CLONE DINOSAUR

Scientists at the University of Florida have effectively cloned a dinosaur, a spokesman from the university said yesterday.

The dinosaur, a baby Apatosaurus nicknamed “Spot,” is at present being incubated at the University of Florida’s College of Veterinary Medicine.

The scientists take out DNA from preserved Apatosaurus fossils, which were on show at the university’s museum of natural science. Once the DNA was harvested, scientists bring in it into a fertile ostrich womb.

“Ostriches contribute to a lot of genetic traits with dinosaurs,” said Dr. Norman Trudell, a biology professor at UF and the project’s leading scientist. “Their eggshell microstructures are almost the same to those of the Apatosaurus that is why the cloning worked so absolutely.”

Those in the scientific community declare the dinosaur cloning – the first ever of its kind – is a milestone for genetic engineering.

Big bite dino one hungry beast

T. rex is some kind of king, so it's only right that he should have really kingly droppings. 'Coprolite' is the fancy name for fossilised faeces, that is, animal dung, or poo.

In 1997, the Royal Saskatchewan Museum sent Karen Chin of the US Geological Survey a rather unusual specimen that they had unearthed. It was large (44 centimetres by 16 centimetres by 13 centimetres), nicely tapered and quite heavy (7.1 kilograms).

It turned out to be a Tyrannosaurus poo, and twice as big as any other previously discovered carnivore's poo. For many years, the palaeontologists thought that T. rex had the biggest head of any dinosaur. One skull measured 1.5 metres long.

But in 1996, Carcharodontosaurus (meaning 'shark-toothed reptile') was discovered in Morocco. Its head was 1.6 metres long. Now the T. rex teeth were in a huge jaw, and powered by huge jaw muscles, so they could generate a massive bite force of an enormous 3100 kilograms.

Comparing this to today's animals, it outclasses the 1800 kilograms of bite force of a great white shark, the 560 kilograms of a large African lion, and is much greater than our pathetic human bite force of just 80 kilograms. On the other hand, T. rex had less bite force than the extinct ancestor of the great white shark, the gigantic Carcharodon megalodon.

This shark, 16 metres long and weighing up to 100 tonnes, could generate up to 18,000 kilograms of bite force.

T. rex had lots of teeth. The biggest tooth found so far is about 30 centimetres long. These teeth sat in a huge jaw, which was U-shaped at the front, not V-shaped like many non-tyrannosaur dinosaurs. The teeth right at the very front of the upper jaw was curved backwards, and had tips like chisels (like our front teeth).

The rest of the teeth were more robust. The palaeontologists often call them 'lethal bananas'. They were also serrated, with the serrations on the front and rear surface.

Meat-eating Dinosaurs Not So Carnivorous After All

Scientists have found that although Tyrannosaurus rex may have been a flesh-eating terror, many of his closest relatives were more content with vegetarian fare.

The scientists used statistical analyzes to determine the diet of 90 species of theropod dinosaurs. Their results challenge the conventional view that nearly all theropods hunted prey, especially those closest to the ancestors of birds.

The research shows that among the most bird-like dinosaurs--known as coelurosaurs--plant eating was a common way of life.

"Most theropods are clearly adapted to a predatory lifestyle, but somewhere on the line to birds, predatory dinosaurs went soft," says Lindsay Zanno, co-researcher of the study.

New Mexico giant dinosaur - Titanoceratops

"Many unknown dinosaurs await discovery in rock formations all over the world, however some new species are defeat in plain sight. One such animal, explained in an in-press Cretaceous Research paper, had one of the biggest heads of any dinosaur."

The recognition of Titanoceratops creates new hypotheses about the evolution of the last of North America’s horned dinosaurs. At about 74 million years old, Titanoceratops expands the range of the Triceratopsini back about five million years and may specify that large body size evolved among this subgroup earlier than had been thought.

Though surely an imposing specimen, the main value of Titanoceratops may be in assisting paleontologists trace the evolution of horned dinosaurs just ahead of the catastrophic end-Cretaceous mass extinction.

For more information visit this link Titanoceratops.

Horny find uncovers Triceratops' predecessor

Two enormous heads arrayed with horns are the first striking images of a pair of newly discovered dinosaur species.

The ornate heads belong to Kosmoceratops richardsoni and the Utahceratops gettyi, two species of dinosaur found in southern Utah's Grand-Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

Both Kosmoceratops and Utahceratops were plant-eating inhabitants of the 'long lost continent' of Laramidia about 76 million years ago, says Dr Eric Roberts, one of the scientists involved in the discovery, who is now based at James Cook University in Townsville.

"The two dinosaurs are relatives of the famous Triceratops but they are about 10 million years older," says Roberts.

He says it's particularly exciting because they are among the first of many dinosaur discoveries being made in the region.

"The area we're working in is yielding a whole slew of other dinosaurs as well," says Roberts.

"This pair is from a whole amazing range of discoveries, from other dinosaurs to other mammals."

The two new dinosaurs have a much more elaborate array of horns than the more familiar Triceratops, with the smaller of the two, Kosmoceratops, baring 15 of different shapes and sizes.

It is the most ornate dinosaur head yet discovered ('kosmos' is Greek for ornate). The discoverers speculate that rather than being used for fighting, the horns may have been for decoration and advantage in courtship displays, as well as to deter mating rivals.

The Utahceratops doesn't have so many horns, but is distinguished with a massive head - its skull measuring 2.3 metres long. It is said to resemble a giant rhino with a supersized head.

AMNH declared 'The World's Largest Dinosaurs' Exhibition starts on April 16, 2011 and end on January 2, 2012

The American Museum of Natural History today announced a foremost new exhibition, The World's Largest Dinosaurs (from April 16, 2011 to January 2, 2012), which will get visitors beyond the bones and into the amazing anatomy of a uniquely super-sized group of dinosaurs who flourished for 140 million years: the long-necked and long-tailed sauropods, which ranged in size from 15 to 150 feet long.

Drawing on the most recent science that looks in part to presented organisms to realize these long-extinct giants, The World's Largest Dinosaurs will reply such intriguing questions as how an very large animal breathes, eats, moves, and survives by illuminating how size and scale are related to fundamental biological functions.

Modern interactive exhibits-including the centerpiece, a life-sized, detailed model of a 60-foot Mamenchisaurus-will receive visitors inside these giants' bodies, shedding light on how heart rate, respiration, metabolism, and reproduction are linked to size.