Friday, May 18th, 2012

Ancient sea reptile with gammy jaw suggests dinosaurs got arthritis too

Imagine having arthritis in your jaw bones ... if they're over 2 meters long! A new study has found signs of a degenerative condition similar to human arthritis in the jaw of a pliosaur, an ancient sea reptile that lived 150 million years ago. Such a disease has never been described before in fossilized Jurassic reptiles. ScienceDaily: Dinosaur News http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120515203019.htm Read More →


Jurassic pain: Giant ‘flea-like’ insects plagued dinosaurs 165 million years ago

It takes a gutsy insect to sneak up on a huge dinosaur while it sleeps, crawl onto its soft underbelly and give it a bite that might have felt like a needle going in -- but giant "flea-like" animals, possibly the oldest of their type ever discovered, probably did just that. ScienceDaily: Dinosaur News http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120515203019.htm Read More →


Were dinosaurs undergoing long-term decline before mass extinction?

Despite years of intensive research about the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs about 65.5 million years ago, a fundamental question remains: Were dinosaurs already undergoing a long-term decline before an asteroid hit at the end of the Cretaceous? A new study suggests that in general, large-bodied, "bulk-feeding" herbivores were declining during the last 12 million years of the Cretaceous. But carnivorous... [Read more]


Egg-laying beginning of the end for dinosaurs

Their reproductive strategy spelled the beginning of the end: The fact that dinosaurs laid eggs put them at a considerable disadvantage compared to viviparous mammals. Researchers believe they now know why and how this ultimately led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. ScienceDaily: Dinosaur News http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120515203019.htm Read More →


Duck-billed dinosaurs endured long, dark polar winters

Duck-billed dinosaurs that lived within Arctic latitudes approximately 70 million years ago likely endured long, dark polar winters instead of migrating to more southern latitudes. ScienceDaily: Dinosaur News http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120515203019.htm Read More →