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Maiasaura: The Good Mother Lizard

Have you heard of Maiasaura? This dinosaur discovery was integral to our understanding of how dinosaurs behaved.

Title Image by JBStuka          

            For decades after dinosaurs were discovered, people thought they were just big, dumb, plodding animals. One of the discoveries that helped convince scientists that there was much more to dinosaurs than that was the discovery of Maiasaura.

Maiasaura Nest Model
Fernando Losada Rodríguez, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

            In 1978, paleontologist, Jack Horner, discovered a field of dinosaur nests in Montana. The nests not only had unhatched dinosaur eggs but also skeletons of baby dinosaurs. The babies were not newborns. They were too big to have just hatched. That meant they were living in the nest — which meant the mother dinosaurs were taking care of the babies! If the babies had to feed themselves, they would have wandered away from the nest. This was an amazing idea at the time. No one thought dinosaurs were smart enough to take care of their babies. Horner named the dinosaur Maiasaura, which means “good mother lizard.”

            In many ways, Maiasaura was just an average dinosaur, which makes their caretaking even more interesting. It is one of the duckbilled dinosaurs. Duckbilled is a nickname given to several different types of dinosaurs that had mouths shaped like a duck’s bill. The Maiasaura didn’t have any teeth in the front of its long, flat mouth, but in its cheeks, it had hundreds of them.

T-Rex Taylor, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

            Many duckbilled dinosaurs had fancy crests on their heads, but the Maiasaura’s head was flat, with just a very short, bony spike above its eyes. Some scientists think the Maiasaura might have had a flap of skin, like the comb of a rooster, attached to the spike. Male Maiasauras could have used that to attract the attention of female Maiasauras.

            A Maiasaura was about the size of a camping trailer. That may sound big, but it was only average for a dinosaur. Most adult Maiasauras grew about 20 feet long. They stood about 15 feet high and weighed about two-and-a-half tons.

            Maiasauras walked on all four legs much of the time, but they could walk on just their two back legs if they needed to. Their front legs were smaller and thinner than their back legs and had four fingers.

Pavel.Riha.CB, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

            The Maiasaura was a plant-eating dinosaur. It ate tree needles, twigs, seeds and berries. As you might expect, chewing these tough, woody foods wore its teeth down. But the Maiasaura had an easy way to avoid the dentist. It had teeth stacked inside its jaws, one on top of the other. Whenever a tooth wore out, it just fell out and was replaced by the one underneath.

            All dinosaurs hatched from eggs. The Maiasaura laid her eggs in bowl-shaped nests. As you might guess, these big creatures needed BIG nests – about six-feet wide! Scientists think the mothers used their powerful back legs to make a huge mound of dirt on a flat area and used their arms to hollow out the center. Many Maiasauras made their nests in the same area, keeping them about 23 feet apart. That allowed the mothers space to walk between the nests without stepping on anyone else’s nest. The mothers probably brought plants to the nest to cover the eggs to keep them warm. If they had sat on them, they would have squashed them!

            The babies were about 14 inches long when they were born – about the size of one of their mother’s feet. Each weighed only three or four pounds. The mother brought food to the nest, just as a mother bird will do today. We know the babies stayed at least part of the time in the nest because the shells in the nest were broken into tiny pieces as if walked over many times. Some of the baby skeletons Horner found in the nests were about three feet long. It probably took them several months to grow that big, so an adult must have not only brought them food all that time, but also guarded them from meat-eating dinosaurs looking for a snack.

Debivort, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

            When the babies were big enough, they joined a herd. Huge herds of Maiasauras roamed the upper coastal plains – as many as 10,000 in a single herd! This was their best defense against predators. Meat eaters would have to look for a single dinosaur that became separated from the herd. Maiasauras had good hearing and good eyesight, so they could be aware of danger. They would eat all the plants in one place and then move on to another. Scientists think they may have traveled a regular route, always returning to the same nesting ground when it was time to lay their eggs.

            Over the years many paleontologists have returned to what they call “Egg Mountain” in Montana to study the bones, eggs, and nests fossilized there. The more they learn, the more amazing this “good mother” dinosaur seems.

Nobu Tamura (http://spinops.blogspot.com), CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Sources (Click me!)

Gaur, Aakanksha. “Maiasaura.” Britannica. 6 December 2019.             https://www.britannica.com/ animal/Maiasaura

Horner, John R. and James Gorman. Maia: A Dinosaur Grows Up. Running Press, 1987. “Largest dinosaur population growth study ever shows how Maiasaura lived and died.” Montana State University News Service. 1 October 2015. https://www.montana.edu/news/15769/largest-dinosaur-population-growth-study-ever-shows-how-maiasaura-lived-and-died

Okoyomon, Adesuwa. “Meet Maiasaura, the Good Mother Lizard.” Science World. 12 July 2022. https://www.scienceworld.ca/stories/maiasaura-good-mother-lizard/

Riehecky, Janet. Maiasara. The Child’s World, 1989.

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How the Brontosaurus Lost its Name

Ever wonder how the Brontosaurus lost its name? Commonly known as the icon of Sinclair Oil, this sauropod’s history is complex and newsworthy.

           The Brontosaurus is one of the most famous dinosaurs in the world. Millions of people know its name. Most can recognize its huge shape. It’s been on lunch boxes, made into countless toys, and was featured on a U.S. postage stamp. It even served as the official icon of Sinclair Oil company. However, there is one problem: there is no dinosaur named Brontosaurus.

           How did this happen? When dinosaurs were first discovered in the 1820s, the idea of those huge reptiles stalking the earth caught people’s imagination. Every museum in the world wanted to display a huge skeleton of a dinosaur. But it takes many years to find dinosaur bones, dig them up and put together a dinosaur skeleton. Over the next sixty years the competition to discover dinosaur bones grew, and then it became especially fierce during the 1880s. In fact, that time is now known as the “Bone War.”

           From 1877 to 1892, two paleontologists in particular, Edward Cope of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia and Othniel C. Marsh of the Peabody Museum in Connecticut, were the fiercest competitors. They used their own money to finance expeditions and to buy dinosaur bones from other fossil hunters.

           In the beginning Cope and Marsh just paid collectors to send them fossils. But this was only the start. As the rivalry intensified, each side spied on the other, stole bones when they could, bribed workers, and even blew up fossils with dynamite so that the other side couldn’t get them. As soon as either dinosaur hunter got new bones, he rushed to get a description into print. Whoever publishes a description of a new dinosaur first gets to name it, and each man wanted to be the one to name the most. In the end Cope lost. He named 56 new dinosaur species, while Marsh named 80. And by the end of the Bone Wars in 1892, both men had gone nearly bankrupt trying to be the best (or most famous) paleontologist. And the hurry of both men led to mistakes.

Tadek Kurpaski from London, Poland, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

           In 1877 Marsh published a papernaming a new dinosaur, Apatosaurus ajax. Its name means “deceptive lizard,” which turned out to be the truth. The description was based on only a few bones. Two years later Marsh published another article describing what he thought was a different dinosaur, Brontosaurus excelsius.  This description was based on one of the most complete skeletons of a long-necked dinosaur ever found. Brontosaurus means “thunder lizard,” and the catchy name became popular. The mount of that Brontosaurus skeleton in the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History increased its popularity. Unfortunately, one of the missing pieces of the skeleton was its skull. Not to worry. Marsh just put a Camarasaurus skull on it.

           But, in 1903, Chicago paleontologist Elmer Riggs took a look at both dinosaurs. He determined that the two dinosaurs were actually the same dinosaur. It was given the name Apatosaurus first, and the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature states that the oldest name has priority, so that is the name used by scientists. Brontosaurus became Apatosaurus. And in 1979 scientists finally put the right skull on the skeleton. Still, the general public didn’t let go of the name Brontosaurus until about the 1990s. It was just too cool a name to let go.

           However, all is not lost. There is a movement to resurrect the name Brontosaurus. In 2015 paleontologists studied hundreds of bones from Apatosaurus and the dinosaur called Brontosaurus and found differences in the neck, back, and shoulder bones. Originally scientists thought those difference were because one of the dinosaurs was a juvenile. Now some feel these differences are enough to say Brontosaurus and Apatosaurus are different dinosaurs. But this has not gained wide acceptance. More research may resolve the problem. But a lot of people who are just dinosaur lovers would welcome the return of the “thunder lizard.”

Cover Image Source: An Errant Knight, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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The Discovery of Dinosaurs

Two hundred years ago, the word “dinosaur” didn’t exist. It didn’t need to. No one knew that giant reptiles had once walked the earth.

