“During the Polish-Mongolian paleontological expedition to the Gobi Desert of Mongolia, in 1971, an articulated Velociraptor mongoliensis skeleton was found with hands and feet grasping a Protoceratops andrewsi. Evidence suggests that these two dinosaurs were indeed killed simultaneously, smothered by sand, possibly during a dune collapse. The active predatory nature of Velociraptor is graphically illustrated as it grasps its prey with its forelimbs, while kicking and raking the belly and chest with its hindlimbs. Protoceratops was discovered in a semi-erect stance with the Velociraptor’s right forelimb clutched between its jaws in a desperate fight for survival. Their discovery reveals a snapshot in time, of a life and death struggle, between these ancient adversaries.”
Re-creation of the fossil by Black Hills Institute of Geological Research: “The skeleton casts we used, though more complete, are positioned in poses very similar to those of the original scene”
Illustration by Peter Schouten
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Carboniferous scene by Davide Bonadonna
Horniest Dinosaur Ever: Kosmoceratops
Plenty of dinosaurs donned the horns that served them some good for much of the prehistoric era, but which of them was the top contender holding the most? The culprit.. was Kosmoceratops. One look at its head and one would soon realize just why they called it the horniest dinosaur
The creature lived 76 million years ago in the warm, wet swamps of what is now southern Utah and was remarkable in bearing 15 full-sized horns on its head.
Image: The dinosaur Kosmoceratops’ 15 horns probably evolved as a form of sexual display. Reconstruction: Lukas Panzarin/PLoS
The animal, named Kosmoceratops, had an enormous two metre-long skull, was five metres from snout to tail and weighed an estimated 2.5 tonnes.
“These animals are basically oversized rhinos with a whole lot more horns on their heads. They had huge heads relative to their body size,” said Scott Sampson a researcher at the Utah Museum of Natural History.
Kosmoceratops, a relative of the more familiar Triceratops, had one horn over its nose, one over each eye, one protruding from each cheek bone and a row of ten across the frill at the back of its head.
“As far as we know it’s the most ornate-headed dinosaur ever found, with so many well-developed horns on its head,” Sampson told the Guardian.
Scientists have long speculated about the purpose of dinosaurs’ horns. In the past, some suspected that beasts like Triceratops used their headgear to fight off predators, as depicted in the prehistoric clash between a fur-bikinied Raquel Welch and a Triceratops in Ray Harryhausen’s 1966 movie, One Million Years BC. Many palaeontologists now believe that dinosaurs’ horns were often more for sexual display and fighting off other members of the same species, much like rutting deer.
“In this case, we think these horns were really about competing for mates and more akin to peacock feathers or deer antlers, where it’s males trying to attract females or intimidate other males,” Sampson said. “Sometimes it’s good to have a way of visually ranking yourself relative to other animals. You can avoid unnecessary conflicts and that is probably what they were doing with all these bony bells and whistles.”
Daemonosaurus chauliodus by Cheung Chung Tat
Scelidosaurus sketch and finished painting by John Sibbick
Ornithocheirus criorhynchus by John Sibbick
Pteranodon longiceps by TopGon
Antarctic Australasia, by John Sibbick
Around 500 years ago, Leonardo da Vinci briefly focused his attention on fossils — and inadvertently triggered a mystery that remains unsolved.
A page of Leonardo’s Paris Manuscript I is covered in sketches of marine fossils; among them is a honeycomb-like array of hexagons that palaeontologists think might constitute the first recorded observation of an enigmatic trace fossil called Paleodictyon1. The fossil is thought ny many paleontologists to be an imprint of burrows made by an animal living in loose sediment on the sea floor. Examples of Paleodictyon have been found that date back to the Cambrian period, 542 million to 488 million years ago, and similar structures are still being made on the sea floor today.
But the identity of the animal that generates the hexagons remains elusive. A set of similar, but simpler, fossils could explain why — and one researcher says that they could show that organisms started caring for their young millions of years earlier than thought.
(via Leonardo fossil sketch may depict early nests | Nature News & Comment)
This picture from my paleontology book always trips me out. Just how different are we, really? From Bringing Fossils to Life by D.R. Prothero.
The brontosaurus doesn’t exist. The dinosaur was created in 1879 by Othniel Marsh, who was trying to one-up rival paleontologist Edward Cope. The skeleton he assembled was actually a young Apatosaurus, a fact left undiscovered until almost 100 years later.
(Image credit to Animal Planet.)
Giganotosaurus carolinii (by pablodf)
Deinonychosaur tracks of the ichnogenus Paravipus didactyloides, interpreted as representing two individuals that were moving in the same direction.
