Muttaburrasaurus Skeleton used in Nude Calendar

An Aussie dinosaur skeleton is featured in a charity nude calendar.

It seems that after a group of WI ladies in Britain decided to raise money for charity by posing for a slightly risqué calendar a few years ago, the idea of a bit of local nudity in aid of a good cause has caught on.  Even a dinosaur, a Muttaburrasaurus to be precise, has got in on the act.

Aussie Dinosaur Skeleton

The locals in the tiny town of Muttaburra in Queensland (Australia), decided to produce their own nude calendar featuring the town residents.  This is a project developed by Muttaburra’s Community Development Association (CDA) with the aim of raising money for an ambulance defibrillator and for the local school.

Muttaburrasaurus

Muttaburra is famous for the Muttaburrasaurus dinosaur that was discovered in the area.  It is the most complete fossilised dinosaur found in Australia.  Muttaburrasaurus was an iguanodontid with an estimated length of 7 metres or more, it lived during the Early Cretaceous.

A Drawing of the Aussie Dinosaur Muttaburrasaurus

Muttaburrasaurus is featured in a nude calendar.  Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Kerry Robinson, secretary of the CDA says that she had no problems persuading people to take their clothes off for the calendar and some interesting props were used, including the Muttaburrasaurus.

Ms Robinson commented:

“The man who found the dinosaur posed at the dinosaur with his wife.”

Dinosaurs and fossils generally do get used in some fascinating projects, and this was for a good cause.  At least the dinosaur is unlikely to complain as this particular type of ornithopod has been extinct for something like 100 million years.

CollectA produced a replica of Muttaburrasaurus, it features in the Age of Dinosaurs Popular range.

To view this range of not-to-scale prehistoric animal models: CollectA Prehistoric Life Models and Figures.

Cave in Georgia Reveals Evidence of Prehistoric Flax Fibres

An analysis of clay layers by scientists in a cave in Georgia revealed evidence of microscopic fibres of wild flax, signs of Homo sapiens use of flax to make clothing and ropes.

Earliest Known Man-made Fibres

A team of archaeologists have published research in the scientific journal “Science” indicating that 34,000 years ago our ancestors were using wild flax to make clothing and to weave rope and string.   A team funded by the United States found the flax fibres by chance as they microscopically studied clay sediments in the cave.  The fibres are the earliest known, the humans inhabiting the cave probably turned the fibres into linen and thread.  Warm clothing would have helped our ancestors cope with the cold environment and the ability to make rope and string would have added their ability to tie packs and break camp helping them to be more mobile in their quest for food.

Typical Early Stone Tools

A collection of typical Stone Age Tools. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

The researchers claim that these ancient fibres, some of which have been twisted, indicating that they were being used to make ropes or string, would have increased the survival chances of these ancient people.

Homo sapiens

Professor of Archaeology at Harvard University, Ofer Bar-Yosef and co-leader of the research team stated:

“We know that this is wild flax that grew in the vicinity of the cave and was exploited intensively or extensively by modern humans.  This was a critical invention for early humans.  They might have used this fibre to create parts of clothing, ropes, or baskets for items that were mainly used for domestic activities”.

Some of the tiny, microscopic fibres, show evidence of being dyed, these were perhaps part of clothing that has long since rotted away.  Once the fibres had been discovered the soil samples that contained them were dated using radio carbon techniques.  This study was undertaken by the Palaeobiology department of the National Museum of Georgia.  The fibre samples pre-date the previously earliest known fibres found by 6,000 years.  Prior to this new discovery, the oldest fibres known were recovered from a site in the Czech Republic, from an analysis of the remains of clay objects found inside a cave.

Exploring the Cave System

The American backed team have been exploring the cave system at the site in Georgia for more than 10 years returning for a few weeks each year so that they can build up a comprehensive database on the lives and habits of our ancestors.  The team hope to return to the caves next year in a bid to find evidence of even older fibres in the clay sediments.

Everything Dinosaur stocks a range of early hominid models and figures including Neanderthals and replicas of early Homo sapiens.

For instance, take a look at the: Wild Safari Prehistoric World model range.

Tyrannosaurus rex – A Mounted Skeleton up for Auction

A Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton is due to go under the hammer at auction.

Dinosaurs and other prehistoric animal fossils used to be associated with just one type of hammer, a geological hammer, one of the many types of tools palaeontologists use to help extract these precious items from their matrix (the surrounding rock).  However, dinosaurs and other very special fossils are also becoming associated with another type of hammer – the auctioneers gavel.