            Occasionally people found large bones, but they usually thought they belonged to some animal, like an elephant or a giraffe. One piece of bone was thought to have been from a race of giant people. Dinosaur bones may even be responsible for the belief in dragons in ancient China. Then, in England, two gentlemen working separately discovered dinosaurs at about the same time.       

            The first was Dr. Gideon Mantell, a physician and amateur geologist. In 1822 his wife, Mary Ann Mantell, found some very large, unusual teeth in a pile of gravel. Mantell sent the teeth to other experts, but they dismissed them as belonging to a known animal. One paleontologist said they were from a rhinoceros. Mantell didn’t give up. He was sure the teeth were something special. He learned that the pile of gravel his wife had found the fossils in came from a nearby stone quarry. There he found more teeth and some bones. After much study, he determined that the bones and teeth came from a giant reptile. The teeth resembled those of the iguana lizard, but they were twenty times bigger!

Illustration of the original Iguanodon teeth found by Mantell
Gideon Mantell, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

            In 1825, Mantell published a description of the creature, describing it as being at least 40 feet long. He named it Iguanodon (eh-GWA-nuh-don), Iguana from the iguana lizard and don, meaning tooth.

            Meanwhile, in 1824, the Rev. William Buckland of Oxford came into the possession of some bones, including part of a jaw with teeth.

Mary Buckland, née Morland (1797-1857), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

            These teeth were clearly those of a giant reptile. Buckland named it Megalosaurus (MEH·guh·luh·sore·us), which means “great lizard.” He published a description of it that same year, which means it was the first dinosaur described scientifically. Mantell was still struggling with skeptics, and, as I said above, he didn’t publish until 1825. But, in 1833, Mantell discovered another giant reptile, Hylaeosaurus (hy-LEE-oh-sore-us). Hylaeosaurus was an armored, plant-eating dinosaur that grew about 16 feet long. So he discovered two of the first three dinosaurs.

            A scientist named Sir Richard Owen was the one who put it all together. He studied the bones and teeth of all three creatures. He found them to share some characteristics, such as fused vertebrae at the base of the spine. But he found them quite unlike modern reptiles. He determined that these three animals deserved their own category. In 1842, he invented the name dinosaurs, which means “terrible lizards,” to describe them.

            People were excited about these huge creatures and wanted to know what they looked like. Scientists tried to figure out how to put together the bones that had been found. But it was like trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle with only half the pieces. They thought Iguanodon looked something like a fat rhinoceros. In 1852, a sculptor named Waterhouse Hawkins made life-sized models of what scientists thought Iguanodon and Megalosaurus looked like.

Statues of Iguanadon and Megalodon Jes from Melbourne, Australia, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

            He and the scientists made a lot of mistakes. For example, when they found a spike from the Iguanodon, they put it on its nose. It was really the creature’s thumb. But they didn’t know they’d made so many mistakes. In fact, they were anxious to show the world their dinosaurs. When the model was half done, they decided to have a dinner party – in the dinosaur!

Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

            Many important scientists were invited. The seating area was a bit crowded, but everyone had a wonderful time. This was probably the only time in history that a dinner was inside a dinosaur without being the dinosaur’s dinner!

            Since that time, we’ve learned so much more about dinosaurs, including more about how Iguanodon and Megalosaurus looked. They stood with all four legs directly under their bodies and didn’t drag their tails. They were active, not slow, sluggish creatures. But the excitement people felt then is the same excitement people still feel today.

Iguanodon
Megalosaurus
Sources (Click Me!)

Andrei, Mihai. “The Fearsome Megalosaurus: A Glimpse into the Jurassic World.” ZME Science.  9 August, 2023. https://www.zmescience.com/feature-post/natural-sciences/geology-and-paleontology/dinosaurs/megalosaurus/

Norman, David. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs. Crescent Books, 1985.

Osterloff, Emily. “Dinosauria: How the ‘terrible lizards’ got their name.” London Natural History Museum. https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/how-dinosaurs-got-their-name.html

Walker, Bob. “Gideon Mantell: The Forgotten Man Who Discovered Dinosaurs.” The Guardian. 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/feb/03/gideon-mantell-play-fight-over-first-dinosaur

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Why You Should Visit a Fossil Lab

            The best part of any museum is the dinosaurs– especially the huge skeletons! But they didn’t just walk into the museum on their own. And those bones weren’t always clean and perfectly shaped.

            In fact, the bones fossil hunters dig up are usually damaged in some way. They might have been chewed on by predators or scattered about by wind or water. They can be cracked, split, or smashed. So how do they go from broken to beautiful? This happens in a fossil lab.

            It starts with getting the bones safely back to the fossil lab. When a bone is dug out of the ground, sometimes it comes free easily. But more often the bone is attached to the rock, so fossil hunters need to carve out both. They use jackhammers and rock saws, pickaxes, hammers, and chisels.

            Scientists call the rock next to the bone the matrix. Fossil hunters leave the matrix around the bone, so it can protect the bone. They cover the bone and its matrix with plaster to provide more protection. The whole thing can weigh several hundred pounds.

            Small bones are packaged in crates while big bones may be lifted out by helicopter. They are all sent to a fossil lab. Unloading the bones must be done carefully. The big bones don’t always fit through the door. They need to come in through a loading dock.

            Some bones are stored away. There are always more bones needing preparation than time and people to prepare them. Bones not being worked on are put on shelves or in specimen cabinets.

            Other bones are brought into the prep lab to have the matrix removed from the bone. The workroom needs to have bright lights, so preparers can see what is rock and what is bone. It also needs good air flow because removing the matrix produces a lot of dust. Stations are set up around the room.

            A work station needs to have a large, flat surface to place the fossil on. There should be storage space for the tools the preparer will need and its own light source. It may also have a microscope to study small fossils and an air tube to vacuum up the dust and tiny bits of rock. The preparer should wear protective goggles, a dust mask, and gloves. Preparers using noisy tools, such as a jackhammer, also need ear plugs.

            When a bone is selected for preparation, first the preparers need to remove the plaster jacket. They use a cast-cutting saw, like the ones doctors use to remove a cast from a broken limb. A preparer might then use a small jackhammer called an air scribe to remove the matrix that is not too close to the bone.

            When preparers get close to the bone, they need to be very careful. The bones break very easily. Using a small metal pick called a pin vise (pictured to the side), preparers scrape away the rock, just like when a dentist scrapes plaque from your teeth. They scrape in a direction away from the bone so that if they slip, they don’t hurt the bone. The key is to go slowly. Sometimes they use a magnifying glass to make sure they are scraping away only the matrix.

            Bits of matrix are blown away with an air tube as they come off. Brushes can also be used to keep the surface clean, and a very sharp needle might be used to remove matrix in small cracks. Exposed bone is covered with glue to keep it from breaking apart.

            Sometimes preparers use chemicals, such as acid, to dissolve the matrix, but they must be careful to make sure the chemicals don’t hurt the bone. It can take anywhere from a few minutes to hundreds of hours to remove all the matrix. Sometimes part of the matrix is left to hold delicate bones together.

            Once the matrix is removed, there is still work to be done. Often the bone is broken, so the pieces must be put together. That can be like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. Very small bones can be kept together with wax. Others need glue, and others need wire or steel bands.

            Putting together all the bones of a skeleton takes lots of patience. Preparers make sketches and 3-D models. Bones need to be placed next to each other in the same way they were when the dinosaur was alive. A natural-looking pose must be chosen.

            It is rare that fossil hunters find all the bones for one dinosaur. Preparers need to figure out which bones are missing. To complete the skeleton, preparers may use bones from several dinosaurs of the same species. Sometimes they can figure out what a bone should look like by the bones around it. Then preparers can sculpt a bone from plaster or plastics.

            Many of the prepared bones are stored in cabinets or lockers. They each have a number that tells when and where the fossil was found. Scientists can find the fossil they need and study it.

            Sometimes the scientists make a cast of a bone. First, they make a rubber mold from the real bone. Then they put plaster or resin into the mold. When it dries, it’s a perfect copy. Museums often display casts rather than the real bones. This prevents damage to the real bones and makes it easier for scientists to study the real bones. Casts are also used to make model dinosaurs. Artists create realistic-looking dinosaurs for the movies or special exhibits. However, technology is already making this process easier and faster by using 3-D printing. In the future plaster casts will be a thing of the past.

            To prepare a skeleton for an exhibit, it’s important for preparers to make sure every bone is stable. Fossils are very heavy, so the framework holding them up needs to be able to hold the weight without hurting the fragile fossils.

