Latest Origin of birds Stories
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...
It is the only dinosaur egg in the world to have an oval shape, similar to that of chicken eggs Before her death in December 2010, Nieves López Martínez, palaeontologist of the Complutense University of Madrid, was working on the research of dinosaur eggs with a very peculiar characteristic: an ovoid, asymmetrical shape. Together with Enric Vicens, palaeontologist of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, the two scientists conducted an exhaustive analysis of their discovery, recently...
Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online One of the most complete dinosaur fossils ever discovered suggests that feathered dinosaurs were more prevalent than previously thought and could have been the norm, not the exception. The 150 million-year-old fossil found in northern Bavaria shows that the dinosaur had down-like feathers over parts of its front and back as well on its tail. Scientists dubbed the creature Sciurumimus albersdoerferi after "Scirius”, the scientific...
Although a sparrow and a Tyrannosaurus Rex might appear to have nothing in common, evolutionary biologists see more that relates the two creatures than not. A new study, led by Harvard scientists, has shown that modern birds are essentially living dinosaurs with skulls that are remarkably similar to those of their juvenile ancestors. Arkhat Abzhanov, Associate Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Bhart-Anjan Bhullar, a PhD student in Abzhanov laboratory and the first...
New research from Montana State University's Museum of the Rockies has revealed how dinosaurs like Velociraptor and Deinonychus used their famous killer claws, leading to a new hypothesis on the evolution of flight in birds. In a paper published Dec. 14 in PLoS ONE, MSU researchers Denver W. Fowler, Elizabeth A. Freedman, John B. Scannella and Robert E. Kambic (now at Brown University in Rhode Island), describe how comparing modern birds of prey helped develop a new behavior model for...
Researchers at the University of Alberta have discovered Cretaceous-era feathers trapped in tree resin in western Canada--fossils which may tell "the most complete story of feather evolution ever seen," according to BBC News reports. A total of 11 fragments were discovered by paleontology graduate student Ryan McKellar, according to the British news agency, which reportedly show the progression from "hair-like 'filaments' to doubly-branched feathers of modern birds." McKellar's...
Archaeopteryx, once believed to be the world's earliest bird, may actually have been just another feathered dinosaur, according to a report published Wednesday in the journal Nature.Researchers in China, led by Xing Xu of Linyi University, carried out a phylogenetic analysis combining a newly discovered fossil with other similar dinosaurs and early birds, and concluded that the species should no longer be considered a fully developed bird.If confirmed, the controversial hypothesis would be a...
New York Medical College scientist proposes a new theory of the origin of birdsA developmental biologist at New York Medical College is proposing a new theory of the origin of birds, which traditionally has been thought to be driven by the evolution of flight. Instead, Stuart A. Newman, Ph.D., credits the emergence of enlarged skeletal muscles as the basis for their upright two-leggedness, which led to the opportunity for other adaptive changes like flying or swimming. And it is all based on...
Chinasaurs Exhibit and Sea Rex IMAX® Film Open May 26 for short summer run at Museum of Nature & Science DALLAS, May 26, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Museum of Nature & Science is launching a double dinosaur deal that offers a comprehensive look at the Mesozoic Era, through the opening of a new dinosaur exhibit, Chinasaurs, and accompanying IMAX® film, Sea Rex: Journey to a Prehistoric World. Both open May 26 at the Museum's Fair Park location and will run until...
Researchers have found that a 150 million year old "dinobird" fossil, long thought to contain nothing but fossilized bone and rock, has been hiding remnants of the animal's original chemistry. Using the bright X-ray beam of the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, located at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, an international team of paleontologists, geochemists and physicists has revealed this transformative glimpse into one of the most...
Latest Origin of birds Reference Libraries
Scipionyx, meaning "Scipio's claw," and named after Scipione Breislak, is a genus of theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous Period of what is now Italy (113 million years ago). It was discovered in 1981 by amateur paleontologist Giovanni Todesco near Pietraroja, Italy, about 50 miles from Naples. Fossils were preserved in the Pietraroja limestone formation, well known for unusually well-preserved fossils. Todesco thought the fossilized remains were that of a bird. Unaware of the...
Protarchaeopteryx, meaning "before Archaeopteryx," is a genus of feathered theropod dinosaur from the Aptian age of the Early Cretaceous Period (124 million years ago). It was found in the Jianshangou bed of the Yixian Formation in what is now China. It was most likely more primitive than Archaeopteryx, making it a non-avian theropod dinosaur rather than a true avian bird. Protarchaeopteryx was about 3.3 feet in length, making it larger than Archaeopteryx. It had symmetrical feathers on...
Citipati, meaning "funeral pyre lord", is a genus of theropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period of what is now Mongolia. It is known from the Djadokhta Formation in the Gobi Desert. It is one of the best known oviraptorids thanks to a number of well preserved fossils, some of which have been found in brooding positions on top of egg nests. These findings help solidify the link between non-avian dinosaurs and birds. It was first described by James M. Clark, Mark Norell, and Rinchen...
Anchiornis, meaning "near bird", is a genus of small, feathered dinosaur. The type species A. Huxleyi is named in honor of Thomas Henry Huxley, a scientist known for his early studies in the biological evolutionary relationship between birds and dinosaurs. The type specimen was described by paleontologist Xu Xing in 2008. The remains of Anchiornis were discovered in western Liaoning, China in sedimentary lake deposits. The age of the dinosaur is uncertain, but it is likely that it lived...
