All about dinosaurs, fossils and prehistoric animals by Everything Dinosaur team members.
13 05, 2014

Frequently Asked Questions?

By |2023-03-13T10:00:15+00:00May 13th, 2014|Everything Dinosaur News and Updates, Press Releases|0 Comments

Preparing New Images for the Everything Dinosaur School Site

One of the more challenging projects today was how to create some visuals for use on that part of Everything Dinosaur’s new school website dedicated to frequently asked questions.  Team members respond quickly to all the enquiries we receive from teachers and museum staff, however, we thought it would be a good idea for the new school website, to have a dedicated page or two related to those questions we get frequently asked (FAQs).  With this in mind, we set about creating some banners that could be used on the “FAQs” page.

Lots of ideas were put forward but in the end we decided the simplest thing to do would be to use some of the thousands of fossils we have in our warehouse to make a “question mark”.

Belemnites Help to Make Up a Question Mark

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A question mark made from belemnite fossils.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

These calcite guards, the preserved remains of Middle Jurassic belemnites, proved to be just the job for creating a question mark for use on the new website.  The word belemnite comes from the Greek for “dart” and if you examine the picture closely you can see the reason for this name.

Onwards and upwards with our new dinosaurs for school website.

A Replica of a Belemnite (CollectA)

CollectA Belemnite model.

CollectA Age of Dinosaurs Popular Size Belemnite model.

To see replicas of ammonites, belemnites and other prehistoric animals, take a look at the CollectA Prehistoric World section of the Everything Dinosaur website: CollectA Prehistoric Life.

12 05, 2014

“Gluttonous and Filthy” – New Species of Cretaceous Crocodile

By |2023-03-13T09:58:35+00:00May 12th, 2014|Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Dinosaur Fans, Palaeontological articles|0 Comments

Aplestosuchus sordidus – Fearsome Late Cretaceous Predator from Brazil

When it comes to naming new species, a candidate for the best and most appropriately named in 2014  has got to be Aplestosuchus sordidus.  Aplestosuchus was a crocodilian that roamed south-central Brazil in the Late Cretaceous.  The name means “gluttonous and filthy crocodile”, for found in the body cavity of this nearly complete specimen was the remains of its last meal – another crocodile.  Direct fossil evidence of interactions between extinct species of crocodiles is extremely rare, but this fossil shows that large crocodyliforms ate smaller crocodyliforms and more importantly, it helps scientists to understand a little more about the food chain that existed in this part of South America around eighty million years ago.

Aplestosuchus sordidus

A scientific paper on the newly described species of crocodile, a distant relative of today’s extant crocodiles, has just been published in the academic journal “PLOS One”.  The fossils were found in a rocky outcrop, close to a small river.  The strata at this location makes up part of the Adamantina Formation which has been tentatively dated to the Turonian to Santonian faunal stages of the Late Cretaceous, although some strata that form the upper layers of this formation may be younger, dating from the Campanian faunal stage.

A number of crocodyliform fossils have been found in the Adamantina Formation. During the Cretaceous, crocodiles occupied many more niches in food chains than they do today.  There were terrestrial forms as well as species more adapted to a semi-aquatic lifestyle.  Some evolved heavy armour and whilst predominately a clade of carnivores, a number of fossils show evidence of herbivory.

Excavating and Preparing the Fossil

This fossil of Aplestosuchus was recovered from two blocks, the first of which contained a nearly complete, although somewhat compressed skull and jaws.  The second block contained most of the rest of the body, just elements from the end of the tail and the hind limbs were missing.

The animal fossil remains measured just over a metre in length and it has been assigned to the Baurusuchidae family of crocodyliforms, terrestrial predator crocodiles in which some species exceeded four metres in size.  Inside the body cavity of this specimen was the remains of a small, not yet fully described species of crocodile, which has been assigned to the Sphagesauridae family.  Sphagesaurid crocodiles, themselves evolved into a variety of forms and are distantly related to the Baurusuchidae.

Cretaceous Crocodile

The scientists who studied the fossilised stomach remains have concluded that given the relative size of the two fossil specimens, it is likely that the larger Aplestosuchus attacked and killed the smaller crocodile.  This is cited as evidence of predator/prey interaction and not a case of A. sordidus scavenging a carcase.

Fossil Crocodiles Showing Evidence of a Predator/Prey Relationship

Skull material seen in top left of the image.

Skull material seen in top left of the image.

Picture credit: PLOS One

The picture shows (A) skull material in one block with the rest of the fossil remains located in a larger adjacent block, scale bar = 10 cm.  Picture B, is a close up of the body cavity showing evidence of predation, scale bar 5 cm.

The illustration (C) shows a drawing of the larger crocodyliform with the prey in its mouth (scale bar = 50 cm).

Examining the Body Cavity

Examination of the abdominal cavity revealed the presence of skull bones and a tooth from the smaller sphagesaurid crocodile.  This location has yielded a number of crocodyliform fossils, something like twenty different species have been identified so far.  It is not known whether this particular part of South America proved to be a locus for extensive crocodyliform radiation, or whether there is a strong bias towards crocodiles within the fossil record at these sites.

A Colour Coded Image Showing a Close Up of the Stomach Contents

A close up of the body cavity showing evidence of predation.

A close up of the body cavity showing evidence of predation.

