Here’s a chicken wearing a prosthetic tail to walk like a dinosaur

You already know about the evolutionary areas of overlap between dinosaurs and modern-day birds. Now one group of researchers is using those similarities for science, by attaching a prosthetic tail to a chicken to study how dinosaurs might have walked. Top Image: A chicken wearing a prosthetic dinosaur tail / via video at PLOS ONE…

Feathered dinosaur death site could be an “animal Pompeii”

A series of fossil discoveries in the 1990s changed our understanding of the lives of early birds and mammals, as well as the dinosaurs they shared an ecosystem with. All those discoveries had one thing in common: they came from a small region in northern China that preserved what is now called the Jehol Biota.…

Newly discovered titanosaur was one of the largest land animals ever

Introducing Yongjinglong datangi, a titanosaur that lumbered across the fields of China during the Early Cretaceous period some 100 million years ago. The specimen discovered, a juvenile not yet fully grown, measured nearly 60 feet in length, making it one of the largest species to ever walk the Earth. The image above illustrates an Alamosaurus,…

You can buy the Velociraptor Cage from Jurassic Park’s Opening Sequence!

Just think of the hours you can spend screaming “SHOOT HER! SHOOOOOT HER” from inside your very own, authentic Jurassic Park Velociraptor Cage Crate. The Mobile RV Lab from The Lost World is also available — but playing “Julianne Moore, what were you thinking?” is way less fun. For a mere $99,900.10 you can purchase…

This “Tactical Raptor” is pretty badass, even without feathers

The only thing more terrifying that a raptor tearing through your office building is a raptor tearing through your office building while outfitted in next-generation military tactical gear. (Because lord knows dual scythe-like killing claws aren’t gonna cut it in the 21st century, amirite?) https://gizmodo.com/this-terrifying-raptor-chase-is-the-most-traumatic-pran-1210483692 https://gizmodo.com/recently-discovered-species-of-raptor-validates-the-fea-5841542 Via the outfitters at Blue Force Gear, whose “Tactical…

Dinosaurs face new challenges in these beautiful watercolors

Morgan O’Brien‘s water color and coloring pencil dinosaur pieces are not only gorgeous, they show the beasts in interesting confrontations. There are whole stories to be read into each one. Some of the pieces show dinosaurs faced with dilemmas that are easy to imagine them actually having: waiting for eggs to hatch, dealing with young,…

How did dinosaurs fight? Brian Switek explains over at National Geographic, highlighting work by researchers who are recreating dinosaur battles — with science! No, Dinobots are not involved.

How Many Humans Would a T-Rex Need to Eat Every Day to Survive?

If Jurassic Park taught us anything, it’s that humans are easy prey for T-Rex. But just how many human beings would such a dino need to chow down on every day just to survive? Some math by Randall Munroe reveals that it’s not as many as you might think. Tyrannosaurus rex weighed about as much…

Playful ceramic sculptures look like inflatable toy dinosaurs

Brett Kern‘s sculptures look like vinyl balloon dinosaurs at first glance, but they are actually ceramic, the ridges and appearance of inflated tension all deliberately put in. In his artist’s statement, Kern likens the mold-making process for his ceramic casts to the fossilization process: Objects are covered in a material that captures their shape and…

Great Movies About Prehistoric Animals, Rated for Scientific Accuracy

What does the Pachyrhinosaurus say? That was the question the writers behind Walking With Dinosaurs 3D asked themselves, and they figured that the ornately-decorated ceratopsids would have been constantly spewing poop jokes. The critical response has been unanimous: it’d be more fun to walk with dinosaurs if they would just shut the hell up. But…

Dinosaurs could be brought back by ‘de-evolving’ birds

It’s looking extremely unlikely that we’ll ever be able to revive dinosaurs using their fossilized DNA, but if a British biochemist is right, we may be able to recreate these ancient animals by rewinding the DNA of birds. https://gizmodo.com/new-study-proves-jurassic-park-could-never-happen-5950612 https://gizmodo.com/dinosaur-dna-cannot-be-extracted-from-amber-1309607565 In a recent Telegraph article, Oxford University’s Dr. Alison Woollard explained that, by identifying and…

Several Random Things You Didn’t Know About Walking With Dinosaurs 3D

They took an educational BBC series about dinosaurs and turned it into a goofy kids’ movie. To be honest, I expected Walking With Dinosaurs to be a lot worse than it actually was. The actual movie is lovely to look at, but dumb as bricks. And full of surprises — including Saved by the Bell-style…

Nathan Myhrvold: Patent Troll, Molecular Gastronomist… Dino Expert?

Nathan Myhrvold, the former Microsoft exec who has since become (in)famous in patent litigation and a bit more positively regarded in the field of molecular gastronomy, is now flexing his muscles over dinosaur research. Studies on dinosaur growth by top paleontologists contain “serious errors,” he contends in a new paper published in PLoS ONE. https://gizmodo.com/how-nathan-myhrvold-and-intellectual-ventures-would-cha-5623996…

Real life Jurassic Park exists in Australia and everyone needs to go

We’re going to Australia, everybody. You, me, your mother, my neighbor, your dog, the guy on the subway, the girl in the book store, everybody. Why? Because they’ve built the closest thing to a real life Jurassic Park there. Called Palmersaurus Dinosaur Park, it’s home to 160 animatronic dinosaurs that move, blink, roar and just…

Forget feathers — this dinosaur had a rooster’s comb on its head

When scientists discovered that some dinosaurs had feathers, it completely changed our perception of what the ancient animals looked like — and pissed a lot of people off. Now, in another twist, researchers have found that the duck-billed dinosaur Edmontosaurus regalis had a fleshy crest similar to a rooster’s comb. https://gizmodo.com/dinosaur-feathers-discovered-in-canadian-amber-5840854 The Duck-Billed Dinosaurs The…

How The AMNH Is Using 3D Printing To Copy Dinosaur Bones

You’re a high school science teacher and your class is learning about dinosaurs. You can’t exactly run to the local dino bone barn and buy some bargain bones for them to see first-hand. But what if you had access to a 3D printer? Enter the American Museum of Natural History’s education department, which is experimenting…

Latest Walking with Dinosaurs Trailer Ruins Entire Movie

We’ve praised the astounding beauty of Fox’s upcoming Walking with Dinosaurs feature. Alas, it was not meant to be, for the latest trailer has added a truly heinous voiceover for each prehistoric creature. It’s really, really terrible. We long suspected voiceovers in this feature, but this… this is too much. Why does the bird have…

This exquisite fossil of a baby dino is absolutely heartbreaking

Paleontologists working in Alberta have unearthed a nearly complete fossilized skeleton of a tiny rhinoceros-like dinosaur. The little guy was only about 3-years-old when it died — and its pristine condition is providing scientists with important clues as to how it met such an untimely death. The toddler belonged to a species known as Chasmosaurus…

Ancient Bones and Millionaires: Dinosaurs For Sale in Manhattan

The New York City branch of Bonhams auction house hosted an eye-popping and widely hyped dinosaur auction in the city yesterday afternoon. At the center were the so-called “Montana Dueling Dinosaurs,” a huge, combined fossil of two nearly-complete dinosaur skeletons apparently caught fighting to the death, valued as high as $9 million dollars. While the…

A Lightup Stegosaurus Is Just What Your Lawn Nativity Scene Needed

When you’re trying to one-up your neighbor’s holiday decor, an authentic nativity scene on your front lawn is the least of your priorities. You want decorations that will have people driving for miles to see your home. Besides, who’s to say there wasn’t a glowing animated stegosaurus outside the stable that night in Bethlehem? This…