DINOFEST 2000
I was able to spend some time helping to set up and to work the exhibit at Navy Pier in December and January. I hope that some of you were able to get there to visit the vast display of dinos and other beasts. The bad weather was very unfortunate and held back attendance, but it was well worth the trip. There were many T rexes there to compare to SUE (including a cast of an unprepared SUE from the Black Hills Institute). One display had STAN and the Montana Wankel T rexes chasing a poor doomed Struthimimus! Of course, there were very few real bones there, but the casts and models were very good. The animatronics were somewhat dated, but I am told that there are newer ones coming out of Japan that will make future displays even better. Paul Sereno had his dinos there which included Jobaria, Afrovenator, and Deltadromeus (Suchomimus is still at the Children’s Museum at the other end of Navy Pier). The largest model of a dinosaur is Seismosaurus at 132 feet! It was very impressive!! The fossils from a Museum in China were amazing. There were piles of slabs with terrific insects and plants as well as feathered dinosaurs (mostly, Confuciusornis sanctus). Unfortunately, some of the fossils were not labeled and some looked like they had been pieced together. I do have photos for anyone who could not attend and who would like to see them.
New Carnosaur from Japan
Philip Currie and Voichi Azuma report a new carnosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of Japan in the Canadian Journal of Earth Science. It is named Fukuiraptor kitadaniensis after the Fukui Prefecture and the Kitadani quarry where it was found. It is a basal allosaurid with large hands armed with strongly curved claws. They also found parts of the skull, vertebral column, front limbs, and hind limbs. It is an immature specimen that would have been about 4.2 meters long.
New Chinese Bird
There is another Early Cretaceous Chinese bird named Protopteryx fengningensis that is about the size of a starling. They are dated at 125 MYA and have tail feathers that may give some clues to the origin of feathers. . This bird has 3 types of feathers, including the known downy feathers on head and body and flight feathers on the wings, and adds a new tail feather type. These appear to be long scale-like structures without barbs. There are two arguments about the origin; one says that the scales became elongate and then developed a central shaft and the other side says that small scales formed feather-like structure and then elongated. More early specimens are needed to verify feather development.
Life On Earth
A recent article in Science notes that the analysis of moon rocks show that it was heavily bombarded about 3.92-2.76 BYA (billion years ago). This infers that the Earth was also bombarded at the same time. This bombardment may have lasted as long as half a billion years. Because of plate tectonics, there are no remains from it on Earth. It is believed that life on Earth began 3.85 BYA. So did life come from the bombardment? Or did the bombardment bring heat and organic compounds to Earth to start life? Or did the bombardment kill life that was on Earth and set the stage for new life? (Note: It is believed that the Earth was hit hard about 4.5 BYA and that some of the resultant debris splashed off and formed our moon.)
In another study it was found that life on land might have happened 2.6 BYA. This is estimated from the study of carbon rich clays in eastern South Africa. Previous estimates of life on land were dated at 1.2 BYA. They found indications of mats of microbes one cm thick when alive on the surface of clay and then were buried by windblown material during the dry season.
From a Grain of Sand
I just noticed in the Chicago Tribune a story about a new discovery by a Geologist at the University of Wisconsin, John Valley. Believe it or not, he has analyzed the contents of a grain of sand which contains evidence of water and the continental crust, which he dates to 4.4 BYA (billion years ago). The stone which was crushed for this work was found in Western Australia in 1984. Zircon, which is very stable is the crystal being studied. The article in Nature refutes the current belief that the early Earth was a fiery mass with no water. Their study indicates that it may have been more mild with oceans and land masses like seen today. Could organisms have begun that long ago rather than 3.5 BYA as now believed? They used uranium-lead values to determine the age, ozygen isotopes to look for water, and rare earth elemental search to confirm land. It is interesting to note that this would make the theory about our moon’s formation from the article above impossible. The moon is believed to have formed 4.45 BYA after being splashed off the Earth. If that had happened, the Earth would have been too hot from the impact to have been able to form water by 4.4 BYA. It may be more likely that the moon formed from material circling the sun.
New Book
There is a new book out that is being received well. It is "The Scientific American book of Dinosaurs". It is a compilation of chapters by various experts in the field, including Tom Holtz,, Greg Paul, Michael Benton, George Olshevsky, David Norman, James Farlow, Phil Currie, Bob Bakker, and Walter Alvarez. I haven’t had a chance to read my copy yet, but it is said to be very up to date. It is considered to be a very good general reference on dinosaurs.
Karen Nordquist, ESCONI Paleontology Study Group
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Last Updated 01/21/08
Number Of Visitors Since 3/23/2005