Picture credit: PLOS One

Photograph A shows the green ribs of A. sordidus, the belly ribs (gastralia) are highlighted in orange.  The remains of the smaller sphagesaurid are shown in yellow, with diagram B providing a key to sphagesaurid fossil bones found: f, frontal; j, jugal; p, parietal; pl, palpebral; t, tooth.

Scale bar = 5 cm.

Formidable Predators

Baurusuchid crocodiles were formidable predators and in the absence of theropod dinosaurs, larger species would have probably occupied the position of apex predators within the terrestrial environments of south-central Brazil during the latter stages of the Cretaceous.  The skull although compressed, indicates that Aplestosuchus sordidus had a formidable bite and the largest teeth in the jaws are over 2 cm in size.

A Lateral (side) View of the Skull of A. sordidus

A strong and powerful skull.

A strong and powerful skull.

Picture credit: PLOS One/Everything Dinosaur

The Adamantina Formation has provided researchers with a wealth of Late Cretaceous fossil material.  As a result, a picture of the fauna that existed has been built up, but until now it was not certain how the food chain relating specifically to crocodyliforms was set up.  This fossil material suggests that, as previously thought, the Baurusuchidae occupied an apex predator position.   Only a handful of theropod dinosaur fossils have been found.

These specimens represent a miscellany of meat-eating dinosaurs and no genera have been successfully ascribed from the fossil evidence.  Teeth fossils along with fragmentary body fossils indicate the presence of large, carnivorous dinosaurs (abelisaurids, carcharodontosaurids, or possible other tetanurans).  As fossils of large herbivorous dinosaurs (titanosaurs) have been found in this formation, it is likely that big theropods co-existed with them but in this instance the fossil evidence suggests that crocodiles made up a significant proportion of the predators within this environment.

Suggested Food Web Reconstruction (Adamantina Formation) South-Central Brazil

Crocodyliforms shaded black.

Crocodyliforms shaded black.

Picture credit: PLOS One

The red arrow indicates the predator/prey relationship between the Baurusuchidae and sphagesaurids.

Key

1, Large theropods (Abelisauridae, Charcarodontosauridae, Megaraptora); 2, Peirosaurids (Montealtosuchus arrudacamposi, Pepesuchus deiseae); 3, Turtles (Bauruemys elegans, Roxochelys wanderleyi); 4-6, Fishes (Teleostei, Lepisosteidae, Dipnoi); 7, Trematochampsids (Barreirosuchus franciscoi); 8, “Notosuchians” (Labidiosuchus amicum, Mariliasuchus amarali, M. robustus, Morrinhosuchus luziae); 9, Baurusuchids (Baurusuchus albertoi, B. pachecoi, B. salgadoensis, Campinasuchus dinizi, Gondwanasuchus scabrosus, Pissarrachampsa sera, Stratiotosuchus maxhetchi); 10, Mammals; 11, Anurans; 12, Adamantinasuchus navae; 13, Sauropods (Adamantisaurus mezzalirai, Aeolosaurus maximus, Gondwatitan faustoi, Maxakalisaurus topai, Nemegtosauridae); 14, Other sphagesaurids (Caipirasuchus paulistanus, Caryonosuchus pricei, Sphagesaurus huenei, S. montealtensis); 15, Unenlagiines; 16, Birds (Enantiornithes); 17, Lizards (Brasiliguana prudentis); 18, Snakes (Anilioidea); 19, Insects (Coleoptera); 20, Armadillosuchus arrudai.

This latest research highlights the significant diversity of crocodiles and it also provides evidence of predator/prey interactions amongst crocodyliforms.  The artwork created by Rodolfo Nogueira which accompanied the PLOS One paper is superb.  As well as demonstrating robust academic vigour, the research team involved in this study have been able to provide a vivid illustration that interprets this fossil evidence.

Aplestosuchus sordidus Preying on a Unknown sphagesaurid

Predator/prey relationship within Late Cretaceous Crocodyliforms.

Predator/prey relationship within Late Cretaceous crocodyliforms.

Picture credit: Rodolfo Nogueira

If the fossil evidence is anything to go by, then Aplestosuchus sordidus “gluttonous and filthy crocodile” has been appropriately named.

11 05, 2014

Demonstrating Scientific Knowledge – Volcanoes

By |2023-03-13T09:40:42+00:00May 11th, 2014|Key Stage 1/2|Comments Off on Demonstrating Scientific Knowledge – Volcanoes

Young Geologists in Year 4 Demonstrate their Knowledge of Igneous and Sedimentary Rocks

Team members at Everything Dinosaur who had been working with Year 4 pupils at a Yorkshire school were treated to a display of volcanic artwork.  The children, aged between eight and nine years of age had been learning all about the properties of rocks and a member of the Everything Dinosaur staff was invited into the school to help the students learn about fossils and how they are formed.

Demonstrating Scientific Knowledge

As part of the term topic, the teaching team had challenged the classes to come up with a display which demonstrated how volcanoes form and what happens when they erupt.  Lots of pictures were produced showing lava and there were even a couple of three-dimensional models made, one even attempted to show the inside of a volcano, very creative!

The team member from Everything Dinosaur helped the school children to appreciate how fossils are formed and there were plenty of spectacular examples on hand to impress the pupils as well as the enthusiastic teachers.

Colourful Igneous Artwork on Display

Volcano models on display.

