One of the ocean’s most formidable marine predators, the mosasaur Platecarpus, lived in the Cretaceous Period some 85 million years ago and was thought to have swum like an eel. That theory is debunked in a new article. Scientists have reconceived the animal’s morphology, or body plan, based on a spectacular specimen housed at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
Triceratops and Torosaurus were the same dinosaur at different stages of growth, according to new research. Since the late 1800s, scientists have believed that Triceratops and Torosaurus were two different types of dinosaurs. Triceratops had a three-horned skull with a rather short frill, whereas Torosaurus had a much bigger frill with two large holes through it.
When Nicholas Longrich discovered a new dinosaur species with a heart-shaped frill on its head, he wanted to come up with a name just as flamboyant as the dinosaur’s appearance. Over a few beers with fellow paleontologists one night, he blurted out the first thing that came to mind: Mojoceratops. With the publication of Longrich’s paper describing his find in the Journal of Paleontology, the name is now official.
The flightless ostrich uses its wings as sophisticated air-rudders and braking aids when running at high speed and may provide valuable information about how its dinosaur ancestors used their feathered forelimbs to move more efficiently. A small leg muscle, if also present in dinosaurs may have reduced the energetic cost of carrying a heavy body.
While Drumheller, home to the Badlands and the Royal Tyrrell Museum, is seen as a hub for dinosaur study and tourism in Alberta, community leaders in the Grande Prairie area are teaming up now to build a new museum and interpretive centre to capitalize on their own dinosaur history
Currie called it a worthy addition to Alberta’s growing number of dinosaur attractions, including the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology, the similar Dinosaurs Alive travelling exhibition now at the Calgary Zoo and a proposed museum in Grande Prairie
The largely unarmored body and slender limbs suggest Pakasuchus kapilimai, as the crocodile has been named, was relatively agile, actively searching for food on land, unlike today’s water-dwelling crocsÂ