            The bones are held together with such things as glue, metal pegs, bolts, wire, and thick cables. The preparers try to keep these out of sight because they want the dinosaur to look as natural as possible.

            It can take several years to mount a big dinosaur. But when it’s all done, thousands and thousands of people will gaze up at the dinosaur skeleton and catch their breath with awe.

            Would you like to work in a fossil lab? Please tell me why or why not in the comments section.

I took all the photos

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Obscure Facts About the T-Rex

            I know the ‘Facts Tier List’ is something that has been done to death in pop-culture. But I thought it would be fun to make a short list of the most obscure facts I could find about the king lizard, Tyrannosaurus Rex. If this is something you find interesting, I may make this a series where we cover less recognizable dinos!

1/3 |T-Rex wasn’t Always The Most Popular

            Taking a look at the countless pictures, books, movies, and exhibits on the world of paleontology, it is self-evident that the Tyrannosaurus Rex is one of, if not the most popular dinosaur. Many would assume that this has always been the case, but what if I told you that wasn’t.

            My older readers may recognize the name or shape of the Brontosaurus. A sauropod with a complicated history, this dinosaur was the symbol for Sinclair Oil and at one time was considered the face of the dinosaur world. The Brontosaurs will be the topic of a future post, so subscribe so you don’t miss out!

2/3 | Usable Arms

            The T-Rex is often made fun of for it’s tiny arms. They were quite small in proportion to the rest of its body, measuring in at only 2-3 feet. The T-Rex’s head alone was 5 feet long. However, just because they were tiny, doesn’t mean they were useless. Their arms were incredibly capable despite the size and were able to support over 400 pounds in weight.

            There is still speculation as to what purpose their arms served. Many believe they were used to help T-Rex lift itself off of the floor or for holding on to recently killed prey.

3/3 | Not the largest Carnivore

https://www.fossilera.com/pages/is-spinosaurus-bigger-than-t-rex

            Although the T-Rex has earned the moniker: ‘King of the Dinosaurs’, that doesn’t mean that T-Rex was the largest Carnivore of them all. T-Rex was estimated to be about 40 feet long and weighed between 7 and 9 tons. The Giganotosaurus and the Spinosaurus both outclassed the king lizard, with the former weighing 9 tons and the latter weighing over 10 tons. Giganotosaurus barely beats out T-Rex in length, as it was recorded to be 43 feet long. But the Spinosaurus takes the cake at almost 60 feet long from head to tail! I may take a deeper look into the unique features of these 3 species…

            I hope you found these facts interesting; I surely did! If there are any facts you would like to share, feel free to do so in the comments below.

Title Image Provided by Fleekus.com

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Meet Hadrosaurus

The First Complete Dinosaur Skeleton

            In 1868, the hottest ticket in town was to the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. Before that year about 30,000 people visited the museum annually. But in 1868, attendance more than doubled to 66,000. The next year it soared to 100,000. What was it that people stood in line for hours to see? The first complete dinosaur skeleton ever displayed to the public: Hadrosaurus. People stared in awe. It was three stories tall! Philadelphia had to build a bigger museum to have room for the crowds.

            Hadrosaurus was found in New Jersey in 1858. And at that time, it was the most complete dinosaur skeleton that had ever been found in the whole world.

            What do we know about it today? It was just an average duckbill dinosaur. It didn’t even have a crazy crest like some duckbill dinosaurs. Its head was flat.

Danny Cicchetti, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

            It grew about 23-26 feet long and could have weighed 2-4 tons. Its back legs were much longer than its front legs. It could walk on just its hind legs or on all four legs. The front of its mouth was a beak, covered in keratin, just like your fingernails. This helped it nip off plants, which it ground up with its large teeth. It traveled in herds. 

            The original pose was upright. But we now think it probably stood like this, with the tail balancing the head:

Audrey.m.horn, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

            When it was first displayed almost everyone was thrilled to see it – but that’s almost. A copy of Hadrosaurus was made and was supposed to go on display in 1871 in New York City. But it never did. One of the most powerful men in New York in that day, William Tweed, known as Boss Tweed, ordered members of his gang to destroy the skeleton. No one knows why. They tore it apart and tossed the pieces of it into a nearby lake.

            Today Hadrosaurus doesn’t cause any controversy. People know it as just an average dinosaur. But New Jersey is proud that it is its state dinosaur, and people still flock to see it.

            Can you draw a duckbill dinosaur head with a crazy crest? Please put one in the comment section or message me on Facebook at Janet Riehecky

            To learn more about dinosaurs, please visit here once a week. Please also visit my web site: www.janetriehecky.com

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What Was the Biggest Dinosaur?

            It’s almost impossible to declare that one dinosaur was the biggest of them all. Do you mean longest, heaviest, or tallest? Also, it’s very unlikely that paleontologists have actually found the biggest specimen of a dinosaur type. Millions and millions of dinosaurs once lived on Earth, and we’ve found only a small percent of them. We do know that all of the biggest dinosaurs are plant eaters. They come from the group of dinosaurs called sauropods, the long-necked dinosaurs – and most of the very biggest ones have been found in Argentina.

            So, how do paleontologists figure out how long or tall a dinosaur was? They need to look at the spine. Put your fingers on the back of your neck. The little bones you feel there that are part of your spine are called vertebrae. When a dinosaur skeleton is found, usually many of the vertebrae are missing. When there is a gap, paleontologists have to guess how many are missing. One way they do this is by comparing the bones they have to other, similar dinosaurs. If a similar dinosaur had, say, 80 vertebrae in its tail, paleontologists would assume that a closely related dinosaur had 80, too. But that might not be true. And it’s hard to know how big those missing vertebrae would be. Scientists have to make the best estimate they can, but they often don’t agree with one another. However, they have provided some great contenders for biggest dinosaur!

Longest:

Danny Cicchetti, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

            This might be Barosaurus (BARE-uh-sore-us). It was discovered in 1889 in South Dakota. Its name means slow, heavy lizard, and it must have been. Scientists think it was probably 82-89 feet long. That’s long, but that’s not what put it in contention for longest. Scientists have found a huge vertebra that they think belonged to Barosaurus. From the size of it, the creature it came from was likely about 157 feet long! That’s almost as long as three eighteen-wheeler trucks set end to end.

Nobu Tamura (http://spinops.blogspot.com), CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

            Another contender is Argentinosaurus (are-juhn-tee-nuh-SORE-us). Scientists have only found 13 of its bones: a few ribs, some vertebrae, and a five-foot-long femur (thigh bone). This isn’t much to try to figure out  how big this dinosaur was, but the sizes of those bones have led scientists to estimate that Argentinosaurus was between 75 and 100 feet long. If that top limit is right, Argentinosaurus is definitely among the very biggest dinosaurs.

Heaviest:

User:Mariolanzas, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

            Argentinosaurus is also a contender for the heaviest dinosaur, but because estimates of its weight are based on so few bones, some scientists discount it. However, paleontologists have unearthed more than 200 bones of Patagotitan (PAT-ah-go-TIE-ton). These  bones were found in Argentina in 2012 and cause scientists to estimate that it weighed about 76 tons. The largest land animal today is the African elephant. Its top weight is seven tons. That means that Patagotitan weighed nearly as much as 11 elephants. And some scientists think at its biggest it weighed as much as 14 elephants.  

Nobu Tamura email:nobu.tamura@yahoo.com http://spinops.blogspot.com/,
CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

            Dreadnoughtus (dred-NOHR-tus) is a definite contender in weight. Its name means fearing nothing. And it’s hard to imagine any creature that it would have to be afraid of. It was discovered in Argentina in 2005.  Scientists have recovered almost half of its bones, so they are able to be fairly accurate in their estimates. They place its weight between 54 and 65 tons (though some scientists say that’s too high). It was also about 85 feet long and as tall as a two-story building.   

Tallest:

Levi bernardo, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

            Two stories, however, is not a contender for height.  The tallest dinosaurs reached close to the height of a six-story building, though again, it’s tricky to know for sure. Scientists don’t agree on how high up long-necked dinosaurs could lift their heads. Sauroposeidon  (Sore-uh-ps-SY-don) is certainly one of the tallest.
            It was found in Oklahoma in 1994 and named for the Greek god Poseidon. Poseidon could cause earthquakes, and it probably felt like this dinosaur could do that, too – just by walking. It probably stood just over 55 feet tall, which is, as it says above, almost the height of a six-story building.