Lava erupting from the cone shaped volcanoes

Picture credit: Year 4/Everything Dinosaur

Making Volcanoes

The lava had been made in various ways, straws had been painted and then bent over the cone of the volcano to indicate an immense eruption, other children had used red, yellow and black coloured tissue paper to make an effect of lava flowing down the sides of the volcano.  Some pupils had painted rivers of molten rock flowing down from the top of their models.  There were also a number of paintings on display as well as several illustrations of fossils.

The study of different types of rock is now an integral part of the Lower Key Stage 2 curriculum.  Everything Dinosaur team members have created a number of lesson plans and study snippets that illustrate how fossils are formed and what the remains of ancient creatures can tell us.  The emphasis is on the nature, processes and methods of working scientifically to investigate phenomena.  As with all Everything Dinosaur’s teaching work in schools the focus of each lesson is on helping to develop scientific knowledge and an understanding of important concepts that underpin the Earth sciences.

To view dinosaur toys, models and gifts available from Everything Dinosaur: Visit Everything Dinosaur.

11 05, 2014

Those Very Tough Dinosaurs

By |2023-03-13T09:38:06+00:00May 11th, 2014|Dinosaur Fans, Main Page, Palaeontological articles|0 Comments

New Research Provides Data on How Dinosaurs Recovered from Injuries

It has long been accepted that dinosaurs led tough lives.  A new study by University of Manchester scientists in collaboration with international colleagues, has revealed just how tough the Dinosauria were.  An analysis of a toe bone from a 150-million-year-old meat-eating dinosaur is helping scientists to identify chemical markers of elements that show where bone healing took place.  Research into how dinosaurs bone healed and the identification of chemical markers could help with the development of strategies to assist in the healing and recovery rates when it comes to injuries in other species, including our own.

Disease, Injury and Trauma

The fossil record of vertebrates records many instances of disease, injury or other trauma in the bones.  This is known as pathology and interpreting this pathology permits palaeontologists to gain an insight into the lives and behaviours of long extinct animals.  At Everything Dinosaur, we have a number of pedal phalanges (toe bones) of the dinosaur known as Edmontosaurus (E. regalis) that show signs of arthritis.  Its seems that the Dinosauria suffered from conditions which are very familiar to us.

Other fossil specimens show more dramatic signs of injury, such as another duck-billed dinosaur, whose skeleton reveals evidence of a potential attack from a carnivorous dinosaur – a duck-billed dinosaur with a chunk bitten out of its tail.

Evidence of Pathology in a Member of the Saurolophinae

Museum exhibit may show evidence of T. rex attack.

Museum exhibit may show evidence of T. rex attack.

Picture credit: Denver Museum of Nature and Science/Everything Dinosaur

 To read more about the research into this particular specimen: Evidence to suggest an attack by T. rex.

Recovering from Injuries

Some dinosaurs seem to have recovered from injuries that would have proved fatal to us.  It might be a generalisation, but reptiles do seem to be tougher than a lot of mammal species.  Team members have looked at Alligators (A. mississippiensis) that have suffered terrible injuries either in fights with larger Alligators or in collisions with boats.  So long as the animal is able to feed, then missing limbs, lumps out of tails and severely broken bones do not necessarily prove terminal.

The accepted approach to studying the pathology present in the bones of dead animals was to examine the shape of the distorted bone and to take very thin slices from the section of bone under analysis and study its composition and structure.  This is a destructive technique that yields some data, it relies on the fundamental structure of the bone remaining intact to show signs of healing, regrowth and recovery despite permineralisation.

Chemical Analysis

However, it is known that if a chemical analysis could be undertaken then much more information could be obtained.  Different elements and different concentrations of those elements are known to be absorbed and utilised by bone for different physiological purposes such as growth and recovery from traumatic injury.

The problem is, detecting these minute chemical signatures is beyond the capabilities of most laboratory equipment, even sophisticated analytical techniques involving scanning electron microscopy.  Step in to the spotlight (no pun intended as light is very much involved), synchrotron rapid scanning-X-ray fluorescence, otherwise known as SRS-XRF.  A synchrotron light source is made up from electromagnetic radiation that is emitted when charged particles moving at close to the speed of light are forced to change direction by a magnetic field.

Mapping Minute Quantities of Individual Elements

When a specimen is bombarded with these high energy X-rays, their diffusion can be used to map minute quantities of individual elements.  Sophisticated software interprets the resulting data and a picture can be built up to show the density and location of individual elements within the sample.

How Dinosaur Bones Healed

In this study, the toe bone of a Late Jurassic theropod dinosaur (Allosaurus fragilis) was analysed.  A damaged bone from an extant archosaur, a Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura) was used to provide a comparison.  Bones are complex structures made up fibrous collagen and an inorganic material combining calcium, phosphorous and other material.  Bone can absorb a very wide range of elements and traces of these elements are recorded at elevated levels in those parts of the bone where repair or extension is taking place.

These “sink sites”, as one of our colleagues calls them, can indicate where bones have been broken and mended during a vertebrate’s lifetime.  The histology of bones (growth rate) is dependent on a number of factors such as the amount of food available to the animal, its metabolism and its immune response.

Sophisticated Study of the Toe of an Allosaurus

The fearsome Jurassic predator Allosaurus

The fearsome Jurassic predator Allosaurus.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Commenting on the Study

Commenting on the research findings, Dr Phil Manning (University of Manchester’s School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences) stated:

“Using synchrotron imaging, we were able to detect astoundingly dilute traces of chemical signatures that reveal not only the difference between normal and healed bone, but also how the damaged bone healed.  It seems dinosaurs evolved a splendid suite of defence mechanisms to help regulate the healing and repair of injuries.  The ability to diagnose such processes some 150 million years later might well shed new light on how we can use Jurassic chemistry in the 21st Century.”