Museums and wealthy private individuals will be bidding for their very own T. rex exhibit as a fully mounted museum specimen goes under the hammer in Las Vegas, Nevada.  The fossil is being put up for sale by the private owner and the auctioneers, Bonhams & Butterfields hope that this particular lot will sell for over $6 million USD.

Tyrannosaurus rex

The 170 bones were discovered nearly twenty years ago in South Dakota, and represent more than half the skeleton of a 13 metre long adult Tyrannosaurus.  Team members at Everything Dinosaur are unsure as to which specimen is being sold but we suspect it is the “Z-rex” discovered and excavated between 1987 and 1992 which as far as we knew was in the hands of a private collector based in Kansas.  According to our records about 40% of the skeleton had been recovered including most importantly of all, skull material.

To read an article about an earlier T. rex sale: What to get the person who has everything?

A number of other important dinosaur fossils and prehistoric animal exhibits have been sold at auction in the last few years, although the economic downturn has affected the prices paid for such items.

To read about the auction of a Triceratops: Going, going, gone Triceratops finds a Buyer.

The most famous Tyrannosaurus rex, the fossilised skeleton of the dinosaur called “Sue” was sold by Sotheby’s for $8.36 million USD on October 27th 1997.  The auctioneers are hoping that this specimen will fetch a similar amount.

The Tyrannosaurus has been nicknamed “Samson”, indicating that it was a male but to the best of our knowledge no scientific paper confirming the possibility of this being a male has been published.  The auctioneers claim that this is a female, but we have not seen evidence to substantiate this claim.  Also, this animal has never been put on public display.  The auction is to take place on October 3rd and the specimen will be available for viewing.  It has already been mounted on a metal framework so in theory it could go straight into the display collection for a major museum.

How Most People View A Tyrannosaurus rex Exhibit

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

The T. rex in the picture is the gallery exhibit at the Manchester Museum it is the cast of “Stan”, the T. rex discovered in 1992 (museum specimen code STAN-BHI3033), also found in South Dakota.  The cast cost £100,000 GBP to purchase.

Tom Lindgren, a natural history specialist for Bonhams & Butterfields, commented: “Samson is the third most complete T. rex skeleton ever discovered, and one of only 42 specimens discovered in the last 100 years with more than 10% of the bones”.

Calling the T. rex fossil the “pinnacle of palaeontology” Lindgren expects a lot of interest in this particular auction.

He went onto add:

“Most of the major museums in the world have casts of T. rexes,” as opposed to the real thing.  Bidding on this T. rex is not going to be a gamble, it’s going to be the opportunity of a lifetime to whoever gets it”.

The T. rex is one of forty or so museum quality specimens going in the auction, other exhibits include a Hadrosaur and a prehistoric shark.  Mr Lindgren commented that he hoped the specimens would go to public institutions so that they could be studied and eventually put on public display.  We certainly echo his words, it would be a terrible shame for any of these rare and precious items to end up in the hands of a wealthy private collector and the opportunity to see them and study them lost.

Lindgren said most of the dinosaur’s bones have been stored in a warehouse and have never been on exhibit privately or publicly. He would not say how much its current owner invested in it, but said it is more than the $6 million to $8 million he estimates it will sell for.  Along with the mounted skeleton there are several elements from the original dig site that have not yet been fully prepared, so more of the fossil bones could eventually be cleaned and available for study.

Let’s hope that the exhibits all find nice homes in public institutions.

You do not have to be extremely wealthy to own a Tyrannosaurus rex, after all Everything Dinosaur stocks a huge range of tyrannosaur models and figures, such as those in the Rebor models and replicas range.

Research Indicates that Females are Genetically Programmed to Fear Spiders

Recently published research suggests women are genetically programmed to fear spiders.

An article published in the New Scientist magazine has caused a bit of stir and certainly divided our office as we weigh up the implications of its conclusions.   A team of psychologists from the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, carried out a study amongst children under a year old to test any built-in emotions and responses they may have had to pictures of arachnids.

The researchers have concluded that females associate spiders with fear more than males of a similar age, the boys seemed to react with a considerable degree of indifference.

Dr David Rakison and his team tested ten girls and ten boys, all aged 11-months showing them pictures of spiders to see how they would respond.  Dr Rakison showed the study group images of a spider next to a frightened cartoon face and a spider next to happy cartoon face.

Fear of Spiders

The team’s report, the basis of the New Scientist article, concludes that the girls examined the picture containing the happy face for longer than the picture of the scared face.  However, the boys in the test group looked at both images for an equal amount of time.  The researchers have concluded that the girls found the happy face associated with the spider puzzling as they were expecting to see a spider associated with a frightened expression.

