All about dinosaurs, fossils and prehistoric animals by Everything Dinosaur team members.
17 03, 2017

Dinosaur Drawings from Clutton Primary School

By | March 17th, 2017|Early Years Foundation Reception, General Teaching, Key Stage 1/2|Comments Off on Dinosaur Drawings from Clutton Primary School

Dinosaur Drawings from Clutton Primary School

Our thanks to the children in the mixed Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 class at Clutton Church of England Primary (Cheshire), who, with the support of their enthusiastic teacher, sent in some dinosaur drawings.  During our dinosaur and fossil workshop with the children, we challenged the class to have a go at designing their very own prehistoric animal.  We set this up as an extension activity to support the teaching team’s scheme of work.  From the drawings we received, it looks like the children had a really good time designing their very own dinosaur.

Dinosaur Drawings

A Dinosaur Design from Libby Complete with Labels

A dinosaur drawing from Libby.

After a dinosaur workshop schoolchildren were invited to design their own dinosaur. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Clutton C of E Primary and Everything Dinosaur

Well done Libby!  We appreciate how hard you worked when it came to labelling your dinosaur.

For dinosaur and prehistoric animal themed gifts and toys: Dinosaur Themed Gifts and Toys.

A Design Your Own Dinosaur Teaching Extension Activity

A colourful dinosaur drawing,

A colourful dinosaur drawing. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Clutton C of E Primary and Everything Dinosaur

The picture above is of another dinosaur drawing sent in by the teacher on behalf of her class.  We think this drawing comes from Kyle.  It is a very interesting interpretation of the Dinosauria.  What a great name for a dinosaur “T. rex boon“.

Our thanks to all the children and to the teachers at Clutton C of E Primary who made us most welcome when we visited the school on the 10th of March to deliver a dinosaur themed workshop.  Hope the term topic goes well.

Visit the award-winning Everything Dinosaur website: Everything Dinosaur.

17 03, 2017

Primitive Neornithischian Dinosaurs and Seed Dispersal

By | March 17th, 2017|Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Dinosaur Fans, Main Page, Palaeontological articles|0 Comments

Plant-Eating Dinosaurs Probably Played an Important Role in Seed Dispersal

Time to catch up on our reading and first on the list of papers is this fascinating insight into the relationship between plant-eating dinosaurs and seed dispersal.  An international team of scientists from Portugal, Spain and Argentina have described a new species of primitive, bird-hipped dinosaur and an assessment of the body cavity led to the discovery of the dinosaur’s last meal.  Permineralised seeds, most of which having been identified as coming from cycads (Cycadales), suggest that herbivorous dinosaurs played an important role in seed dispersal, just as many plant-eating mammals do today.

The New Argentinian Dinosaur Isaberrysaura mollensis is Related to Kulindadromeus from Siberia

A scale model of the feathered dinosaur Kulindadromeus.

A 1:1 scale model of Kulindadromeus.

Picture credit: T. Hubin/RBINS

Plant-eating Dinosaurs

The researchers which include lead author, Leonardo Salgado (CONICET – Universidad Nacional de Río Negro), conducted a phylogenetic analysis and assigned this new dinosaur species to the basal Ornithopoda, suggesting that it is closely related to Kulindadromeus (K. zabaikalicus), fossils of which are known from geologically younger strata found in Siberia.  However, this new dinosaur, named Isaberrysaura was much larger, with an estimated body length of approximately six metres.

The Feeding Habits of Herbivorous Dinosaurs

Despite some two-thirds of all the dinosaurs described to date being plant-eaters, there is little direct evidence of the feeding habits of herbivorous dinosaurs that matches the stomach contents preserved within a carcase.  Most unaltered gut content that has been found is associated with much later dinosaurs -hadrosaurids and ornithopods.  This is the first time that gut contents have been identified in association with the remains of a basal neornithischian.

For models and replicas of ornithischians and other dinosaurs: Prehistoric Animal Models and Dinosaur Figures.

The specimen, representing a single individual, consists of an almost complete skull, vertebrae, part of the left shoulder blade (scapula), along with ribs and elements from the pelvic girdle.  It was excavated from the Los Molles Formation (Neuquén Basin, Argentina), from sediments that suggest a coastal-delta environment, the presence of the zone ammonite Sonninia altecostata in the same fossil bed, indicate that Isaberrysaura lived some 170 million years ago (Early Bajocian faunal stage of the Middle Jurassic).

These are the first dinosaur remains found in this geological unit and the one of the oldest dinosaurs known from the Neuquén Basin.  In addition, this is the first neornithischian dinosaur known from the Jurassic of South America.  The skull and the teeth show some affinity with basal stegosaurids which suggests that both the Thyreophora and neornithischian dinosaurs shared a lot of similar features (potential evidence of convergent evolution amongst plant-eating dinosaurs).

Isaberrysaura mollensis – Views of the Skull and Teeth

Isaberrysaura mollensis - views of the skull and teeth.

The skull in (a) dorsal and left lateral view (c) with corresponding line drawings (b and d). Premaxillary tooth (e) and maxillary teeth (e and f).

Picture credit: Scientific Reports

Why Isaberrysaura?

This month, we have once again been celebrating International Women’s Day (March 8th), it is pleasing to note that the female form of “saurus” has been chosen when it came to naming this new dinosaur, as the genus has been erected to honour Isabel Valdivia Berry, who reported the finding of the holotype material.  In the body cavity, the researchers were able to identify a mass of permineralised seeds.  These were identified as belonging mostly to the Cycadales group of plants.  These tough seeds would have passed through the dinosaur’s gut and would have been deposited in the dung.  This fossil discovery suggests a possible and unexpected role of bird-hipped dinosaurs, that of Jurassic seed-dispersal agents.

An Analysis of the Gut Contents of Isaberrysaura

The gut contents of Isaberrysaura mollensis.

Permineralised seeds identified in the gut cavity of Isaberrysaura mollensis.

The photograph above shows images of the body cavity showing evidence of the seed fossils.

Some of the fossils show that their fleshy seed-coats are still intact (sc = sarcotesta), this indicates that these seeds were swallowed whole with little or no chewing action in the mouth.

The scientific paper: “A New Primitive Neornithischian Dinosaur from the Jurassic of Patagonia with Gut Contents”, published in the journal “Scientific Reports”.

Visit the Everything Dinosaur website: Everything Dinosaur.

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