Thin Section of A fragilis pedal phalanx Under Analysis

SRF-XRF helps to show how dinosaurs recovered from injury.

SRF-XRF helps to show how dinosaurs recovered from injury.

Picture credit: Royal Society Journal “Interface”/Manchester University

Studying Allosaurus Fossil Bone

The picture above shows a thin section of A. fragilis fossil bone.  The bone is part of a collection from the Utah Museum of Natural History (specimen number UMNH 6282), it is from the third toe.  It was studied as there are two areas of obvious damage on the fossil, one on the top part of the section (major callus), with a second sign of trauma underneath (minor callus).  The Turkey Vulture bone was chosen as it too shows similar deformities.

Pictures a-c reveal the section under plain polarised light, a large crack can be observed in the bone.  This is not evidence of further pathology, the damage to the bone occurred after the dinosaur died.  Pictures d to f show a grayscale elemental map of the deposition of iron throughout the specimen.  Pictures labelled b, c, e and f are blown up images of areas of greatest interest.

Examining the Data

In figures d, e and f, white shows a high concentration of the element being analysed, black colouration shows a lower concentration of the element.  In figures a and c the boundary between damaged tissue and normal tissue is indicated by a solid black line.  In figures d and e this boundary is marked by a red line.  Traces of different elements were mapped including iron, zinc, lanthanum and strontium.  The levels of these elements and where they were situated indicates where healing and recovery from damage occurred.

Dr Phil Manning went onto add:

“The chemistry of life leaves clues throughout our bodies in the course of our lives that can help us diagnose, treat and heal a multitude of modern-day ailments.  It’s remarkable that the very same chemistry that initiates the healing of bone in humans also seems to have followed a similar pathway in dinosaurs.”

Grayscale Elemental Analysis of the Fossil Bone

Determining the presence and concentration of elements with fossil bone.

Determining the presence and concentration of elements with fossil bone.

Picture credit: Royal Society Journal “Interface”/Manchester University

In the illustration above, software has interpreted the SRS-XRF data to show the location and concentrations of key elements involved in bone composition.

a).  Phosphorous [P]

b).  Calcium [Ca]

c).  Zinc [Zn]

d).  Lanthanum [La]

Research into How Dinosaur Bones Healed

Phosphorous is concentrated in the original tissue.  Calcium is present in a relatively uniform manner in the sample and the Lanthanum is localised, being found mainly in damaged areas.  It is from this mineral evidence that scientists can determine how the bones of extinct dinosaurs reacted to trauma and recovered from injuries.

Fellow author Jennifer Anné (University of Manchester) stated:

“Bone does not form scar tissue, like a scratch to your skin, so the body has to completely reform new bone following the same stages that occurred as the skeleton grew in the first place.  This means we are able to tease out the chemistry of bone development through such pathological studies.  It’s exciting to realise how little we know about bone, even after hundreds of years of research.  The fact that information on how our own skeleton works can be explored using a 150-million-year-old dinosaur just shows how interlaced science can be.”

Professor Roy Wogelius, another co-author from The University of Manchester, added:

“It is a fine line when diagnosing which part of the fossil was emplaced after burial and what was original chemistry to the organism.  It is only through the precise measurements that we undertake at the Diamond Lightsource in the UK (Didcot, Oxfordshire) and the Stanford Synchrotron Lightsource in the US (California), that we were able to make such judgements.”

To read another article on how Manchester University scientists are using synchrotron light rays to reveal more information about fossils: Searching for ghosts in fossils.

Everything Dinosaur acknowledges the contribution of the University of Manchester in the production of this article.

For models and replicas of Allosaurus and other prehistoric animals: PNSO Age of Dinosaurs Figures.

10 05, 2014

Artwork Prepared for New School Site

By |2023-03-13T09:25:38+00:00May 10th, 2014|Educational Activities, Everything Dinosaur News and Updates, Press Releases|0 Comments

Everything Dinosaur’s New School Site Coming Along Nicely

Team members at Everything Dinosaur have been busy sorting through and setting aside the pictures of all the company’s dinosaur themed activities in museums, educational events and dinosaur workshops in schools.  A number of new visuals are required for the new and improved “dinosaur teaching” website that is currently being worked on.  The website is much bigger than the existing site and we are keen to include as many photographs of our work in schools and museums as we possibly can.

Everything Dinosaur

One of the Banner Visuals for the “Dinosaur Teaching” Website

So many events, so many activities, so many photographs.

So many events, so many activities, so many photographs.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

The site is slowly and surely coming together.  It will provide teachers, home-schoolers and museum staff with lots more information about who we are and what we do.  In addition, there will be lots of free downloads of teaching materials to help with teaching about dinosaurs, fossils and evolution in schools and other establishments.  Hopefully the new site will be ready soon.

Visit the award-winning and user-friendly Everything Dinosaur website: Visit Everything Dinosaur.

10 05, 2014

Key Stage 3/4 – The Evolution of Mankind

By |2023-03-13T09:20:50+00:00May 10th, 2014|Key Stage 3/4|Comments Off on Key Stage 3/4 – The Evolution of Mankind

Useful Teaching Resources for Key Stage 3 and 4 – Evolution of Mankind

With the retirement of the series of early hominid models manufactured by Bullyland of Germany, science teachers aiming to link the evolution of our species within the topic areas related to evolution and natural selection have been a little short on models for students to study.  The German made series consisted of six replicas starting with a model of a Dryopithecus ape and concluding with a model of a Clovis Man complete with spear thrower.  Sadly, this range went out of production three years ago, with team members at Everything Dinosaur working closely with the German museum market to secure the final stocks of these hand-painted, scale models.