            Patagotitan shows up again here. Depending on how it carried its long neck, it might have been as tall as a seven-story building. If it carried its head and neck low to the ground, straight out from its body, it’s a contender for longest dinosaur at 122-130 feet. The picture at the right shows Patagotitan at the Field Museum in Chicago

            Scientist do not agree which one was the biggest dinosaur. Other lists would include such dinosaurs as Mamenchisaurus (mah-MUN-chi-SORE-us), a creature whose neck was longer than the rest of its body, or Giraffatitan (ji-RAF-ah-TIE-tan), which had the same general build as a gigantic giraffe. We may never know which dinosaur was the biggest. But we can all agree that they were awesome!

            Which dinosaur do you vote for as biggest? Do you know a big dinosaur that isn’t in this list? Please leave your answers in the comment section.

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Dinosaur Jokes (By Yours Truly)

            Hope everyone is adjusting to the fall nicely! Here are a few dinosaur jokes that made me chuckle. Feel free to post your own jokes in the comments down below.

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What Color Were Dinosaurs?

             Not very long ago paleontologists were sure of at least one thing about dinosaurs: nobody would ever know what color they were – unless somebody invented a time machine. Artists had to make up the colors because there were only bones to work with. And you can’t tell the color of anything’s skin from looking at its bones. Even the discovery of several dinosaur “mummies” didn’t help [See my post on dino mummies here]. Though some of these had preserved dinosaur skin, the skin had taken on the color of the minerals that seeped into it to fossilize it. But modern technology has changed this. There are now a couple of ways to determine what color certain dinosaurs were.

Used with permission © Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, illustration by Julius Csotonyi

            The first is a rare case. In 2011 an armored dinosaur called Borealopelta (BOH-ree-AH-low-PEL-tuh) was discovered.  Its skin was so well preserved that scientists were able to use a mass spectrometer to discover its color. How does that work? A mass spectrometer is able to tell the chemical substances something is made of, and when you know the exact chemical substances, and where they are, you know what color it is. In the case of Borealopelta, scientists determined the dinosaur was dark reddish brown on the back and neck and lighter reddish brown on the belly and lower parts.

            But finding such well-preserved skin is rare. However, scientists have found another way to determine color. Using an electron microscope they found tiny structures that were smaller than cells. At first these were dismissed as bacteria, but they were, in fact, melanosomes (muh-LAN-uh-sohmz), irregular blobs that contain color pigments. Melanosomes can be found in skin, hair, scales or feathers. The size, shape, thickness, and dispersal of melanosomes found in a fossilized feather can be compared to those found in modern birds to determine a color. Then the trick is finding dinosaur fossils that contain preserved skin, hair, scales, or feathers. So far, feathers have been the main structure to reveal dinosaur color through melanosomes.

Matt Martyniuk, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

            In 2009 scientists found a feathered dinosaur, which they named Anchiornis (ANG-kee-OR-niss). It lived during the late Jurassic Period. The fossil included some preserved feathers, which were examined under an electron microscope. Analysis of the melanosomes indicated this was a black-and-white dinosaur with a patch of red on the back of its head.

Lucas-Attwell, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

            Other dinosaurs have been colorized by this same process.  A recent discovery in China, Caihong (KAY-hong), was found with remains of actual feathers. When these were analyzed, they showed that most of the dinosaur was iridescent black, a glossy black that subtly changed its hue when looked at from different angles. The head, chest, and the base of the tail contained melanosomes that produce bright iridescent colors in modern birds. These colors could not be specifically identified, but artists have guessed at what they might be. 

Conty, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

            Other dinosaurs that have been colorized include Sinosauropteryx (SIEN-oh-soh-ROP-tuh-riks) – which lived during the early Cretaceous Period and had bright orangish feathers with a lighter belly and a striped tail.

Entelognathus, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

            And they include Microraptor – a small meat-eating dinosaur that also lived during the early Cretaceous Period and had feathers that gleamed an iridescent blue/black, like ravens or starlings.

            As stated earlier, melanosomes can also be found in scales. Psittacosaurus (SIT-a-ko-SOR-us) is an early Cretaceous dinosaur distantly related to Triceratops. It does not have feathers, but one of the skeletons found had preserved scales that contained melanosomes. They revealed the dinosaur was dark brown on its back and a paler brown on its underside with its hind legs being striped on the inside and spotted on the outside.

Vinther et al., CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

            Melanosomes are not the answer to the color of every dinosaur. There has to be preserved soft tissue to have melanosomes, and most fossils lack that. Additionally, some colors, such as blues and yellows, are not made by melanosomes. Still, even knowing the colors of a few dinosaurs is something most scientists once thought would never happen.

            What color do you think Tyrannosaurus rex was? Put your guesses in the comment section.

Sources (Click Me)

Black, Riley. “The Colors of Dinosaurs Open a Window to Study the Past.” Smithsonian Magazine. 21 May 2019. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/colors-dinosaurs-open-new-window-study-past-180972070/

—. “Microraptor was a Glossy Dinosaur.” Smithsonian Magazine. 9 March 2012. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/microraptor-was-a-glossy-dinosaur-119691559/

“Caihung.” Wikipedia. 18 May 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caihong

“Dinosaurs – Sinosauropteryx prima.” Australian Museum. 12 Feb. 2020. https://australian.museum/learn/dinosaurs/fact-sheets/sinosauropteryx-prima/

Dunham, Will. “Scientists decipher color of ‘super cute’ bristly dinosaur.” Reuters. 2021. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-science-dinosaur/scientists-decipher-color-of-super-cute-bristly-dinosaur-idUSKCN11L1OI

“Spectacularly Detailed Armored Dinosaur ‘Mummy’ Makes Its Debut.” Smart News. Smithsonian Magazine. 2021. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/mummified-armored-dinosaur-makes-its-debut-1-180963311/

Woodford, Chris. “Mass Spectrometers.” Explain That Stuff! 4 Feb., 2021. https://www.explainthatstuff.com/how-mass-spectrometers-work.html

Yong, Ed. “The Renaissance of Technicolour Dinosaurs Continues (And the Gloves Come Off). Not Exactly Rocket Science. National Geographic.com. 4 Feb. 2010. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/the-renaissance-of-technicolour-dinosaurs-continues-and-the-gloves-come-off

Note: Title Image Sourced from BBC Science Focus Magazine

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How I Spent My Summer Vacation

As we transition into the fall, I thought it would be fun to reminisce on one of my favorite summer vacations.

            One of the best adventures of my life occurred one summer when my family and I spent a week in western Colorado. During two of those days, we joined a dinosaur dig. It was very hot and dirty. Insects swarmed us, the nearest porta-potty was a half mile away – and I never had more fun in my life!

            The paleontologist in charge of the dig, Jim Kirkland, told us where to dig and what to do. The area we dug in was a vast bone bed dating to about 150 million years ago, during the late Jurassic (one of the three time periods during which dinosaurs lived). Many dinosaurs had died, perhaps in a flood, and had their bodies swept into this huge heap. Their bones were all jumbled together. Diggers in that area have found bones from Brachiosaurus, Stegosaurus, Allosaurus, Apatosaurus, and other Jurassic dinosaurs. We would not get to keep any bones we found. They would stay with the paleontologists for study, as they should.

            The rock was crumbly, like flaky pastry, and easily removed with just our hands.  We searched through it and then discarded the rock into plastic bins. It’s not always easy to tell what’s rock and what’s bone, but at this site the rock was a light brown and the bones much darker brown, almost black. We moved a lot of rock before we saw anything. (Caption: That’s my husband, John, in striped shirt, my son, Patrick, in red cap, and Jim Kirkland in cowboy hat.)

            That thrill, though, when you see a bone that’s been buried for 150 million years is not like anything else. It was definitely worth the hours of digging. I felt awed and elated and also a little humble. I’m a tiny speck in this universe. You know, we also spent two days white water rafting while we were in Colorado, but digging up dinosaur bones was more exhilarating!

            During those two days digging I only found three bones, but one of them in particular interested Dr. Kirkland (in red shirt at left; me in blue). It looked like a piece of armor from an armored dinosaur, but at that point no one had ever found an armored dinosaur in Jurassic rock. Further excavation after I left produced more of that dinosaur, and it turned out to be just what Dr. Kirkland suspected: an armored dinosaur, the first ever found from the Jurassic Period. He named it Mymoorapelta and wrote to me about it. He also put out a press release, and I got my picture on the front page of the local newspaper!

Dr. Kirkland is now the state paleontologist of Utah.

