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December 08, 2016

Dinosaur Tail Found Encased In Amber

In the movie Jurassic Park, scientists extract dinosaur DNA from the bellies of prehistoric mosquitoes preserved in amber. Now researchers have done away with the middle man.

Palaeontologists have found the feathered tail of a 99 million-year-old dinosaur encased in a piece of amber at a jewellery market in Myanmar. The discovery, outlined today in the journal Current Biology, marks the first confirmed find of a dinosaur fossil trapped in the resin.

It is also the first time scientists have been able to observe intact dinosaur feathers, gleaning vital clues about their structure and colour. Co-author Ryan McKellar said while amber pieces could capture only “tiny snapshots” of ancient critters, they were invaluable. “They record microscopic details, three-dimensional arrangements and labile tissues that are difficult to study in other settings,” said Dr McKellar, of the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Canada.

“This is a new source of information that is worth researching with intensity.”

Amber is fossilised tree resin that often traps bugs and plant fragments before it hardens.

Biologists have found mating flies, stingless bees, midges, ants, wasps, beetles, spiders and mammals’ hair in chunks of the yellowish gemstone.

Some of the finds are highly significant. In March, US researchers reported finding the forerunner of the malaria parasite in a 100 million-year-old biting insect fossilised in amber from Myanmar.

Prehistoric feathers have previously been discovered in amber from Canada and France, but it was impossible to tell whether they came from dinosaurs or birds.

“In this piece of amber, we finally have skeletal remains that allow us to pin down the source animal and say that we are dealing with a dinosaur,” Dr McKellar told The Australian.

CAT scans and microscope studies revealed the 4cm-long tail was flexible, not fused like a bird’s. The team believes it comes from a juvenile coelurosaur, a huge dinosaur group that included the tyrannosaurs.

Feathers along each side appear pale underneath and brown on top, although Dr McKellar said their preservation in amber could have changed the colouring. He dismissed any suggestion the find could be used to clone dinosaurs, Jurassic Park-style.

“Recent work has suggested that it is almost impossible to preserve DNA in amber for thousands of years, let alone millions.”

In separate research, scientists have found one of the oldest known tumours in a 255 million-year-old fossil of a predator known as a “gorgonopsian”.

US researchers found a benign tumour called a “compound odontoma” in the jawbone of a Tanzanian gorgonopsian, one of a group of land carnivores that preceded mammals and could grow to the size of polar bears.

Odontomas are tumours made of dental material. Until now their appearance in the fossil record has been restricted to more recent creatures such as mammoths and prehistoric deer.

The new find is not the oldest known cancer — that honour belongs to a 300 million-year-old fish.

By John Ross

With many thanks to The Australian

More on Dinosaurs and Prehistoric creatures:

Walking With Dinosaurs: Feathered, Furry and Fierce

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Chinese Jurassic Park Yields Incredible Feathered Dino Find

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Researchers Say They've Found The Biggest Dinosaur Ever

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The Brontosaurus Is Officially Back

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What Killed The Dinosaurs?

Titanosaurs: The Largest Animals Ever To Walk The Earth

Timurlengia Euotica: The Missing Link to Tyrannosaurus Rex

Archaeopteryx: The Transitional Fossil

When Did The Dinosaurs Become Extinct?

Ancient Sea Monster The First Vegetarian Marine Reptile

Spiclypeus Shipporum: New Dinosaur Species Sported Uniquely Spiked Shield

T-Rex Cooed With Mouth Wide Shut

Prehistoric Marsupial Lion Was The Size Of A Squirrel

Jurassic ‘Sea Monster’ From Scottish Loch

Psittacosaurus: Chinese Parrot Lizard Dinosaur First Found To Use Camouflage

Scientists Discover A Mysterious Prehistoric Shark

'Beardog' Discovery Offers Clues As To How Canines Evolved

Austroposeidon Magnificus: Brazil’s Biggest Dinosaur Has Been Rediscovered

Savannasaurus Elliottorum: Wide-Hipped Dinosaur the Size of a Bus Once Trod Across Australia

Ancient 400-Pound Salmon Fought With Dagger-Like Teeth

Newfound Ancient 'Sea Monster' Is Largest Yet from Antarctica

November 11, 2016

Newfound Ancient 'Sea Monster' Is Largest Yet from Antarctica

About 66 million years ago, an ancient sea monster the height of a five-story office building once gnashed its sharp teeth as it swam around the dark waters of Antarctica, a new study finds.

The newfound beast, known as a mosasaur — a Cretaceous-age aquatic reptile that sped through the ancient seas using its paddle-like limbs and long tail — is only the second fossilized mosasaur skull ever found in Antarctica.

