The Pet Tree House - Where Pets Are Family Too : Dinosaur The Pet Tree House - Where Pets Are Family Too : Dinosaur
Showing posts with label Dinosaur. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dinosaur. Show all posts

Sunday, August 22, 2021

Scelidosaurus : First complete dinosaur skeleton ever found is ready for its closeup at last


The first complete dinosaur skeleton ever identified has finally been studied in detail and found its place in the dinosaur family tree, completing a project that began more than 150 years ago.

The first complete dinosaur skeleton ever identified has finally been studied in detail and found its place in the dinosaur family tree, completing a project that began more than a century and a half ago.

The skeleton of this dinosaur, called Scelidosaurus, was collected more than 160 years ago on west Dorset’s Jurassic Coast. The rocks in which it was fossilised are around 193 million years old, close to the dawn of the Age of Dinosaurs.

To read more on this story, click here: Scelidosaurus : First complete dinosaur skeleton ever found is ready for its closeup at last



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Wednesday, November 4, 2020

Scientists Find 33 Creatures Living In A Cave That Was Sealed Off For 5 Million Years


After 5 million years of total isolation from the world, what do you think you’d find inside a totally sealed off cave? Dinosaurs? Prehistoric bugs? Evidence of alien life? No one knew until Dr. Christian Lascu finally opened up Movile cave in Romania. Before that point, the cave had gone completely untouched for somewhere around 5 million years…except by the few creatures who adapted to be able to survive there.

Being closed off from the world for so long caused fresh air to become completely nonexistent in the cave, rendering the air inside toxic and oppressively humid. However, these conditions not only allowed for incredible life to be formed, but to thrive. Some creatures are just so adaptable and so different from humans that they can survive in areas where we’d never dream of living!

To read more on this story, click here: Scientists Find 33 Creatures Living In A Cave That Was Sealed Off For 5 Million Years


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Wednesday, September 6, 2017

A Pet Groomer in Thailand Posted a Video to YouTube of a Cat Shaved to Look Like a Dinosaur


A pet groomer in Thailand posted a video to YouTube of a cat shaved to look like a dinosaur, claiming that this is currently their most popular kitty hair-do. This isn’t the first cat on the internet groomed to look like a prehistoric beast. In fact, it’s become a bit of a trend. Dinosaur cats can be found all over Instagram and social media. It may look a bit silly and cute, but there are some problems that can arise from grooming a cat this way.

Before you pull out the clippers and start giving your cat the stegosaurus treatment, here are a few things to consider. A cat’s fur coat serves as an insulator that helps them regulate their body temperature, keeping them warm in cold environments, but also protecting them from heat and sunburns. Removing that fur reduces their protection from the elements.

Clipping can also be stressful for cats, so doing it without a need might unnecessarily cause anxiety. Also, the skin underneath a cat’s fur can be delicate and tear more easily without a protective coat, leaving kitties open to injury. The lack of fur can cause dryness and irritation, and the itchiness as the fur grows back can lead to excessive licking and scratching, causing abrasions.

It looks like most of the dino-cats in pictures and videos online aren’t shaved all the way to the skin, so at least they are left with some fur to protect them. Still, it probably feels unusual for the cats that can feel odd patches in their fur that weren’t there before, and it’s really only for the humans’ benefit to see a cat groomed in a silly way.

While having a dino-cat may look cute and sound like fun, it’s best to avoid unnecessary shaving and grooming. There are certain medical needs that require a cat to be shaved, but your vet should be able to advise you on when it is appropriate. Some long-haired breeds also require more grooming to remove matted fur and so they can stay a bit cooler. Again, these are grooming needs, not something that should be done for no good reason.











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Friday, September 16, 2016

Paleontologists Have Teamed Up with a Paleoartist to Create a Model of an Adorable Bird Lizard


Psittacosaurus to create a model which challenges everything you thought you knew about the typical dinosaur.

Research led by Dr Jakob Vinther of the University of Bristol and published in a paper in the journal Current Biology showed that a Psittacosaurus — nicknamed a "parrot-lizard" — is about the size of a turkey, has bristles on its tail and a birdlike beak. In other words, a bit weird, but also pretty cute.

It's also quite likely that the animal had feathers and a horn on each cheek, the experts say. Quite aptly, Psittacosaurus belongs to the group ceratopsians, which basically means "horned faces" in Greek. It's the same group that contains Triceratops.

The scientists say Psittacosaurus would have lived in what is now China roughly 100-123 million years ago in what may have been a forested region, where several other feathered dinosaur fossils have also been found.

The model that brought Psittacosaurus to life

Some limited information could be gathered about the colouring of Psittacosaurus from preserved melanin patterns inside the fossil, but to get a more accurate glimpse, the team asked paleoartist Bob Nicholls to create a real size 3D model of the animal.

Vinther said that the dark colouring and light belly of Psittacosaurus indicates that it probably lives in forests with dappled lighting, where it could blend into its surroundings and hide from predators.

"The fossil preserves clear countershading, which has been shown to function by counter-illuminating shadows on a body, thus making an animal appear optically flat to the eye of the beholder," he said. "We were amazed to see how well these color patterns actually worked to camouflage this little dinosaur."

