dinosaur

The Tyrannosaurus-Rex was, no doubt, one of the largest beasts to ever walk around on two legs. Questions remain, though, about how quickly it could move; were those legs similarly capable of running, and if so, how fast could this dinosaur move? The topic has been studied extensively, but answers are still forthcoming. In the latest study, researchers used a multi-physics approach to reconstructing the dino's locomotor abilities, and the results are surprising.

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Some recent research indicated that the Tyrannosaurus rex -- that is, the T-rex -- may have had feathers, but a new study has dashed that speculation, finding that the massive, ancient beast in fact had scaly, reptilian-like skin. The idea of a feathery T-rex came from the discovery that some theropods had feathers, leading some to speculate that the massive Tyrannosaurus rex did, as well. Researchers have found, however, that the evolution of gigantism included the loss of these extensive feather coverings.

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Despite all that we know about the dinosaurs, there's still a lot to learn, and today we're discovering more about their disappearance from our fair planet. New research that delves into the asteroid that hit Earth, making the dinosaurs go extinct as a result, is giving us a window into just what happened to make the impact so severe. As it turns out, the size of the asteroid and the force of the impact may not have been to blame, but rather where the impact occurred could be responsible for the dinosaurs dying out.

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Despite everything fossils can tell us about dinosaurs, a new study is changing some of the oldest research we have at our disposal. The study in question, published in the journal Nature today, not only changes how some dinosaurs are classified, but also suggests traits of a common ancestor and shakes up what we thought we knew about where dinosaurs came from.

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The popular image of dinosaurs is that of giant lizards. After all, that's where their name came from. Science, however, paints us a different and more complicated story. They were warm-blooded, unlike reptiles and some were actually closer to birds than lizards, having feathers and wings. There were, however, nonavian dinosaurs that were indeed closer to crocodiles than chicken. And these, according to scientists, laid eggs that took 6 months or more to hatch, which, in a sad way, helped bring about their extinction.

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In the Gobi desert a new sort of dinosaur has been discovered which changed drastically from birth to age six. Using a total of 19 sets of bones, paleontologists show how Limusaurus inextricabilis ("mire lizard who could not escape") changed in big ways in the first year of its life. Researchers have shown how baby versions of this dinosaur had teeth, but that these teeth left the dinosaur within a year. But what about reptiles in our modern age that lose and grow several sets of teeth? This research has an answer for that, and other oddities, too.

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The chunk of amber seen in the first photo here is something very unique and unusual. It holds a segment of a feathered tail from a Cretaceous-era dinosaur along with an ant and various plant segments and other debris. The tail is the big draw though as it is the very first of its sort ever discovered.

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Tongtianlong limosus, the Mud Dragon, was caught in sticky mud in China over 66 million years ago - and died there. Of course it wasn't called China back then, and this was when our planet looked a lot different from what it looks like today. But back between 66 and 72 million years ago, the Mud Dragon gasped its last. Not long after the death of the Mud Dragon, our Earth changed drastically.

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What you see above might not look like much more than a small rock, but it marks a huge first in the field of paleontology: it's the first known example of a dinosaur brain tissue fossil. Originally discovered in Sussex, UK, it's believed to have come from a species similar to the Iguanodon, a large herbivore, roughly 133 million years ago.

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Back in 2005, researchers found dinosaur bones in Queensland, Australia, and now many years later there's more information about them: they belong to a newly discovered dinosaur species dubbed Savannasaurus elliottorum, a type of long-necked dino called a sauropod. The fossilized remains are notable for many reasons, one being that it’s the most complete sauropod skeleton ever found in the land down under. And, of course, there’s that part about it being a whole new species.

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Thanks to movies like Jurassic Park we all think of dinosaurs as having incredibly loud roars. Scientists aren't sure if the actual dinosaurs that these movies aim to represent could roar. The reason for this is that it is incredibly hard to find ancient dinosaur voice boxes because they didn't fossilize well. What dinosaurs would have used to make vocalizations would have been one of two different structures called a larynx or a syrinx. Most living land-dwelling vertebrates today use a larynx to vocalize, this is a structure mostly made of cartilage that makes sounds at the back of the mouth.

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Researchers have discovered one of the largest fossilized dinosaur footprints in existence, with it measuring about 42-inches in length and 30-inches in width. The discovery was made in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert by researchers from Mongolian and Japanese institutions who were on a joint project. According to these researchers, the footprint may have come from a herbivorous long-necked titanosaur, a massive dinosaur that may have been more than sixty feet tall and nearly one hundred feet long.

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