The Evolution of Mankind

Homo sapiens (Bullyland Modern Man Replica)

Bullyland H. sapiens

A model of modern human being (H. sapiens).

Picture credit: Bullyland

The models provided a very visual illustration of the origin of our own species, which could lead onto extension activities where the effect of Darwin’s ground breaking book “The Origin of Species”, on Victorian society could be explored by the class.

The Evolution of Man

Fortunately, a new model series entitled “The Evolution of Man” is coming to the UK market very shortly.  This model series consists of five replicas, each one represents an iconic hominin and helps to shed light on the evolution of our species.  Sadly, we don’t have any female models included in the series.  However, the manufacturer has been keen to show the development of tool use within this replica range.  For example, the figure representing Homo erectus is holding a burning branch.  It is widely believed that it was this species of hominin that first mastered the ability to make fire.

The Evolution of Man Model Series (2014 Production)

Evolution of Man model set.

Tracing our evolution. The evolution of man model set.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur/Safari Ltd

The models begin with the Australopithecine which is thought by palaeoanthropologists to be the ancestor of the Homo genus – Australopithecus afarensis. The iconic “Lucy” is an example of this species.  The set then moves onto the H. habilis “handy man” and then onto Homo erectus “upright man”.  A Neanderthal is included and can be used to compare with the tools included with the modern human replica that concludes the series.  It is likely that this set will be available in a handy blister pack for teachers.

To view the range of prehistoric figures available in the Safari Ltd range: Wild Safari Prehistoric World Figures.

9 05, 2014

Nosing Around Qianzhousaurus sinensis – The Implications

By |2023-03-13T09:18:13+00:00May 9th, 2014|Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Dinosaur Fans, Main Page, Palaeontological articles|0 Comments

“Pinocchio rex” Qianzhousaurus sinensis – A new Look for the Tyrannosaurs

Over the last two days or so, there has been a lot of media coverage regarding the discovery of a long-snouted member of the tyrannosaur family, a fearsome, carnivorous dinosaur that has been named Qianzhousaurus sinensis.  The fossil discovery is very significant as it establishes the presence of long-snouted tyrannosaurs nestling somewhere amongst the Tyrannosauridae family.  Quite where they fit is still up for debate as the phylogeny of this group is becoming more and more complicated as new genera are described.  Phylogenetics looks at the evolutionary history of a species or group of organisms, it aims to map out lines of descent and taxonomic relationships.

Qianzhousaurus sinensis

This new tyrannosaur nick-named “Pinocchio rex” due to its long snout, has led to the establishment of a new branch of the tyrannosaur family. Living alongside the bone crushing apex predators that were the deep-skulled tyrannosaurs, there was another closely related group, meat-eaters that probably hunted different sorts of prey and fed in a different way.  This new sub-branch or clade of tyrannosaurs has been named the Alioramini (pronounced Al-ee-oh-ram-min-eye), as for the moment it contains just two genera, Alioramus and the newly described Qianzhousaurus.

Alioramus also had a long, narrow snout.  The genus name translates as “other evolutionary branch”, as ever since Alioramus was discovered, palaeontologists had suspected that there was a sub-branch of the tyrannosaur family tree.  The fossils of Qianzhousaurus go a long way in helping to strengthen this hypothesis.

Long-Snouted Fearsome Tyrannosaur – Qianzhousaurus sinensis

New long-snouted Tyrannosaur.

New long-snouted tyrannosaur.

Picture credit: Junchang Lü/Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences

The picture above shows three views of the partial skull and upper jaw of Q. sinensis.  The first picture shows a view from the side (lateral), the second picture shows a view looking down onto the fossil (dorsal) and the third picture shows the view from the underside (ventral).  The scale bar represents five centimetres.

Scientific Paper Published

In a paper published this week in the journal “Nature Communications”,  the authors which include Stephen Brusatte (Chancellor’s Fellow in Vertebrate Palaeontology at the University of Edinburgh) and Junchang Lü (Institute of Geology at the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences), describe this Theropod as a “remarkable find”.  It is indeed, but the story of this fossil’s discovery is also very remarkable.

Back in the late summer of 2010, construction workers helping to build a new industrial park close to the city of Ganzhou in Jiangxi Province (south-eastern China), uncovered the remains of two dinosaurs.  One was a small oviraptorid, the second and much more spectacular find represented a substantial meat-eater.  The works foreman telephoned a local fossil hunter who visited the site and having examined some of the finds and realised their importance, called in the Ganzhou city Mineral Resources Management Department.  A field team was quickly despatched and within a few hours the vast majority of the exposed fossil material was collected, which in the case of the large theropod represented much of the skull and jaws, vertebrae, parts of the pelvis and limb bones.

Late Cretaceous “Hotbed”

Many different types of dinosaur have been found in the sedimentary rocks that are exposed in and around Ganzhou city, it is often described as a “hotbed” for Late Cretaceous dinosaur discoveries.  The field team had to work fast, as a number of fossil dealers had also heard of the discovery and if they had got to the bones first, then the fossilised remains could have ended up being sold on the black market.

