dinosaurs

Mammals Literally Came Out of the Dark Once the Dinos Were Gone

The first mammals emerged during the reign of the dinosaurs, adopting a nocturnal lifestyle to stay safe. It was only until the dinosaurs were wiped off the face of the planet that certain mammals began to assert themselves during the daylight hours, according to new research. New evidence published in Nature Ecology & Evolution suggests…

Tech News George Dvorsky

Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Basically Brought a Nuclear Winter, Says New Model

If and when the nuclear holocaust begins to bring down society as we know it, it’s not the initial blasts you should be worrying about. Carl Sagan and other scientists once hypothesized that dust blocking out the Sun could bring a nuclear winter. It probably happened before—to the dinosaurs. A team of scientists have dug…

Tech News Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Adorable Cretaceous-Era Dinosaur Sprouted Raccoon-Like Bandit’s Eyes

By analyzing the bones of a small, feathered dinosaur known as Sinosauropteryx, paleontologists have mapped its unique color patterning. Incredibly, this creature featured a bandit mask-like stripe across its eyes, similar to some mammals and birds living today. Sinosauropteryx (pronounced “Sine-oh-sore-op-tear-icks”) was first discovered in China in 1996, and it was the first dinosaur (outside…

Biology George Dvorsky

Some Very Lovely Giant Robots, and More of the Most Wonderful Toys of the Week

Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9’s round up of all the delightful toys hurtling around the internet demanding our attention this week. This time, everything is giant! (Except for the very tiny lightsaber remote!) But apart from that, if you want large robots, large dinosaurs, and large Jason Momoas, we’ve got the toys for you.…

io9 James Whitbrook

Some Vegetarian Dinosaurs Cheated By Snacking on Seafood

Large plant-eating dinosaurs are typically thought of as strict vegetarians, but an analysis of fossilized dino poop from the Cretaceous Period suggests some of these creatures also feasted on crustaceans. The study, published this week in Scientific Reports, suggests these occasional lapses in vegetarianism might have had something to do with dinosaur reproduction. “From what…

Tech News George Dvorsky

These Dinosaurs Had Colorful Eggs Just Like Birds

In the spring, you might find fragmented blue eggshells sitting on the sidewalk, a sign that baby robins hatched somewhere up above. Taking the same walk 66 million years ago, you may have found a giant version of those same blue eggs. Except a much larger, sillier-looking dinosaur was probably sitting nearby. There are a…

Biology Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Rare African Titanosaur Was Among the Smallest of the Giants

During the Cretaceous Era some 70 to 100 million years ago, long-necked sauropods ruled the Earth. But in Africa, not so much. The discovery of a previously-unknown species of titanosaur in Tanzania expands what we know about dinosaurs on this continent, while revealing the surprising degree to which these creatures were related to similar dinos…

Tech News George Dvorsky

A Jurassic Park T-Rex the Size of Your Torso, and More of the Most Amazing Toys This Week

Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9’s gathering of the most wonderful, and often most ludicrous, merchandise we’ve seen on the web this week. This time, we’ve got our best look yet at the new anime Godzilla, some very funky Star Wars and Star Trek coasters, and yes, a rather large T-Rex. Toynami Jurassic Park 1:5th-scale…

io9 James Whitbrook and Andrew Liszewski

One of the Most Puzzling Dinosaurs Ever Discovered Just Got a Major Rebrand

Paleontologists uncovered a strange new dinosaur a few years ago—a crazy, patchwork quilt of a creature dubbed Chilesaurus diegosuarezi. Its bizarre and often conflicting characteristics defied classification, forcing scientists to make an educated guess about its place on the dino family tree. New research suggests the initial attempt to classify Chilesaurus was wrong, and that…

Tech News George Dvorsky

Prehistoric Beast Evolved a Freaky-Ass Skull From Millions of Years of Head-Butting

If you have to smash your head all the time, you’d hope that your body had some mechanism to prevent your brain from rattling out. Knock that noggin around enough, and eventually (on evolutionary scales, that is), you might end up looking, well, very silly. But scientists really wanted to understand how and why an…

Tech News Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Mammalian Ancestors Went Airborne Earlier Than We Thought

The origin of flight remains a perplexing topic in the scientific community, as tends to be the case with any origin story. Flight probably evolved multiple times in different groups. Insects probably started flying over 300 million years ago, and pterosaurs, large flying reptiles, evolved 230 million years ago. Add gliding and the complex origins…

Tech News Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Newly Named Titanosaur Was the Largest Land Animal Our Planet Has Ever Seen

Four years after six specimens were discovered in Argentina, scientists have finally given a name to what is now considered the largest animal to ever have walked the Earth. Say hello to Patagotitan mayorum—a Cretaceous-era dinosaur that weighed an astonishing 152,000 pounds. Before we get into the details of the new study, published today in…