            Mymoorapelta is a nodosaur, which means, among other things, that it doesn’t have a club at the end of its tail. It was one of the earliest armored dinosaurs ever to have lived, and, at 9.8 feet long, one of the smallest. It ate mostly plants that grew low to the ground, such as ferns, cycads, and conifers. Its teeth were small and leaf-shaped. Scientists can’t say for sure, but it is likely that it lived in herds.

            I will leave you with this question: If you found a new dinosaur, what would you name it? Please let me know in the comment section.

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Tyrannosaurus Footprints

Lets discover the hidden history in the tracks!

A herd of skunks

            I don’t know who makes up the names for groups of animals: a herd of cows, a pack of wolves, or a litter of kittens.  Some of the group names are funny: a business of ferrets, a kettle of hawks, a bloat of hippopotami, a shiver of sharks, a stench of skunks, and an ambush of tigers. But whoever makes up those names certainly got it right for Tyrannosaurus. A group of them is called a terror of tyrannosaurs. Several species of dinosaur fall into the category of tyrannosaur, such as Albertosaurus, Gorgosaurus, and Daspletosaurus. The most famous, of course, is Tyrannosaurus rex. All of them are among the largest meat-eating creatures that ever lived.

Centrosaurus Bone Bed
James St. John, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

            Scientists don’t know whether or not Tyrannosaurus lived or travelled in groups. There are only two clues that could help with this. Sometimes paleontologists find bonebeds that contain many dinosaurs of the same kind that all died at the same time. That might happen if a flash flood killed a large herd of animals. For example, in Alberta, Canada, thousands of bones of the dinosaur Centrosaurus were found in a bonebed measuring about 1 ½ square miles. This is strong evidence that centrosaurs travelled in large groups. Dinosaur bonebeds for Protoceratops, Avimimus, Pinacosaurus, Edmontosaurus, and others have been found. But no bonebeds of Tyrannosaurus or any other tyrannosaur have ever been discovered.

            The other evidence of animals living or travelling in groups is footprints. Often just one, single footprint is found. Other times a trackway is found, showing the progress of a single dinosaur.

A wide variety of T-Rex and other dino tracks
James St. John, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons dinosaur

            Sometimes there are many footprints, showing the travels of a whole herd. Prior to 2011, only single footprints of tyrannosaurs had been found. Though it’s hard to say for sure which made a footprint, scientists can make educated guesses. The one most confidently attributed to Tyrannosaurus rex was found in Montana in 2007. The Montana footprint was 2 ½ feet long with slender toes, and it was found in the right age of rock for Tyrannosaurus. Also, its toes were correctly positioned for T-rex, so paleontologists are fairly certain they have correctly identified it. But that print doesn’t tell us much about how Tyrannosaurus lived and moved.

            Some scientists thought that because they had never found a tyrannosaur bonebed or more than one footprint of a tyrannosaur that Tyrannosaurus was a solitary creature, perhaps only associating with others of its kind for mating. Many of today’s predatory birds, such as eagles and hawks, are largely solitary. That way they don’t have to compete for food. But in 2011 a trackway showing three tyrannosaurs walking together made scientists reconsider the idea of tyrannosaurs as loners.

            In the forests of northeastern British Columbia, paleontologists uncovered a series of tracks showing three large dinosaurs walking side by side. A total of seven footprints were found: three from one dinosaur and two from each of the other two, but all the footprints were made at the same time, and they are clearly walking together. The prints are so well preserved that scientists can even see scales on the dinosaurs’ feet. The size of the tracks and the size and positioning of the toes clearly make these tyrannosaur tracks. However, it’s not possible to know which species of tyrannosaur they are from.

McCrea RT, Buckley LG, Farlow JO, Lockley MG, Currie PJ, Matthews NA, et al. (2014) A ‘Terror of Tyrannosaurs’: The First Trackways of Tyrannosaurids and Evidence of Gregariousness and Pathology in Tyrannosauridae. PLoS ONE 9(7): e103613. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0103613

            The size of the footprints does indicate that the creatures were of a similar age, different scientists estimating perhaps 25, 26, and 29 years old. The size also indicates their approximate height: 7.5 to 9.4 feet tall, measured at the hip. Dinosaur height is usually measured at the hip because most of them didn’t hold their heads at a consistent height. By knowing the height of the animal and measuring how far apart the footprints are, scientists can determine how fast the dinosaurs were going. When scientists did the math for these footprints, they concluded that these three dinosaurs were going 3.9 to 5.2 m.p.h. However, in 2021 researchers from the Netherlands made a computer reconstruction of a Tyrannosaurus walking, and they concluded that its top speed was only about 3 m.p.h. More evidence is needed to figure out how fast a tyrannosaur could walk.

            Still the trackways give a tantalizing look at the life of a tyrannosaur, no longer a loner, but a friendly guy who liked to hang out with his terror of friends.

            Make up a name for a group of you and your friends. Please put it in the comments below!

Sources (Click Me!)

Bryner, Jeanna. “Tyrannosaur Footprint Found in Montana.” Live Science.” 11 Oct. 2007. https://www.livescience.com/1939-tyrannosaur-footprint-montana.html

Burns, M. E., T. A. Tumanova and Philip J. Currie. “Postcrania of Juvenile Pinacosaurus grangeri (Ornithischia: Ankylosauria) from the Upper Cretaceous Alagteeg Formation, Alag Teeg, Mongolia: Implications for Ontogenetic Allometry in Ankylosaurs.” Journal of Paleontology. 2015. Vol. 89, pp. 168-182. https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/jpaleontol/ article-abstract/89/1/168/139797/Postcrania-of-juvenile-Pinacosaurus-grangeri.

Choi, Charles Q. “Tyrannosaurus Trackways Reveal a Dinosaur’s Walk.” Popular Mechanics. 23 July 2014. https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/animals/a10933/ tyrannosaurus-trackways-reveal-a-dinosaurs-walk-17016027/

Evans, D. C., D. A. Eberth, and M. J. Ryan. “Hadrosaurid (Edmontosaurus) Bonebeds from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation (Horsethief Member) at Drumheller, Alberta, Canada: Geology, Preliminary Taphonomy, and Significance.” Canadian Journal of Earth Science. 2015. Vol. 52, pp. 642–654. https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/cjes-2014-0184?download=true.

Gamillo, Elizabeth. “New Study Finds T-rex Walked at a Slow Pace of Three Miles Per Hour.” Smithsonian Magazine. 23 April 2021. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-study-finds-that-t-rex-walked-at-slow-pace-of-3-miles-per-hour-180977572/

“Largest Dinosaur Graveyard Found in Alberta.” The Canadian Press. 17 June 2010. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/largest-dinosaur-graveyard-found-in-alberta-1.874716

McCrea R.T., L.G. Buckley, J.O. Farlow, M.G. Lockley, P.J. Currie, et al. “A ‘Terror of Tyrannosaurs’: The First Trackways of Tyrannosaurids and Evidence of Gregariousness and Pathology in Tyrannosauridae.” 30 July 2014. PLoS ONE Vol. 9, p. 7: e103613. doi:10.1371/ journal.pone.01036

Title Image: Stock photo shows a dinosaur footprint in the ground. Footprints in Texas have been revealed as drought persists.
NEENAWAT/GETTY

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Pachycephalosaurus: The Bone-Head

One of the reasons I like dinosaurs so much is that some of them are just plain weird. And, for me, one of the weirdest is Pachycephalosaurus
(pa-KEE-seh·fuh·luh-SORE-us).

            Pachycephalosaurus lived in the late Cretaceous Period, 72 – 66 million years ago, in what is now the western United States and Canada. This was the same time and place that Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops lived. Pachycephalosaurus probably walked on two legs with its tail stretched out behind it and its head leaning forward to balance it. It was about 15 feet long, and weighed almost 1000 pounds. None of that makes it unusual. But when people take a closer look at this dinosaur, it definitely stands out.

            Pachycephalosaurus means “thick-headed lizard.” It is a bizarre creature for several reasons. First, the name is weird, even for a dinosaur, because it has so many syllables. If you ever want to impress someone, just rattle off that name without any pauses.

            Second, it had nine to ten inches of solid bone in a dome on top of its skull, twenty times thicker than the skulls of most other dinosaurs. That’s a huge difference!

Eden, Janine and Jim from New York City, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia 

            Scientists don’t know for sure why this dinosaur had such a thick skull, but some of them think Pachycephalosaurus liked to butt its head into things, especially other dinosaurs. Head-butting is used by modern animals, such as bighorn sheep or mountain goats, to establish dominance.

