Latest Dinosaurs Stories

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online According to a recently published study in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, a small bird fossil found in Wyoming could be the link that connects the evolutionary dots between hummingbirds and swifts. Because the fossil had unusually well-preserved feathers, the scientists said they were able to create an approximate reconstruction that would not have been possible with fossilized bones alone. "This fossil bird represents the...

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online The Microraptor was a small flying dinosaur known to prey on birds and tree-dwelling mammals. New research led by a team of researchers at the University of Alberta reveals that the Microraptor was a capable aquatic hunter as well and was able to swoop down and pluck fish out of the water. Scott Persons, a paleontology graduate student at the University of Alberta, says that fossilized remains in China provided evidence of the...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Researchers at the University of Calgary and Montana State University have found a small North American dinosaur that incubated its eggs in a way similar to some modern brooding birds. In a report of their findings that appeared recently in the journal Paleobiology, the scientists wrote about their close examination of the shells of fossil eggs found in Alberta and Montana from a small meat-eating dinosaur called Troodon. They said...

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online Researchers from the University of Colorado claim to have uncovered new evidence supporting the notion that a Manhattan-sized asteroid collided with the Earth some 66 million years ago, triggering a global firestorm that would have led to the extinction of 80 percent of the planet’s species. According to Douglas Robertson of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and colleagues, the firestorm...

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online The last region on Earth to be colonized by humans was home to more than 1,000 species of birds that went extinct shortly after people reached their island homes, new research from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and collaborators reveals. Tropical Pacific Islands, like Hawaii and Fiji, were an untouched paradise almost 4,000 years ago when the arrival of the first people caused irreversible damage with overhunting and...

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online One of the most popular theories on the disappearance of the dinosaurs surrounds the 110 mile-wide Chicxulub crater in Mexico. Many scientists believe the extinction was caused by an asteroid that crashed into Earth, leaving only a massive crater behind. However, a group of American scientists is presenting a theory that the culprit was actually a speeding comet, not a relatively slow-moving asteroid as many theories assert....

WATCH VIDEO: [Ancient Crocs And Their Prey] Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online By catching an ancient reptile with its ‘hand in the cookie jar,’ paleontologists were able to identify a relationship between a predator and a previously unknown species of dinosaur that it preyed upon. According to a report in the open-access journal PLoS ONE, a group of American researchers has discovered a new species of herbivorous dinosaur that was preyed upon by prehistoric...

Alan McStravick for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online We’ve had an increasing fascination with comets and asteroids over the past several years. We’ve fictionally sent a rogue group of astronauts to detonate one of these heavenly travelers. We’ve seen the disastrous effect of a potential impact in both movies and on television. We’ve elevated our global anxiety tracking the trajectory of these large, quickly moving celestial bodies. And it seems our vigilance on this matter,...

University of Cambridge New research shows that male Eurasian Jays in committed relationships are able to share food with their female partner according to her current desire. The behavior suggests the potential for 'state-attribution' in these birds – the ability to recognize and understand the internal life and psychological states of others. The research was carried out in Professor Nicola Clayton's Comparative Cognition lab at Cambridge University's Department of Psychology,...

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online A recently discovered dinosaur fossil believed to pre-date those from which birds were believed to have evolved could drastically change current theories on the origins of flight, according to a new UK study. According to BBC News, the fossil comes from a feathered-but-flightless dinosaur that was less than a foot in length and lived approximately 140 million years ago. The creature, which has been dubbed the Eosinopteryx, would...