As things turned out, following the speedy collection, the story of Qianzhousaurus slowed down to a snail’s pace.  The fossils which had been bagged up remained with the Mineral Resources Management Department for the best part of eight months, before they were presented to the Ganzhou Natural History Museum.  In August 2012, the museum assembled a team of Chinese scientists and technicians to examine the bones and begin the reconstruction of the specimen.

Close Phylogenetic Relationship with Alioramus

The initial research work was concluded in January of last year and the full significance of the discovery was realised.  Here was an adult tyrannosaur that exhibited skull characteristics that placed it in a close phylogenetic relationship with the tyrannosaur known as Alioramus.  This was proof that the long suspected sub-branch of long-snouted tyrannosaurs had existed.

Further work was undertaken and the formal academic paper published this week.  Say hello to Qianzhousaurus sinensis.  Qianzhousaurus is pronounced Chy-an-shoe-sore-us, the genus name is derived from the old name for the city of Ganzhou (Qianzhou), the species name reflects that this dinosaur was Chinese.

An Illustration of the Late Cretaceous Tyrannosaur Q. sinensis

New Tyrannosaur described - Qianzhousaurus sinensis.

New tyrannosaur described – Qianzhousaurus sinensis.

Picture credit: Chuang Zhao

This dinosaur had a number of small horns or bumps running along its snout.  It is illustrated attacking a feathered oviraptorid dinosaur, as the fossils of Qianzhousaurus sinensis were found in association with the bones of a small member of the Oviraptoridae family.

Dr Brusatte explained:

“This is a different breed of tyrannosaur.  It has the familiar toothy grin of T. rex, but its snout was much longer and it had a row of horns on its nose.  It might have looked a little comical, but it would have been as deadly as any other tyrannosaur, and maybe even a little faster and stealthier.”

This specimen is very significant as the fused skull bones identify it as an adult animal. Qianzhousaurus probably weighed around 1,000 kilogrammes and reached lengths of around 8-9 metres.  Smaller than its deep-skulled tyrannosaur contemporaries, Qianzhousaurus probably occupied a niche in the Late Cretaceous food chain, that of a secondary predator.  Even if it lived in packs, it probably did not specialise in hunting really large herbivorous dinosaurs.  It was nowhere near as powerful as some of the other Upper Cretaceous tyrannosaurs known from Asia, the likes of Tarbosaurus and the recently described Zhuchengtyrannus.

Tyrannosaur Skull Comparisons (T. rex versus Q. sinensis)

Scale bar = 5cm

Scale bar = 5cm

Picture credit: Journal of Nature Communications and Everything Dinosaur

To read an article about Zhuchengtyrannus: New Species of Asian Tyrannosaur Announced.

Studying Tyrannosaurs

The bite force that this predator could generate was nowhere near the bone crushing bite force of Tyrannosaurus rex.  This was a more graceful, agile hunter, perhaps stalking feathered dinosaurs and other reptiles.  Consider Qianzhousaurus as the leopard that shares the same habitat as a lion.

For models and replicas of Qianzhousaurus, numerous tyrannosaurs and other prehistoric animals: PNSO Age of Dinosaurs Models.

This fossil is very important for a number of reasons, firstly there is a substantial amount of fossil material to study, scientists can learn more about the tyrannosaur family as a result.  Secondly, unlike the two known Alioramus specimens which both represent juveniles, this adult animal demonstrates that there were long-snouted forms of Tyrannosauridae.  A sub-branch of tyrannosaurs did exist and the presence of a long-snout in the likes of the Alioramus specimens cannot be attributed to the fact that these not fully grown dinosaur specimens “hadn’t filled out yet” as a colleague puts it.

Thirdly and perhaps most crucially of all, this fossil discovery from south-eastern China was found in Upper Cretaceous deposits located more than two thousand kilometres away from the Upper Cretaceous deposits that yielded the Alioramus material.  It seems that the long-snouted tyrannosaurs were widely distributed in Asia during the last few million years of the Cretaceous period.  This means that there are, very probably a number of other “Pinocchio rex” tyrannosaurs awaiting discovery.

We wonder what Geppetto would have made of it all…

8 05, 2014

Dinosaur Counting and Sorting Games

By |2023-03-13T09:07:58+00:00May 8th, 2014|Key Stage 1/2|Comments Off on Dinosaur Counting and Sorting Games

Grouping and Classifying Prehistoric Animals

For reception aged children giving them a collection of colourful dinosaur models to sort out can be a great exercise in helping to teach children to distinguish and sort objects based on their appearance and properties.  Young children often have a fascination for prehistoric animals and a number of Foundation Stage children show a surprising degree of prior knowledge when asked to talk about dinosaurs.  From as young as three years, almost as soon as children begin to develop a sense of independent play, so their knowledge of animals including dinosaurs seems to grow.

Dinosaur Counting

When working with children in the 4-5 years age bracket we like to use the dinosaur models to help them sort them out into different colours, then we challenge more confident learners to see if they can think of another way in which the dinosaurs can be sorted.

Sorting and Grouping Dinosaurs

Different coloured dinosaur models.

Four new dinosaurs coming soon.  Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Dinosaur Sorting

The teacher or learning support provider can prompt where necessary and once the dinosaurs have been sorted into groups, counting can be introduced to see how many dinosaurs are in a bigger group when compared to a smaller one.  Sorting out dinosaurs by looking at and comparing the size of their various body parts can be a good way to introduce differentiation in the class, with more capable learners challenged to consider sorting the dinosaurs into meat-eaters and plant-eaters based on their appearance.