Although the subject group is very small (a sample of 20 children), the psychologists have proposed that their results show that girls have a genetic predisposition to fear and loathe spiders in contrast with the boys who remain indifferent.

Writing in the scientific journal – Evolution and Human Behaviour, Dr Rakison stated:

“The experiments show that female 11-month-olds – but not males of the same age – learn the relation between a negative facial expression and fear-relevant stimuli such as snakes and spiders”.

Arachnophobia

A number of explanations have been put forward to explain these results.  For example, could the difference in attitude towards creepy-crawlies be explained by the roles adopted by our ancestors.  Females were gatherers, working in groups with the children present to gather food, whilst the males were out hunting, with the chance that few children and other vulnerable tribe members would be involved with such an activity.

Women had to be wary of such creatures, whereas men used more risky behaviour in order to ensure a successful hunt.  Having seen some pretty impressive invertebrates on our travels, creatures such as giant millipedes, tarantulas and orb spiders, the boys in the office remain divided whether they are any braver than the girls.  However, with the Autumn weather now descending upon us (what Summer?), we do agree that when it comes to rescuing wolf spiders it is the guys who usually have to step in.

The Large Web of an Orb Spider Spotted in Kenya

Large web of Orb spider and the spider (Kenya).  Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Personally, spiders don’t bother me too much, having had a few big ones creep over me in various parts of the world, they can be a little frightening, but I always think that the spider is more likely to be far more afraid of me than I am of it.  Still it is nice to act all chivalrous and brave and protect the fairer sex from the little beasties.

Snakes on the other hand…

To view Everything Dinosaur’s award-winning website: Everything Dinosaur.

Brachiosaurus had a Chinese Cousin

Brachiosaurus is one of the most popular of all the long-necked sauropods.  Most children have at least one “arm lizard” in their dinosaur collection, however, the brachiosaurs and the genus which was named and described formerly over one hundred years ago are still very capable of springing a surprise or two.  For example, a type of Brachiosaurus has been discovered in China, the first dinosaur of this type ever to be discovered in that country.

A Chinese Cousin to a Brachiosaur

In a paper published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the Royal Society Biology, the Chinese researchers describe the fossilised remains of a member of the Brachiosauridae family.  The fossils were found in the Yujingzi Basin in north-western Gansu Province, in strata dated to the Cretaceous, approximately 100 million years ago.  The Chinese team comment on the notion that many palaeontologists believe that the sauropods went into relative decline during the Cretaceous, after their heyday in the Jurassic with the ornithopods becoming more diverse and numerous.  However, a number of new sauropod species have been discovered in Cretaceous sediments, so perhaps this particular type of dinosaur was more common in the Cretaceous than previously thought.

The animal has been named Qiaowanlong kangxii (we think the name is pronounced something like chi-oh-wan-long kang-zee), it was relatively small for a brachiosaurid with an estimated length of 12 metres, standing 3 metres tall and weighing perhaps as much as a bull African elephant.  The name refers to the Qing Dynasty emperor called Kangxi but also includes the Chinese for “bridge”, “bend in a stream” and “dragon” references to the fossil site and a dream the emperor is supposed to have had.

Qiaowanlong kangxii

The fossils were discovered in 2007 and consist of some articulated cervical vertebrae (neck bones) plus elements of the right pelvic girdle.  The fossils have been associated with the late brachiosaurid Sauroposeidon (Sauroposeidon proteles) whose fossils are known from Oklahoma in the USA.

An Illustration of a Typical  Brachiosaur

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Two of the main researchers, Hai-Lu You of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences in Beijing and Da-Qing Li of Gansu Provincial Bureau of Geo-exploration and Mineral Development have identified the fossil remains  as a new genus and species of this group of “arm lizards”.

Everything Dinosaur stocks a wide range of sauropod models including replicas of Chinese sauropods in the: PNSO Age of Dinosaurs model range.

Brachiosaurs

It is hoped that this research along with other dinosaur discoveries will help scientists to piece together the ancient environment of Laurasia during the Cretaceous, when sea levels were rising and the continents were beginning to break up.  Clearly however, brachiosaurs, which are believed to have originated in Africa or North America were able to migrate across land bridges into Asia during this time.  Similar work is being carried out with scientists working in remote parts of Angola to determine what the fossils found in those deposits can tell us about the opening up of the Atlantic.

To read more about the work in Angola: Angola Starts to Give up Its Dinosaur Secrets.

The Chinese team are confident that more dinosaur specimens will be discovered in the area and that they will help provide data on the geographic distribution of different types of prehistoric animal.