Tech News George Dvorsky

Incredibly Well-Preserved Fossil Changes Our Understanding of Armored Dinosaurs

On a fateful day in the Early Cretaceous, a large, four-legged armored dinosaur dropped dead on a beach in what is now modern day Alberta. The remains of this 18-foot-long beast drifted out to sea and eventually sank, where it became buried in a thick layer of mud. Over time, the dinosaur became petrified, its…

Tech News George Dvorsky

Clever 10-Year-Old Corrects Dinosaur Error at London’s Natural History Museum

Charlie is 10 years old and loves paleontology. According to his mom, he has Asperger syndrome, so when he likes something he will “try and find out everything about it.” Recently, he visited Britain’s Natural History Museum and schooled the curators on their dino-knowledge. https://gizmodo.com/this-newly-discovered-dinosaur-looks-just-like-a-modern-1797274767 Charlie was visiting the London museum with his family for…

Tech News Rhett Jones

This Newly-Discovered Dinosaur Looks Just Like a Modern Day Cassowary

As virtually every school-aged child knows, birds are descended from dinosaurs. But holy toledo, does this newly discovered oviratporid ever look like a modern cassowary—right from the dramatic crest atop its head through to its long neck and ostrich-like shape. The paleontologists who discovered the dino are now studying modern cassowaries to get a better…

Tech News George Dvorsky

T. Rex Couldn’t Sprint But It Could Still Move Faster Than You

Films like Jurassic Park have led us to believe that Tyrannosaurus rex was capable of chasing down its prey at full tilt. New research done with simulations suggest this dino was no sprinter, and that it couldn’t move any faster than a brisk walk. Well, a brisk walk for a nine ton carnivore. At a…

Tech News George Dvorsky

Birds Wasted No Time Taking Over the World Once the Dinosaurs Croaked

The fossilized remains of a tiny bird that lived 62 million years ago suggests that birds burst out of the evolutionary gates once their dinosaur cousins were gone, rapidly diversifying into most of the lineages we see today. Within four million years of the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction event (K-Pg)—a mere blink of the eye in…

Tech News George Dvorsky

How a Massive Asteroid Strike Helped Frogs Inherit the Earth

Frogs have been around for nearly 200 million years, but it wasn’t until a 10-mile-wide asteroid struck our planet, wiping out three-quarters of all life on Earth—including the dinosaurs—that these crafty amphibians were able to make their big evolutionary move, according to new research. A study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this…

Tech News George Dvorsky

Jurassic Park Is So Much More Unnerving When the Dinosaurs Are From That Godawful ’90s Sitcom

Yes. The genius illustrator Jen Lewis has taken the two pinnacles of dinosaur entertainment—Jurassic Park and that disturbing ‘90s sitcom about prehistoric suburban dino-puppets—and combined their DNA to create something both wonderful and terrifying. Life truly has found a way! You don’t have to know the old show to enjoy Lewis’ marvelous mash-ups, but just…

io9 Rob Bricken

Nightmarish Crocodile Relative Terrorized Dinosaurs in Prehistoric Madagascar

Roughly 165 million years ago during the mid-Jurassic, Madagascar is an alien place. The famously large island has yet to fully cleave itself tectonically from India and Africa, still crammed together with the rest of the southern supercontinent of Gondwana. Primates have yet to evolve, and flowers aren’t even a thing yet. This Madagascar is…

Tech News Jake Buehler

Mammals Literally Came Out of the Dark Once the Dinos Were Gone

Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Basically Brought a Nuclear Winter, Says New Model

Adorable Cretaceous-Era Dinosaur Sprouted Raccoon-Like Bandit’s Eyes

Some Very Lovely Giant Robots, and More of the Most Wonderful Toys of the Week

Some Vegetarian Dinosaurs Cheated By Snacking on Seafood

These Dinosaurs Had Colorful Eggs Just Like Birds

Rare African Titanosaur Was Among the Smallest of the Giants

A Jurassic Park T-Rex the Size of Your Torso, and More of the Most Amazing Toys This Week

One of the Most Puzzling Dinosaurs Ever Discovered Just Got a Major Rebrand

Prehistoric Beast Evolved a Freaky-Ass Skull From Millions of Years of Head-Butting

Mammalian Ancestors Went Airborne Earlier Than We Thought

Newly Named Titanosaur Was the Largest Land Animal Our Planet Has Ever Seen

Incredibly Well-Preserved Fossil Changes Our Understanding of Armored Dinosaurs

Clever 10-Year-Old Corrects Dinosaur Error at London’s Natural History Museum

This Newly-Discovered Dinosaur Looks Just Like a Modern Day Cassowary

T. Rex Couldn’t Sprint But It Could Still Move Faster Than You

Birds Wasted No Time Taking Over the World Once the Dinosaurs Croaked

How a Massive Asteroid Strike Helped Frogs Inherit the Earth

Jurassic Park Is So Much More Unnerving When the Dinosaurs Are From That Godawful ’90s Sitcom

Nightmarish Crocodile Relative Terrorized Dinosaurs in Prehistoric Madagascar

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