Dinosaurs were probably feathery, not scaled like in Jurassic Park.

Vinther’s research with pigmentation began while he was at Yale University, where his studies revealed that structures previously believed to be dead bacteria were actually things called melanosomes; small structures that carry melanin pigments, which are found in skin and feathers.

There have been growing theories over the past few decades that dinosaurs were probably more bird-like than lizard. In 1964, Yale Professor John Ostrom discovered a fossil called Deinonychus and hypothesised that it might be warm-blooded and covered in feathers. Several years later, paleontologist Robert Bakker described the famous T-rex as "the 20,000 pound roadrunner from Hell."

Since 1983 hundreds of feathered fossils have been found around the world, but mostly in China. Each new fossil finding provides clues about previously discovered ones, and brings up new questions about whether dinosaurs were scaled at all. For example, new ideas about where feathers could have been attached on arm bones of theropods such as velociraptors.

The researchers now want to explore more types of fossils to further understand how other species might have been pigmented to be able to camouflage themselves.

                          Psittacosaurus lived about 100 million years ago.


                  The turkey-sized Psittacosaurus in the Bristol Botanic Garden.


              The Chinese fossil was preserved with skin and pigments intact.





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Sunday, January 17, 2016

Titanosaur, the Biggest Dinosaur That Ever Lived: Skeleton is So Large its Head Pokes Out of a Museum's Door


It was the biggest dinosaur that ever lived, so when museum experts tried to reconstruct a life-sized skeleton of the recently discovered Titanosaur it presented something of a challenge.

The American Museum of Natural History in New York needed to use some careful spatial planning when it built a replica of the enormous creature for a new exhibition.

At 20 ft (6 m) tall and 122 ft (37 m) long, the recently discovered dinosaur's skeleton is so big it does not fit in the museum’s warehouse-sized exhibition room.

Instead curators were forced to build the massive dinosaur so that its head pokes out of the door to the huge room.

Visitor's to the exhibition, which opens in New York today, pass under the creature's massive head, which hangs just 9.5 ft (2.8 m) above the floor.

A video from the museum shows a time-lapse of the construction team putting the giant bone jigsaw together.

The Titanosaur, which has yet to be given an official species name, was uncovered by paleontologists in a desert region of Argentine Patagonia in 2014, after a farmer found what he suspected to be fossils.

Scientists believe the creatures lived 100 million years ago, and fed exclusively on vegetation.

The 122-foot-long dinosaur stands 20 feet tall and likely weighed 70 tons, about the same as 10 African elephants. Its thigh bones alone are each nearly 8 feet long.

To build the giant structure, the museum team started with the giant hind legs and pelvis.

From there, it was built up over a number of hours adding sections of the spine, followed by the forelegs, ribs, neck, head and tail.

The dinosaur was identified from among 223 fossils from the Patagonian site, by paleontologists from the Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio in Argentina and a team at the American Museum of Natural History.

The museum staff worked with Canadian company, Research Casting International, to produce the skeleton.



The giant cast took the Canadian firm more than six months to make, based on 84 fossil bones that were excavated from the site in 2014.

To build the display, the bones were recreated through plaster casts and 3-D printing.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the skull was partially designed using a single tooth.

The real fossils would have been far too heavy to mount, so the life-size model is made of fiberglass.

With its neck elevated, the titanosaur would have been tall enough to peer into the window of a five-story building, the museum said.

The Titanosaur will be shown to the public in a walking pose, with its neck stretched out toward the museum's fourth-floor elevators.

In a Tweet from its official account, the museum states: “Ladies & gentlemen, we are proud to present the Titanosaur, the Museum's largest dinosaur.”



A new video from the American Museum of Natural History in New York shows the construction of a replica of the world's biggest dinosaur for a new exhibition. The video shows a time-lapse of the construction team putting the giant fiberglass bone jigsaw together.








At 20 ft (6 m) tall and 122 ft (37 m) long, the recently discovered dinosaur's skeleton is so big it does not fit in the museum’s warehouse-sized exhibition room.


The biggest dinosaur ever to be shown at the American Museum of Natural History will be unveiled today, and its head will poke out the door to greet visitors (pictured). The as yet unnamed Titanosaur is one of the largest dinosaurs ever discovered, and lived 100 million years ago.



Reconstructing the Titanosaur

The 122-foot-long dinosaur stands 20 feet tall and likely weighed 70 tons, according to the Wall Street Journal, about the same as 10 African elephants.

Its thigh bone is nearly 8 feet long.

To build the display, the bones were recreated through plaster casts and 3-D printing.

Scientists from the Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio and a team at the American Museum of Natural History collaborated with a Canadian company, Research Casting International worked with what they had, using existing bones to create what wasn't there.

Now, the Titanosaur will be shown to the public in a walking pose, with its neck stretched out toward the museum's fourth-floor elevators.

This is the only way the dinosaur would fit in the building.

Some of the best-preserved bones will also be on display, amongst them being the massive femur.

The Titanosaur is so large that it will not fit into one room in the American Museum of Natural History ; its head will reach the ceiling, poking out of the gallery and into the hall along with part of the neck.


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