            The winner controls a territory and impresses the females. The thick skull of Pachycephalosaurus might have protected its brain when it collided with another dinosaur. Scars on the domes of some skulls also support this idea.

Photo via <a href=” ttps://www.goodfreephotos .com/”>Good Free Photos</a>

            But some scientists doubt head-butting was possible, saying the shape of its neck makes it unlikely its spine could withstand a head-on collision. And, the top of its head is rounded, so not much surface would collide with the other dinosaur. These scientists think that maybe Pachycephalosaurus used glancing blows to the side while fighting others to see who would control a territory. It also might be that Pachycephalosaurus having a big head just helped males to attract females. One thing scientists do agree on is that its thick skull wouldn’t have been much good as defense if it were attacked by Tyrannosaurus because the rest of its body had no defenses.  

The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

            However, it wasn’t just the thickness of the skull that made this dinosaur weird. Across the back of the dome and on its snout, it had large circular bumps (see skull above). Bumps aren’t all that weird, but scientists think most of the bumps started out as spikes, flattening as the dinosaur grew older. They have found skulls of smaller dome-headed dinosaurs that were thought to be different species of dinosaurs, such as one called Dracorex hogwartsia, which means “the Dragon King of Hogwarts” (named for Harry Potter’s school). They are now thought to be juvenile pachycephalosaurs. It seems odd that spikes would flatten into bumps as the dinosaur grew up, as spikes seem more useful than bumps, but, as I said, this is a weird dinosaur.  

            Another strange thing was its teeth. In the back of its mouth, it had wide, leaf-shaped teeth, similar to those found in many plant-eating dinosaurs. According to paleontologist, Philip Currie, “We have always been somewhat mystified by what these animals were eating, but I think the teeth at the back of the jaws clearly show it’s an herbivore.” But in 2018, paleontologists reported finding a more complete jaw, and they couldn’t believe what it showed. In the front of its mouth, it had sharp, triangular teeth, that were more like a carnivore.

            Paleontologist, Steve Brusatte, said, “It had the combination of a beak with these very sharp, steak knife-like serrated teeth … They must have been eating some kind of meat. Why else would you have steak knives at the front of your mouth?” This combination is very unusual. Scientists have suggested that this means it might be an omnivore, eating both plants and meat. The meat would have been small animals, such as lizards, frogs, or even small mammals; the plants would have been ferns, leaves, and conifer needles.   

            All in all, Pachycephalosaurus certainly qualifies as a strange and weird dinosaur. It’s one of my favorites, and I hope it is now one of yours.

UnexpectedDinoLesson, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Title Image provided by DKfindout

Sources (Click Me)

Sykes, Ben. “Seventeen Unusual, Bizarre, and Downright Weird Dinosaurs.” BBC Science Focus Magazine. 31 May 2018. https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/17-of-the-weirdest-dinosaurs-to-walk-the-planet/

“Pachycephalosaurus.” Find Out. Dorling Kindersley Limited. 2022. https://www.dkfindout. com/us/dinosaurs-and-prehistoric-life/dinosaurs/pachycephalosaurus/

Pickrell, John. “Vegetarian Dinosaur May Have Actually Eaten Meat, Skull Suggests.” National Geographic. 24 Oct. 2018. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/news-vegetarian-dinosaur-ate-meat-pachycephalosaurus-paleontology

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Battling Dinosaurs

            On a summer day in 2006, a fossil hunter named Clayton Phipps made a discovery that ranks among the most spectacular dinosaur finds ever. While exploring the rocky terrain of the Montana hills, he spotted a bit of bone weathering out of the rock. It turned out to be part of the pelvis of a Triceratops. After digging on and off for months, he discovered that it might be a complete skeleton of a 28-foot-long Triceratops.

            That’s rare, but that’s not all he found. With it, he unearthed the only 100% complete skeleton of a juvenile Tyrannosaurus Rex that has ever been found. It is 22 feet long, with all the bones are articulated – in their natural positions next to each other – which is very rare. And on top of that, they look like they were locked in battle when they died! This is a spectacular discovery! Only one other pair of apparently fighting dinosaurs – a Velociraptor and Protoceratops – has ever been found.

https://prehistoric-wiki.fandom.com/wiki/Tyrannosaurus

            Did the two dinosaurs die fighting each other? Scientists need more time before they can say for sure. Because there was a long court battle over who owned these bones, they are only just now getting to study them. They know that some of the Tyrannosaurus’ teeth are broken, and that some tyrannosaur teeth are in the Triceratops’ bones and body cavity, but they don’t know yet if those teeth belonged to this Tyrannosaurus. If they do, they could have gotten there in a fight, or it could be that the Tyrannosaurus found a dead Triceratops and took a bite. The Tyrannosaurus’ skull is cracked, and one finger is broken. But if the two creatures were killed by a mudslide, the impact of the mud and the debris it carried might have caused those injuries.

            However, it is also reasonable to think that those injuries happened in a fight. Scientists have never found skin impressions from a Triceratops frill – until now. There are also skin impressions on the Tyrannosaurus’ feet And they think some of the soft tissue inside the dinosaurs has been preserved, such as the stomachs. It might be possible to find out the last meal of each of these dinosaurs – before they ran into each other!

            Scientists are excited about the chance to study these unique dinosaurs. And very soon, the public will get to see them, too. These “Dueling Dinosaurs,” as they have been nicknamed, will be on show for the public at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh, NC, beginning in 2024. I can’t wait to go!

            Do you think they died fighting each other? Let me know in the comment section.

Sources (Click Me)

Geggel, Laura. “Cretaceous cold case of ‘dueling’ T. rex and Triceratops may finally be solved.” Live Science. 17 Nov. 2020. https://www.livescience.com/dueling-dinosaurs-fossils-to-museum.html

Greshko, Michael. “’Dueling Dinosaurs’ fossil, hidden from science for 14 years, could finally reveal its secrets.” National Geographic. 17 Nov. 2020. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/dueling-dinosaurs-fossil-finally-set-to-reveal-secrets Accessed 24 Feb. 2021.

Sager, Mike. “Will the Public Ever Get to See the ‘Dueling Dinosaurs’?” Smithsonian Magazine.
July, 2017. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/public-ever-see-dueling-dinosaurs-180963676/

Strickland, Ashley. “’Dueling dinosaurs’ fossils show Triceratops, T. rex, may have died after a battle.” CNN. 18 Nov. 2020. https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/17/world/dueling-dinosaurs-triceratops-t-rex-scn-trnd/index.html Accessed 24 Feb. 2021.

Featured

Dinosaur Mummies

            Everybody knows where you find mummies – in pyramids in Egypt. But not always. People made the Egyptian mummies, but under just the right conditions, Mother Nature can make them, too. A few, very rare dinosaur mummies have been found. Not just a skeleton but a fossil with skin and soft tissue preserved.

AntoninJury, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

            To become a mummy, a dinosaur that died would first need to be protected somehow from predators, so they couldn’t tear it apart. That could happen in a number of ways. The dinosaur could die in a place away from predators or be covered over with water from a flood or a giant mudslide. Some could be covered by the collapse of a sand dune.

            Being away from predators isn’t enough. Minerals need to soak into the skin and soft tissue before they have a chance to decay. It helps if the dinosaur is covered with something that slows down the microbes that cause that decay, such as certain kinds of mud. It also helps to have the right kind of skin. Some scientists have suggested that the reason most of the dinosaur mummies that have been found are duckbilled dinosaurs is that there was something in their skin that slowed down decay, giving the skin time to fossilize.

            The first dinosaur mummy was found in Wyoming in 1908. It was an Edmontosaurus (ed-MON-to-SAWR-us), a duckbill dinosaur common in the late Cretaceous. Though it’s hard to see in this picture, almost 2/3 of the body is still covered with skin. The skin consists of very small scales, less than two tenths of an inch in diameter. Unlike those of many reptiles, the scales are more like separate bumps than overlapping scales.

The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Henry Fairfield Osborn, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

            Different sizes are clustered together. The scales on the upper side of the body are larger than those on the lower side. Soft tissue between the claws on its hands suggests that it had padded feet, and tissue above the spine suggests it had a soft ridge along the back of the neck and spine.

The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

            Several other duckbill dinosaur mummies were found during the 1900s, but they didn’t have as much preserved soft tissue or skin. The next dinosaur mummy of any importance was not found until 2000 when scientists in Montana unearthed a Brachylophosaurus (BRACK-uh-LOF-o-SAWR-us), which is another type of duckbilled dinosaur. They named it Leonardo (nearby graffiti from 1916 said that Leonard loved Geneva). This mummy was 90% complete and revealed that the neck had unusually strong muscles and that its skin was scaly, similar to Edmontosaurus. Scientists were able to examine the contents of its stomach. It ate leaves, conifers, ferns, and flowering plants like magnolias. Its stomach also revealed parasites – small bristly worms.

