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Dinosaur News
Fossil finds from the miniature to the monstrous
Recent years have been a news bonanza for dinosaur fans.
With the discovery of fossils great and small, scientists
have broken new ground in their quest to understand the
amazing creatures that roamed our planet millions of years
ago. And that won't be all—it's estimated that less than 1
percent of all dinosaur species have been discovered.
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"Tyrannosaurus
rex"
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Length: 10–14 meters long
Age: 65 million years
Found: North America and East Asia
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Tyrant Lizard 
Maybe not so tough after all
Paleontologist Jack Horner is challenging conventional
notions of T. rex as a savage predator. Horner argues
that T. rex was not a hunter but a scavenger, a
creature that eats animals it finds already dead—usually
the remains of what another animal has killed. Horner
believes that T. rex was too slow, its forelegs were
too short, and its eyes were too small to make it an
effective predator. Most likely, Horner maintained, T.
rex simply bullied or scared away carnivorous dinosaurs
after they had killed their prey and then stole their food.
Horner is sorry his theory about T. rex has tarnished
the image of the fierce king of the dinosaurs. "Almost
every kid, almost everybody in the world, hates the idea of T.
rex being a scavenger," said Horner. Jack Horner is
one of the world's most famous paleontologists. He has made
many dinosaur discoveries, including finding the first
dinosaur eggs in the Americas, discovering and naming two
species of dinosaurs, and serving as technical adviser to
Stephen Spielberg on the movie Jurassic Park and Lost
World.
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"Majungatholus
atopus"
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Length: 30 feet
Age: 65 million years
Found: Madagascar
Announced: April 2003 |
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Cannibal Dinosaurs
Feasted on friend and foe alike
Scientists studying dinosaur bones found on the African
island nation of Madagascar have discovered a dinosaur who
wasn't just an ordinary carnivore—this creature was a
cannibal! Scientists believe that the 65-million-year-old Majungatholus
atopus, a two-legged dinosaur from the Cretaceous
period, sometimes ate others of its own kind. Scientists
drew this conclusion after examining the chewed and gnarled
bones belonging to the Majungatholus. The distinct
tooth marks on the bones perfectly matched the teeth of
another Majungatholus skull found nearby, leading the
scientists to conclude that the Majungatholus not
only ate other dinosaurs, but feasted on members of its own
species. Before drawing this conclusion, the scientists
examined the jaws and teeth of other carnivorous dinosaurs
living in Madagascar at the time. "With these other
candidates eliminated, Majungatholus atopus stands
accused of cannibalism and is presumed guilty until proven
innocent, which, in my opinion, is unlikely to happen,"
said one of the scientists, David Krause. This is the first
genuine evidence that a dinosaur species practiced
cannibalism. According to the journal Nature, the Majungatholus
is hardly the only cannibal in the animal kingdom. Today
cannibalism is practiced by a variety of creatures, ranging
from mice to lions.
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"Microraptor
gui"
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Weight: ?
Length: 30 inches long
Age: 120 million years
Found: China
Announced: Jan. 2003 |
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Four-winged Flier
A beautiful mix of dinosaur and bird
Scientists have uncovered the fossil of a new species of
flying dinosaur in northeastern China thought to have
existed 120 million years ago. The Chinese team that
discovered the dinosaur has named it Microraptor gui
in honor of Chinese paleontologist Gu Zhiwei. It is a
predatory carnivore related to the Tyrannosaurus rex,
though much smaller—from head to tail the tiny raptor
measures just 30 inches.
Microraptor gui is the first dinosaur ever discovered
to have four wings, and the fossil indicates that the
dinosaur was covered with feathers. Scientists believe the
creature may have lived in trees, perhaps gliding from
branch to branch. Scientists hope this dinosaur may prove
the link between dinosaurs and birds—some scientists have
hypothesized that birds evolved directly from dinosaurs, but
thus far there hasn't been enough evidence to prove this.
"It is a beautiful mix of dinosaur and bird . . . It's
so unique," commented Paleontogist Nick Czaplewski of
the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. "It's
a very interesting critter no matter how it's
classified."
