First dinosaur bones in Saudi Arabia discovered

For palaeontologists, the Middle East has long proven a bit of a blind spot. 

Evidence of dinosaurs has proven scarce, and what little surfaces from time to time have been traditionally difficult to itemize. That changed recently when an international team of scientists uncovered the first evidence of dinosaurs in Saudi Arabia near the coast of the Red Sea. 

The findings were published last month in the scientific journal PLOS ONE. 

"To say that finds (in the Arabian Peninsula) are rare is an understatement. What's been discovered, you could almost fit inside a shoebox," notes Dr. Benjamin Kear, a palaeontologist at Uppsala University in Sweden, and the study's lead author.

Full article

Geology | Paleontological feuds helped build fossil record

Paleontology is the study of the history of life. It’s a fascinating field, but sometimes the history of paleontology is just as interesting.

I’ve written before about the famous feud between Edward Drinker Cope of Philadelphia and Othniel Charles Marsh of Yale during the 1870s and ’80s. In person and in print, they called each other cheats, liars, frauds and madmen as they tried to outdo each other in discovering and naming dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals.

Continue reading here

Dino 101: Dinosaur Paleobiology free online

Alberta University is giving a free dino class online:

Dino 101: Dinosaur Paleobiology is a 12-lesson course teaching a comprehensive overview of non-avian dinosaurs. Topics covered: anatomy, eating, locomotion, growth, environmental and behavioral adaptations, origins and extinction. Lessons are delivered from museums, fossil-preparation labs and dig sites. Estimated workload: 3-5 hrs/wk for non-credit; 7-10 hrs/wk for credit

Get the course here

Some AMAC Tinysaur display options

Model 522C, 804C, & 512C
Simple display boxes for your completed Tinysaurs.

I think Johnny Cash wrote a song about A Bone Named Sue

Dinosaur 13 and the Ghost of Tyrannosaurus Sue

 

Of all the dinosaurs to have ever lived, none has been as embattled as "Sue" the Tyrannosaurus rex. One of the largest apex predators to have ever stalked the Earth, Sue undoubtedly scuffled with and fed upon other dinosaurs in the waning days of the Cretaceous. But even such gory Mesozoic fights look tame compared to the legal clash that Sue’s discovery would kick off some 66 million years after the tyrant’s death. The dinosaur’s modern day trials are at the heart of the new film Dinosaur 13.

 

phenomena.nationalgeographic.com

Ice Age Tinysaurs seem appropriate in a blizard

Saber Tooth now available on Tinysaur.us

This gives new meaning to fossil fuel

Vehicles as dinosaur skeletons

Jitish Kallat's 2008 piece "Aquasaurus" is a massive replica water truck made to look like a great prehistoric leviathan's skeleton, with great bowed ribs and enormous grinding teeth.

More images here

What were they thinking?

Scientists create detailed map of dinosaur brain

Ancient beasts such as Tyrannosaurus rex had faculties for complex behaviour, according to findings based on studies of brains of alligators and birds

The truth about T-Rex

T-Rex's mom & dad were more lapdogs than top predators.

More Here

Ichthyosaur skeleton washes up on the Dorset coast

...with a boat, WWII bombs, sea mice, and a bunch of other wierd things.

 

Read about the storms here

Swedish Tinysaurs!

One of our collectors posted a video of his build
http://blogfice.blogspot.se/2013/12/tinysaurs.html

Mmmm. Dino hide handbags would be amazing. Anyone know how to mold vinyl?

Were they fuzzy or were they flat-skinned? That's the great question now for dinosaur researchers. After surveying all the world's known fossils of dinosaur skin, one pair of paleontologists says the vast majority of non-avian dinosaurs were scaly-skinned.

Get the whole story here

There ought to be a law...

Out-of-sight dinos make fan pen a love letter in local news.

Read more here...

ICE confiscates Chinese dino

Rick Rolater has sold fossils through two By Nature Gallery stores in Colorado. He faces a US$25,000 fine and two years’ probation under a plea agreement when he goes before US District Judge Scott Skavdahl for sentencing March 18 in Casper.

Rolater agreed to forfeit a sabre-toothed cat skull and three dinosaur fossils imported from China.

Read the story here

Select the dino that's right for your lifestyle