ケラトプスユウタ, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

            Probably the most spectacular dinosaur mummy of all was discovered in 2011 in Alberta, Canada. It is Borealopelta (BORE-e-AL-o-PEL-ta), not a duckbilled dinosaur but a nodosaur, an armored dinosaur. In life it was 18 feet long and weighed about 3000 pounds. The back legs and tail are missing, but what is there is amazing. The skin was so well preserved that scientists were able to use a mass spectrometer to find out what the color of the dinosaur was.

© Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, illustration by Julius Csotonyi

            The back and sides of the dinosaur were a dark reddish brown, while the belly was a lighter reddish brown. We see that pattern of coloring, ark on top and light underneath, in many animals today. It helps those animals hide from predators. Not only was the skin well preserved, but also the armor itself. Usually, the armor falls off armored dinosaurs before they fossilize. Sometimes pieces of armor are found nearby, but often they aren’t. This mummy shows exactly where and how every piece of armor was attached. In addition, scientists have learned that the spikes were covered with keratin, the same stuff that fingernails are made of. This made the armor look bigger: the better to scare away predators – or perhaps to attract a mate.  

            No doubt additional exciting dinosaur mummies will be found in the future. A potential one, discovered in Montana in 2014, still lies encased in a 35,000-pound block of stone, waiting to be dug out. Each mummy helps fill in gaps in our knowledge of how dinosaurs looked and behaved.

            Which do you like better? Egyptian mummies or dinosaur mummies? Let me know in the comment section below.

Sources (Click Me)

Brachylophosaurus. Wikipedia. 22 March 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Brachylophosaurus#cite_note-MTT06-7

“Dinosaur Mummies.” Fossil Wiki. Fandom. n.d. https://fossil.fandom.com/wiki/ Dinosaur_mummies#Discovery_and_analysis

“Fossil ‘Mummy’ Shows Glimpse of Dinosaur Skin.” American Museum of Natural History.

            28 April, 2017, https://www.amnh.org/explore/news-blogs/news-posts/fossil-mummy-shows-glimpse-of-dinosaur-skin.

Greshko, Michael. “The Amazing Dinosaur Found (Accidentally) by Miners in Canada.” National Geographic. June 2017. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/ article/dinosaur-nodosaur-fossil-discovery

“Nodosaur Dinosaur ‘Mummy’ Unveiled with Skin and Guts Intact.” All That’s Interesting. 19 June 2020, https://allthatsinteresting.com/nodosaur-dinosaur-mummy.

“Spectacularly Detailed Armored Dinosaur “Mummy” Makes Its Debut.” Smart News. Smithsonian Magazine. 2021. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/mummified-armored-dinosaur-makes-its-debut-1-180963311/

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Velociraptor or Not

How accurate is Jurassic Park?

            In the first movie of the Jurassic Park series, the second scariest dinosaur was Velociraptor. (Scariest? T-rex, of course.) The movie showed a creature that was about six feet tall, with a huge foot claw that it held upright. Its body was thick, like a tyrannosaur, it was highly intelligent, and it hunted in a pack during the day. Given that most of us like watching movies with scary creatures, a star was born. Overnight Velociraptor became famous.

            But like many movies, Jurassic Park got it wrong. In fact, pretty much all of it was wrong. To start with, Velociraptor was little: only about three feet tall (one meter) measured at the hip. From the tip of its nose to the end of its tail, it measured about six feet (2 meters), but almost half of that length was its long, stiff tail. When Velociraptor was fully grown, it weighed only about 33 pounds (15 kg). A Great Dane, which is about the same height, can weigh up to 140 pounds (64 kg.).

Why is the height of a dinosaur measured at its hip? (Click Me)

Dinosaurs that walked on two legs didn’t stand upright. They leaned forward (sometimes a little, sometimes a lot) and used their tail to balance their head. This means that the head wouldn’t always be at the same height. It could go up and down. But the legs of dinosaurs are directly under their bodies, so the measurement of height at the hip would always be the same.

            The movie showed Velociraptor covered with scales, but scientists have found marks on the arm and tail bones of this dinosaur that show feathers were attached there. In fact, it’s likely their whole bodies were covered with feathers. However, though their arms may have looked like wings, Velociraptors weren’t capable of flight. Their arms were too short, and their bodies were too long. Instead, they walked on two legs.

            If you’re now picturing a fluffy, cute, little dinosaur, think again. It would not make a good pet. It may have been only about the size of a Great Dane, but it was a fierce hunter. Its upright, sickle (curved in an arc) claw was about 2½ inches (6.5 cm.) long, measured around the outer edge. That’s not very big compared to that claw in the movies, but an eagle’s talons are only two inches long, and think of the damage it can do with those!

            The movie did get it right that Velociraptor was a carnivore, a meat eater. It had a mouth full of very sharp, serrated (having a jagged edge , like a steak knife) teeth.  Its head was flat with large eyes that enabled it to see very clearly. It also had great senses of smell and hearing. The three claws on each hand were very sharp. Each foot had sharp claws, too, including that famous sickle claw. This claw was held up off the ground, which kept it very sharp. Claws that scrape along the ground become dull.

            The movie showed a highly intelligent, coordinated attack by a pack of Velociraptors in the daytime. However, none of that is true. First, Velociraptor was not that smart. Its brain was large compared to its body, but it’s a small body and a small brain. It was about as smart as a bird of prey, such as a hawk. Many modern mammals could have outthought it.

            Next, it probably wasn’t a pack hunter. Strangely, it is their teeth that make some scientists think this. Scientists have analyzed the teeth of young Velociraptors and compared them to adult Velociraptors. They’ve found that the chemicals in each set of teeth are different. This is important information because in pack animals the chemical makeup of the teeth is usually the same because old and young share the same food.

Dragos Andrei, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons

            Young animals which are not taken care of by their parents or the pack usually have different chemicals in their teeth than adults because they eat different food. They would eat lizards and insects, small creatures that a little dinosaur could catch. As an adult they’d eat bigger things. Young animals that have not been taken care of by their parents also tend not to hang out with others of their kind. And, dinosaurs are more closely related to reptiles and birds which generally do not hunt in packs. So, at least for right now, these facts have caused scientists to lean toward the theory that Velociraptor did not hunt in packs.  

            But whichever way it goes, it is certain that Velociraptor’s slim body and long legs made it a fast runner. It could run as fast as a roadrunner, maybe as fast as 25 mph (40 kph). Small prey, with their short legs, didn’t stand a chance of outrunning it. Their only chance of escaping lay in having a big head start because Velociraptor’s leg muscles weren’t strong enough to run really fast over a long distance.

            Sometimes Velociraptor is shown in books and movies using its sickle claw to rip open its prey, but that isn’t likely. The claw could break through the skin of a dinosaur, but tests show it wasn’t strong enough or long enough to kill another animal. Most likely that claw was used to hold onto its prey while Velociraptor used its other claws and its teeth to kill. Hawks and various other birds of prey use their talons in this way.

            Velociraptors also probably hunted at night, not in the day as in Jurassic Park. Scientists have noted that all birds and many reptiles alive today have a ring of bone around the eye. In those animals that hunt at night, the opening in the ring is large, to let in as much light as possible. Those that hunt in the day have a much smaller opening. Velociraptor has a large opening in its ring of bone. This makes it almost certain that it hunted at night. And that makes sense as the area Velociraptor lived in was mostly desert. It would want to hunt at night when it would be cooler. Its body wouldn’t overheat, and small creatures would be more likely to come out.

            All in all, Velociraptor is not much like the creature in the movie that made it famous, but the real Velociraptor was still a deadly predator.

            Which do you like better? The real Velociraptor or the one in the movie? Please let me know in the comments below.

Sources (Click Me)

“Dinosaurs: Where Jurassic Park Got It Wrong.” The Guardian. Theguardian.com. 8 Feb. 2009. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2009/feb/08/jurassic-park-dinosaur-inaccuracies

Hendry, Lisa. “Vicious Velociraptor: Tales of a Turkey-sized Dinosaur.” Natural History Museum London. https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/velociraptor-facts.html.

Maxwell, W. Desmond, and John H. Ostrom. “Taphonomy and Paleobiological Implications of Tenontosaurus-Deinonychus Associations.” Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, vol. 15, no. 4, [Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, Taylor & Francis, Ltd.], 1995, pp. 707–12, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4523664.