Purchase dinosaur models for schools here: Dinosaur Toys and Gifts from Everything Dinosaur.

Confident learners can be given a reference book about dinosaurs and asked to find pictures in the book that match the prehistoric animal models on the table.

Introduce Matching Using a Dinosaur Book Supports Differentiation

CollectA Mini Dinosaur Models

Ten super prehistoric animal models in the set.  Prehistoric animal models ideal for matching games.  Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

The models can also be used beyond Key Stage 1.  For example one of objectives of the new science curriculum is to introduce how animals are classified, Key Stage 2 children can utilise the models to help build a dinosaur classification key and make modifications to their key in the light of independent research.  For example, one key designed by Year 3 children, was re-designed when they learned that dinosaurs lived at different times.  The key was split into Jurassic and Cretaceous dinosaurs.  Such a lesson plan permitted plenty of extension activities as the pupils made changes to their classifications in the light of further study.

8 05, 2014

Happy Birthday Sir David Attenborough

By |2023-03-13T09:05:07+00:00May 8th, 2014|Famous Figures, Main Page, Press Releases|0 Comments

Happy Birthday Sir David!

Today, May 8th is the birthday of the naturalist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough.  His contribution to natural history programme making has been immense and he remains an inspiration to us all.  We at Everything Dinosaur have put together a commemorative banner to celebrate the birthday of one of Britain’s greatest broadcasters.

Sir David Attenborough

Happy Birthday Sir David Attenborough

Many Happy Returns!

Many Happy Returns!

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

On behalf of everyone at Everything Dinosaur, we wish Sir David, a very happy birthday.

7 05, 2014

The Dinosauria Shrank to Continue to Evolve

By |2023-03-13T08:14:46+00:00May 7th, 2014|Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Dinosaur Fans, Palaeontological articles|0 Comments

New Study Suggests that Birds Survived Mass Extinction Events Because they Stayed Small

There has been a lot of media coverage today with regards to a paper published in the scientific journal PLOS Biology (Public Library of Science),  that used an analysis of dinosaur and bird body masses to examine how quickly members of the Dinosauria including the ancestors of modern birds evolved to exploit new ecological niches.  A lot of emphasis has been placed on the size and scale of the non-avian dinosaurs, we shall come to this in due course, but the main thrust of the academic paper does not concern itself with just how big some of the dinosaurs got.

Measuring Body Mass

In this instance, measuring body mass is a means to an end, the research suggests that on that branch of the Dinosauria family tree that leads to the birds (Aves), there was a sustained and very lengthy period of evolution of species.  Birds and their direct dinosaur ancestors seem to have evolved rapidly for at least 170 million years, quickly diversifying and becoming more speciose to exploit niches in ecosystems as and when they arose.  Other types of dinosaur, those not directly related to extant birds, seemed to evolve at a slower rate, once an initial burst of adaptive radiation took place to exploit those gaps left in the world’s terrestrial ecosystems after the End Triassic extinction event.

An International Team

The international team of researchers including academics from Oxford University, the Royal Ontario Museum of Canada, the University of Toronto, the Smithsonian Institute, Imperial College, University College of London, the IVPP (Beijing) and Sweden’s Uppsala University also suggest that the evolutionary ability of those birds that existed during the time of Cretaceous mass extinction event, to remain small may have assisted their survival.  The larger, less diverse dinosaurs, the likes of Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops horridus died out.

Decreasing Body Size to Continuously Exploit New Ecological Niches

small body size helped birds evolve rapidly.

Small body size helped birds evolve rapidly.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Decreasing Body Size

The research team believes that the group that eventually evolved into birds decreased their body volume to continuously take advantage of new ecological niches through their evolution, becoming the successful species they are today.  Small, may indeed have been beautiful when it came to surviving major extinction events and the more speciose your clade was, the more niches you as a clade occupied the better your chances of survival.

Let’s start at the beginning, the first dinosaurs evolved sometime in the Middle Triassic, palaeontologists can’t be certain as to when or even where, although some of the latest research suggests that the very first dinosaurs as we now know them evolved in Africa.

To read an article on what might have been one of the first dinosaurs: The First Dinosaur?

The first birds may have evolved in the region of 170 million years ago (Middle Jurassic), the problem with both the early dinosaurs and those early birds is that the fossil record is extremely poor and material fragmentary.  It is difficult to establish a clear, evolutionary lineage.

To read an article about one of the first types of bird to evolve: New Contender for the “First Bird” – Aurornis.

What the fossil record does show is that in all the major groups of animals there was a rapid burst of evolution with lots of new body shapes and sizes rapidly evolving during their early history.  Different types evolve to exploit niches in food chains.  There is a rapid explosion of adaptive radiation amongst organisms.  Adaptive radiation, to an evolutionary biologist is a process in which living things rapidly diversify into a vast array of new forms.

Mass Extinction Event

This burst of natural selection is often prompted by a mass extinction event that eliminates competitors or through climate change that opens up new territories and habitats to exploit.  For example, the dinosaurs rapidly diversified into a number of different Superfamilies in the Early Jurassic, perhaps a biological response to the gaps left after the End Triassic extinction event.