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Unnamed
Carnivore
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Weight: 18,000 pounds
Length: 45 feet
Age: 105 million years
Found: Patagonia
Announced: Mar. 2000 |
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Prehistoric Horrors
The largest meat-eater
Found in the desert of Patagonia, this creature is the
largest meat-eater ever discovered. It is even longer than
the 41-foot-long Gigantosaurus and the 40-foot-long Tyrannosaurus
rex. This as-yet-unnamed giant probably looked a lot
like T. rex but with a pointy, scissorslike jaw.
"I think it would have been terrifying," said one
of the excavators. A number of these massive
meat-eaters—both adults and youngsters—were found
together, possibly drowned. The grouping was a surprise to
scientists who had thought that meat-eating dinosaurs
traveled alone. They now wonder if the dangerous carnivores
in fact hunted as a pack, ganging up on much larger
plant-eaters.
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"Dawn
Monkey"
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Weight: 1/2 ounce
Length: 3 inches
Age: 45 million years
Found: China
Announced: Mar. 2000 |
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Our Tiniest Ancestor
The smallest primate
Its foot bones are the size of grains of rice, and it weighs
less than a dozen paperclips. Yet the miniature "Dawn
Monkey" could represent an evolutionary link between
lower primates and higher primates, a group that includes
apes and humans. The structure of its tiny ankle bones
suggest that it could walk flat footed, using all four legs,
like advanced primates. Unlike advanced primates, however,
it probably "didn't have a lot of time to be
social," guesses one scientist. That's because the
little animal had to spend most of its time eating to feed
its high-speed metabolism—when it wasn't trying to avoid
being eaten by bigger creatures. The discovery of this
specimen in Asia suggests that our earliest ancestors did
not live in Africa alone, as previously thought.
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Unnamed
Herbivore
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Weight: 20,000 pounds
Length: 157 to 167 feet
Age: 135 million years
Found: Patagonia
Announced: Jan. 2000 |
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A Giant Vegetarian The longest of them all
In a remote desert area of Argentina, a villager found the
remains of what is believed to be the world's longest
dinosaur. Like Brontosaurus and other plant-eating
dinosaurs, this giant creature probably had a small head and
a very long neck and tail. But it is at least 25 feet longer
than Seismosaurus, which was previously believed to
be the largest dinosaur. The lonely region where it was
discovered has turned out to be a hotbed of dinosaur
fossils. "In Patagonia, walking among the rocks is
enough to discover fossils," says a researcher in the
area. As they discover ever-larger dinosaurs, it gets harder
for scientists to name each massive beast—unfortunately
for this unnamed hulker, Gigantosaurus, Supersaurus,
and Ultrasaurus are already taken.
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"Tinker"
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Weight: 1350 pounds
Length: 21 feet
Age: 66 million years
Found: South
Dakota
Announced: Dec. 1999 |
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Careful Feeding this Baby The most complete young T. Rex
This baby Tyrannosaurus rex, a male, was probably
one-quarter the size of its parents, and was still young
enough that its spine was not fully developed. Like other
youngsters, it had long, gangly legs. But even as a baby it
had the bone-crushing jaws of an adult. This suggests that
even though a Kid Rex would not have been strong enough to
tackle large prey, it ate an adult diet supplied by its
parents. This 66-million-year-old baby, nicknamed
"Tinker," died with half a duck-billed Platypus in
his belly. With a skeleton that could be 90 percent
complete, researchers hope to gain new understanding of the T.
rex's life cycle. "You're getting a window into the
childhood of the world's favorite dinosaur," says one
paleontologist. It wasn't an easy childhood—this youngster
appears to have been chewed up by a larger dinosaur, perhaps
a confused parent.
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Early
Prosauropods
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Weight: unknown
Length: 4 to 8 feet
Age: 230 million years
Found: Madagascar
Announced: Oct. 1999 |
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Old Folks
The earliest dinosaurs
Jawbones of the two oldest dinosaurs ever found were
discovered by a boy on the African island of Madagascar.
These prosauropods (early plant-eaters) are estimated to be
230 million years old. Because scientists know so little
about that era—when not only dinosaurs but mammals
developed—they hope the find will help them to unravel the
mysteries of dinosaur evolution. The two plant-eaters are
about the size of young cows and probably used their front
legs to rummage through plants on the ground, though they
could also run on all four legs. Over the next ten or so
million years, these little creatures evolved into the huge
sauropods we think of when we hear the word dinosaur.
"How they got so big so fast is an interesting
question," said a scientist working on the find.
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