Osterloff, Emily. “Were Dinosaurs Good Parents?” Natural History Museum London. n.d. https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/were-dinosaurs-good-parents.html

Switek, Brian. “Dinosaurs Behaving Badly: Did Velociraptors Hunt in Packs?” 29 March 2011. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2011/mar/29/dinosaurs-behaviour-raptors-pack-hunters

Taylor, Ian. “The Scary Truth about Velociraptors.”  Science Focus. BBC Focus Magazine. 30 May 2021. https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/the-scary-truth-about-velociraptors/

“Velociraptor Had Feathers, Scientists Say.” CBS News. 20 Sept. 2007. https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/velociraptor-had-feathers-scientists-say-1.686873

Yong, Ed. “How We Know Velociraptor Hunted by Night.” National Geographic. 14 April 2021. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/dinosaurs-around-the-clock-or-how-we-know-velociraptor-hunted-by-night

First feathered dinosaur from Dreamstime, paid for July 15, 2023

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Tyrannosaurus Wrecks

An old dinosaur joke goes: “What happens if you let a tyrannosaur into your house?”

“Tyrannosaurus wrecks.”

            In fact, that is just what would happen. The name Tyrannosaurus rex means “King of the Tyrant Lizards.” The sheer size and power of a tyrannosaur is amazing. An adult T-rex could grow up to 40 feet long. That’s four feet longer than a school bus. And it weighed about 9 tons. That’s 18,000 pounds. Its height was about 13 feet tall at its hip. (Paleontologists measure there because Tyrannosaur didn’t stand straight up.) Its head was huge – five feet long – and it had banana-shaped teeth that could grow as long as 12 inches! The teeth were also serrated, having jagged edges running up and down the front and back of the tooth. This meant it could slice through meat like a steak knife. Its bite was so powerful it could go right through almost any bone. Joseph Castro, a writer for Live Science, compared the strength of its bite to the same impact as a medium-size elephant sitting down.  

The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

            T-rex lived at the very end of the reign of dinosaurs, about 68-66.5 million years ago, during what’s called the Cretaceous Period. It was first discovered in Montana in 1902, though fossils of it have been found from Canada to Texas. It was, of course, a meat-eater, a carnivore. Footprints of other, similar dinosaurs have been found showing they traveled in packs, so Tyrannosaurus might have done so, too.

            For years paleontologists have argued about whether this huge creature was an active predator, hunting and killing live prey, or a scavenger, feasting on animals that were already dead. They were certainly big enough to chase other dinosaurs away from any dead animal, but many people feel Tyrannosaurus wouldn’t have been able to find enough to eat this way. 

myfavoritedinosaur.com and LadyofHats, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

            Scientists argued for years, but a study published in 2013, provided evidence supporting the idea of T-rex, the hunter. Fossils from a hadrosaur, a duckbilled dinosaur, were dug up in South Dakota, and the crown of a Tyrannosaurus tooth was found embedded in its tail. But the tail showed signs that it had healed after being bit. An already dead animal doesn’t heal. The T-rex must have attacked it, but the duckbilled dinosaur got away.

            Another clue that T-rex was a hunter comes from studies that show that the powerful muscles in its legs could have allowed it to run as fast as 25 mph. A scavenger doesn’t need to run that fast, though most likely Tyrannosaurus ambushed its prey, rather than chasing it for long distances. It was just too heavy to run flat out for long. It was a sprinter, not a miler.

https://prehistoric-wiki.fandom.com/wiki/Tyrannosaurus

            Just recently, an incredible fossil find has been uncovered. It was found in 2006, but lay encased in the surrounding rock for years. It shows a juvenile Tyrannosaurus seemingly locked in battle with a young Triceratops. However, scientists aren’t sure yet that they were fighting each other. Some of the Tyrannosaurus’ teeth are broken, and some tyrannosaur teeth are in the Triceratops’ bones and body cavity, but they don’t know yet if those teeth belonged to this Tyrannosaurus. If they do, they could have gotten there in a fight, or it could be that the T-Rex found a dead Triceratops and took a bite. The Tyrannosaurus’ skull is cracked, and one finger is broken. But if the two creatures were killed by a mudslide, the impact of the mud and the debris it carried might have caused those injuries. However, it is also reasonable to think that those injuries could have happened in a fight. Even though Tyrannosaurus likely was a hunter, it probably wouldn’t have turned down a meal that was already killed.

            Another area of debate is why Tyrannosaurus had such small arms. They are so short T-rex couldn’t even reach its mouth with them. Some scientists argue that they are short because the dinosaur didn’t need them. With such a powerful bite, it didn’t need to fight with claws. And with so much space in its body needed for powerful neck muscles, there wasn’t much room for arm muscles. Others argue that the arm muscles were strong enough to hold struggling prey, so they were useful for something.

©Shaina Read

            There are many competitors today for the title “King of the Dinosaurs.” Giganotosaurus was shaped much like Tyrannosaurus and was about eight feet longer. Spinosaurus was thinner but may have been more than 50 feet long. But size isn’t everything. Tyrannosaurus had a larger brain, which gave it exceptional sight and smell. And don’t forget that bite force. No other animal, living or extinct, has ever had a more powerful bite. For many, that means T-rex can keep its crown.

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Loving All Things Dinosaur

            When did you start to love dinosaurs? I began when I watched The Flintstones on TV as a kid. It was a cartoon show about a “stone age” family, Fred and Wilma Flintstone. The people on the show used dinosaurs for all kinds of things, such as a little dinosaur as a garbage disposal in the kitchen and a big dinosaur for construction. Their airplanes were Pteranodons. I wanted a pet dinosaur, like the Flintstones had, but I knew it was all make-believe.

            I learned about real dinosaurs by going to the Field Museum in Chicago. We went there on field trips throughout elementary school, and my family visited there, too. Staring up at those huge skeletons was just amazing! They were so big! I didn’t even come up to their knees. There weren’t as many of them in the museum then as there are now. And the scientists still had a lot to discover, such as that dinosaurs didn’t drag their tails. But those extinct creatures stirred my imagination. If there was a real Jurassic Park, I would go in a second.

            I remember in sixth grade reading The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It was a story about a group of explorers who find live dinosaurs on a plateau in South America. It inspired me to write the first story I ever wrote. It was about a group of kids who find live dinosaurs on a plateau in South America. Well, okay, it wasn’t very original, but it was still fun.

            Dinosaurs were popular back then, but they weren’t in the media as much as they are now. I still loved them, but they took a backseat as I grew up, got married, and had a child. Then in the late 1980s, I got an opportunity to write a series of dinosaur books for the publisher I worked for. As I did the research, I was amazed at how far paleontology had come. Scientists thought that dinosaurs were far more exciting than they used to think. Dinosaurs weren’t just big plodding monsters, who sat around in swamps munching plants all day. They were as diverse as the different animals alive today. When I was growing up, scientists knew about only a few hundred dinosaurs. Now they have identified more than 2000 different species. Some lived in herds. Others traveled in packs and worked together to bring down large prey. Still others were loving parents who took care of their babies.

            I ended up publishing a series of 24 dinosaur books. Most of them are pictured below, with some of the bones from my collection. They sold all across the country, were translated into Spanish, and won Best Children’s Nonfiction Books that year (1989) from the Society of Midland Authors.

            Since that time, I’ve published another 12 dinosaur books. I’ve collected more than 50 dinosaur bones and replicas, and I’ve traveled throughout the Midwest with those bones doing programs on dinosaurs (please see my web site http://www.janetriehecky.com).

            I’ve kept up with the current research and plan most of my vacations Around visiting dinosaur museums around the country. I love how weird and big and awesome dinosaurs are, so I thought I’d start a blog on dinosaurs. Along the way I’ve found out some pretty amazing things about them – like,
did you know that half the length of a Mamenchisaurus was its neck? – and I’d like to share what I’ve learned with you.

One of my children's books, 'Show Me Dinoasurs: My First Picture Encyclopedia'.

            If you’re interested in finding out more about dinosaurs, you can visit here once a week. Also, I would love to learn how you started to love dinosaurs. Please drop a note with your dinosaur story in the comment field.

Title Image Provided by Allie Caulfield (processed by User:MathKnight), Tadek Kurpaski, User:EvaK, User:J. Spencer, User:Domser, User:Captmondo, User:Fir0002, User:FunkMonk. Collage created by User:IJReid, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

My Favorite Dino Memes Vol #2

Happy Holidays everyone! Hope you all are enjoying the season!