A Pterosaur with a 60 Foot Wingspan!?
We know that some pterosaurs grew to be very big, but now footprints and bones in Mexico have been found in Germany that extrapolates to an animal with a possible 60 foot wingspan. It is reported by Dr. Dave Martill in England with Dr. Eberhard Frey of Germany. They also have finger bones that indicate that it was a very elegant flyer. The samples of the very thin wing were about half a millimeter thick. Its 3 meter long neck and 2 meter long skull might have allowed it to pick prey from the sea rather easily as it glided on wind currents. The wing is locked onto the lower body rather than the upper body, giving it greater surface area. They think it may have gotten so big because it just kept growing all during its life. (Yahoo News)
Huge Crocodile Found in Peru
This new fossil weighed 9 tons with its 1.3 meter (4.3 ft) long skull when it lived in Peru deep in the Amazon jungle. Rodolpho Salas of the Natural History Museum of Peru reports that this indicates that there was an inland sea that may have connected to the Caribbean. They have found other reptiles and armadillos nearby. It is believed that 15 MYA the South American and Nazca plates collided, raising the Andes and creating an inland sea when the Amazon River was blocked. I’m sure that there will be more information on this critter later. (theage website)
New Book – “Thunder Lizards, The Sauropodomorph Dinosaurs”
This book has 21 chapters by sauropod experts in 4 categories; sauropods old & new, juveniles and adult specimens and ontogenetic variation within species, morphology and biomechanics and biogeography. It includes 2 chapters on the controversial neck postures. It is edited by Virginia Tidwell and Ken Carpenter and has just been published by Indiana University Press.
New Book – “Dinosaur Provincial Park’
This volume is part of the celebration of 50 years of research in the Canadian park where Phil Currie (and co-editor and wife Eva Koppelhus) has worked until this fall. It is subtitled “:A Spectacular Ancient Ecosystem Revealed” and has 28 chapters by a variety of researchers covering everything from geology, fauna and flora, including specific groups of animals including mollusks, fish, turtles, marine reptiles, pterosaurs, mammals, and, of course, dinosaurs. It was published by Indiana University Press and has just been released. One chapter discusses the rediscovery of some of the early old quarries including a Gryposaurus Quarry Q137 of the Field Museum in 1922 and Quarry 138 where our juvenile T. rex was found. Many times, old photos are used to find distinctive geological features. Of course, it is easier now with GPS systems to help with location.
Musical Feathers
A bird has been found in Ecuador by a Yale ornithologist, Richard Prum that makes sounds like a violin with its feathers. This is a first for the bird world. The club-winged manakin (Family Pipridae) which consists of 40 species, makes sounds for courtship by moving its club-shaped feathers as a pick to rake across other feathers at 100 times a second, like a spoon across a washboard. To fully appreciate this speed, consider that a hummingbird flaps its wings up to 50 times a second. During each stroke, the wing produces 14 sounds and this multiplied by the fact the bird does this 100 times causes a frequency of 1400 cycles per second to be produced. This is somewhat like a cricket but still quite different. It is the only bird in the world to be able to do this. It has not been decided whether this is an 8th type of known feather types. Makes you wonder if any feathered dinosaurs could make sounds. (Bostwick & Prum in Science Vol. 309/July 29)
Oldest Prosauropod Embryo is Quadrupedal
The oldest dinosaur embryo has been found in South Africa. It is the Jurassic Period prosauropod called Massospondylus carinatus, a sauropod that lived 190 MYA. Several eggs and embryos have been discovered. This will help piece together the lifetime growth rate of this ancient prosauropod since they have skeletons for various stages of its growth. This embryo has a long neck, short tail, and 4 limbs of equal length indicating they would be quadrupedal. However, adults were considered to be facultative bipeds. This would mean that while the rest of the body grew at one rate while the front legs and skull grew more slowly. Its lack of developed teeth, huge head and tiny pelvis would indicate that it would require parental care for some time. This discovery also has implications for its sister group the sauropods which were thought to have started bipedal and gone quadrupedal to handle the weights as they became larger. Now a review has to be made of the ontological steps of sauropod evolution. The drawing is from the article. (Reisz et al in Science Vol. 309/July 29)
New Hadrosaur from Mongolia – Penelopognathus
We can add a new primitive hadrosaur dinosaur to our list of Early Cretaceous dinos found in Inner Mongolia. They have named it Penelopognathus weishampeli (“wild duck” jaw and for Dr. Weishampel) and it is based upon a right dentary. The teeth are more primitive than those of Probactrosaurus but more advanced than those of Altirhinus, both of which were found in the Early Cretaceous of the Gobi area. Because of the presence of a variety of non-hadrosaurid Hadrosauridea in this area, an Asian origin for hadrosaurids is suggested. (Godefroit et al in Comptes Rendus P.)
Karen Nordquist, Paleontology Study Group
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