Now that an early carnivore fossil has been fully removed from its matrix (this after spending over a century on a shelf because of the associated crushed teeth), scientists are able to re-interpret the evolutionary tree of this group of mammals.

Researchers have discovered a venomous, birdlike raptor that thrived some 128 million years ago in China. This is the first report of venom in the lineage that leads to modern birds.

AP – As efforts falter to save North America’s largest freshwater fish — a toothless beast left over from the days of dinosaurs — officials hope to stave off extinction by sending more water hurtling down a river so the fish can spawn in the wild.

AP – The skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex will make its museum debut at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry along the banks of the Willamette River.

AP – A skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex will spend much of 2010 along the banks of the Willamette River at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.

AP – Newly described dinosaur fossils from New Mexico are helping scientists better understand the early development of these ancient creatures. The 6-to-12 foot-long, meat-eating creature, Tawa hallae, is described in Friday’s edition of the journal Science.

LiveScience.com – Long, long ago, some of the first dinosaurs walked the Earth. But scientists have not known with any confidence where those initial dino prints were made. Much more recently, hikers stumbled across a few bits of bone at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico, leading to the discovery of a game-changing dinosaur that reveals where it all began.

AFP – It began 10 years ago as a small-scale touch of satire: a wee plastic T. Rex and a lump of coal, awarded to the nation deemed to have done most to have held up, diluted or sabotaged world climate talks.

Scientists have traced the evolution of the modern opossum back to the extinction of the dinosaurs and found evidence to support North America as the center of origin for all living marsupials.

Discovery of a new species of 213-million-year-old meat-eating dinosaur in New Mexico suggests the first dinosaurs wandered between parts of the Pangea supercontinent that later became North and South America, according to a team of researchers.