Problem is, very few studies of adaptive radiation have looked at how Orders evolve over deep geological time, so the links between how diverse a modern day Order might be in relation to major extinct groups remains relatively unclear.  This is what the international team of scientists set out to examine.  Today, there are over 10,000 species of birds, they are the most speciose of all the living tetrapod clades, how did the evolution of the birds and their dinosaur ancestors compare to the evolutionary rates of other types of dinosaur not that closely related to the Aves?

Measuring the Pace of Development

To measure the pace of evolutionary development, the scientists chose to look at the variations in body mass.  Put simply the idea is this:

  • Look at the family tree of the dinosaurs and examine each of the major branches.
  • Look at the body sizes of the different types of prehistoric animal (estimating body mass was undertaken by measuring the robustness and size of limb bones notably femurs)

Work on the basis that if closely related animals are similar in body size then evolutionary rates were probably slow.

However, if closely related animals show a very wide range in body size then evolutionary rates were probably very rapid

A comprehensive data set of body mass was compiled for the major types of dinosaur and birds that evolved in the Mesozoic.  Although it is difficult to accurately estimate the weight of long extinct animals (a source of continual debate amongst scientists), in living creatures the scaling model based on the size and shaft circumference of major limb bones such as the thigh bone seems the most reliable.

From this study, the scientists concluded that the heaviest dinosaur known was Argentinosaurus (Argentinosaurus huinculensis) with an estimated body mass of around 90,000 kilogrammes.

Dinosaur Super-Heavyweight Argentinosaurus

Argentinosaurus model (CollectA)

Biggest dinosaur known to science.

Estimating Body Weights of Dinosaurs

The body weights of 426 dinosaurs were estimated and when added to the number of bird species studied the total exceeds 600, the smallest and lightest species analysed was Qiliania (Q. graffini), a primitive bird whose fossils date from around 120 million years ago and come from China.  Qiliania graffini weighed six million times less than Argentinosaurus huinculensis.  However, Qiliania may have been tiny, but there are very few Mesozoic creatures that can claim to have been named after the founder of a punk rock band (Dr Gregory Graffin).

Estimated Body Masses of Various Types of Dinosauria (the Smallest Examples)

The estimated size of the smallest member of various dinosaur Superfamilies

The estimated size of the smallest member of various dinosaur Superfamilies.

Table credit: PLOS One Biology

The table above lists the smallest Dinosauria members known by type of dinosaur, weights are given in kilogrammes.

Estimated Body Masses of Various Types of Dinosauria (the Biggest Examples)

Estimated size of the biggest members of the Dinosauria.

Estimated size of the biggest members of the Dinosauria.

Table credit: PLOS One Biology

The table above shows the body mass estimates of some of the biggest dinosaurs and birds known (weight in kilogrammes).

The Heaviest Types of Dinosaurs

The international team of researchers did not set out to re-classify the heaviest types of dinosaur and submit new information to the Guinness Book of Records, this is what has intrigued a number of media outlets and journalists who have focused on the estimated size and scale of these long extinct creatures.  There are one or two notable points worth making.  For instance, using the limb robustness and shaft circumference method, Tyrannosaurus rex comes out significantly heavier than Giganotosaurus carolinii.  The herbivorous Iguanodon (I. bernissartenis) and Triceratops (T. horridus) are approximately twice as heavy as the fearsome T. rex.

But enough of this, let’s focus on the main aspect of this new research.  The Dinosauria evolved very rapidly early on in their evolutionary history, but the speed of evolutionary change for most of the Superfamilies slowed down, if the relative body masses of closely related dinosaur types is used as a measure of evolutionary change.

Only in the Maniraptora, that clade of coelurosaurian theropods that gave rise to modern birds did that initial high rate of evolutionary change continue.  According to Dr David Evans, the Curator of Vertebrate Palaeontology at the Royal Ontario Museum and one of the co-authors of the paper, the branch of the dinosaur family tree that led to the birds represents “the second major adaptive radius ring of dinosaurs”.

Examining Body Sizes

Closely related groups of dinosaurs with similar body sizes may not have evolved to exploit new opportunities with quite the same rapidity as the birds.  As a result, when there was intense pressure put on the Superfamily because of environmental changes such as those that occurred at the end of the Cretaceous, extinction was the outcome.

Dinosaur Phylogeny Showing Nodes which indicate Exceptional Evolution of Body Size 

The Aves (Avialae) have been ringed faintly in red.

The Aves (Avialae) have been ringed faintly in red.

Picture credit: PLOS One Biology 

Feathered maniraptoran dinosaurs, including those now classified as Mesozoic birds sustained a rate for rapid evolution, suggesting these taxa would have been much quicker at adapting to new ecological niches.  Birds retained their ability to evolve very rapidly, a precondition of which was their relatively small size when compared to other dinosaurs.

The research team conclude that the smaller body masses attained by the Aves was the key to their survival, the birds lowered the body mass threshold of the Dinosauria below one kilogramme, subsequently individuals would need fewer resources to survive.  It is thanks to these factors that the birds remain the most speciose of all the tetrapod vertebrates alive today.

Finally, for all those who wanted to see just how big Argentinosaurus was, we have reproduced below a drawing of a huge titanosaur.  This dinosaur is only known from fragmentary remains and the casts have been made based on scaling up the sizes of bones from better known, more complete titanosaurs.

Just How Big was Argentinosaurus?

Illustration of a giant titanosaur.

Huge dinosaurs – titanosaurids.

For dinosaur models and prehistoric animal figures: Dinosaur Models and Prehistoric Animal Models.

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