The mosasaur specimen is different enough from other known species that it qualifies for its own genus and species. Researchers named it Kaikaifilu hervei after "Kai-Kai filú," an almighty giant reptile that owns the sea in legends from the Mapuche culture from southern Chile and Argentina. The species name honors Francisco Hervé, a world-renowned Chilean geologist and Antarctic explorer, the researchers said. [Image Gallery: Ancient Monsters of the Sea]

Scientists with the Chilean Paleontological Expedition discovered the mosasaur skull on Seymour Island in January 2011. The team had run into bad weather, and only during the last few days in the field, while they were mucking around in knee-deep mud, did they discover the enormous fossil, the researchers said.

Based on the skull's anatomy and size (4 feet, or 1.2 meters, long), the reptile's entire body stretched about 33 feet (10 m), making it the largest marine predator in the region, the researchers said.

It's not uncommon to find mosasaur remains in North America, especially in the seaway that once divided the East from the West in North America. But with the exception of New Zealand, it's relatively rare to find the giant creatures in the Southern Hemisphere, said Rodrigo Otero, a paleontologist at the University of Chile and the lead researcher on the study.

Still, K. hervei was a close relative of — and similar in size to — the North American mosasaur known as Tylosaurus, which lived about 20 million years earlier. K. hervei was also a close relative of another Antarctic mosasaur (Taniwhasaurus antarcticus), which was smaller, with a skull about 2.3 feet (0.7 m) in length, and lived about 5 million years before K. hervei did, the researchers said.

What's more, other researchers have found an array of other isolated mosasaur teethin the rocks of Antarctica. Mosasaurs have multiple types of teeth (a condition called heterodonty), meaning that differently shaped teeth might belong to the same mosasaur species. Thus, researchers will need to be careful not to overestimate the number of species as they review the discovered teeth, the researchers said.

Although Antarctica is now a frigid continent, it was warmer during the dinosaur age, the researchers said. A slew of animals swam in the region's waters, giving K. hervei a smorgasbord of contemporaries to dine on, they said.

For instance, the plesiosaurs— mostly long-necked marine reptiles that ate plankton via filter feeding — likely would have been prime targets for K. hervei, the researchers said.
"Prior to this research, the known mosasaur remains from Antarctica provided no evidence for the presence of very large predators like Kaikaifilu, in an environment where plesiosaurs were especially abundant," Otero said in a statement. "The new find complements one expected ecological element of the Antarctic ecosystem during the latest Cretaceous."

By Laura Geggel
With many thanks to Live Science.

More on Dinosaurs and Prehistoric creatures:

Prehistoric Marsupial Lion Was The Size Of A Squirrel

Jurassic ‘Sea Monster’ From Scottish Loch

Psittacosaurus: Chinese Parrot Lizard Dinosaur First Found To Use Camouflage

Scientists Discover A Mysterious Prehistoric Shark

'Beardog' Discovery Offers Clues As To How Canines Evolved

Austroposeidon Magnificus: Brazil’s Biggest Dinosaur Has Been Rediscovered

Savannasaurus Elliottorum: Wide-Hipped Dinosaur the Size of a Bus Once Trod Across Australia

Ancient 400-Pound Salmon Fought With Dagger-Like Teeth

Dinosaur Tail Found Encased In Amber

November 03, 2016

Ancient 400-Pound Salmon Fought With Dagger-Like Teeth

Giant, spike-toothed salmon that weighed almost 400 lbs. (180 kilograms) once made their home in the ancient coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean, according to new research.

The now-extinct salmon species spawned in California rivers approximately 11 million to 5 million years ago, the scientists said. The fish measured up to 9 feet (2.7 meters) long, with spike-like teeth that were more than 1 inch (3 centimeters) long.

Though its dagger-like teeth could have been deadly for prey, the ancient salmon was probably a filter feeder rather than a predatory species, meaning the fish took in water full of plankton as it swam, as modern Pacific salmon do, they added.

The salmon's unusual spiky teeth were likely used to fight, helping them to defend their fertilized eggs, according to researchers from California State University, Stanislaus in Turlock, California. [My, What Sharp Teeth! 12 Living and Extinct Saber-Toothed Animals]

The team of researchers, led by vertebrate paleontologist Julia Sankey, studied 51 fossils from the extinct salmon species in both freshwater and saltwater environments.
"Scientifically, our research on the giant salmon is filling in a gap in our knowledge about how these salmon lived and, specifically, if they developmentally changed prior to migration upriver like modern salmon do today," Sankey said in a statement.

Modern salmon experience physical changes, especially in their skull, prior to spawning, the scientists said. They noted that modern male salmon will fight to defend their eggs, and their ancient ancestors likely exhibited the same behavior.

The new study found that teeth from the giant salmon found in freshwater environments were consistently longer and more sharply curved than those of the salmon found in the saltwater environments, and showed signs of wear. They added that these differences suggest that the salmon experienced changes prior to migrating upriver to spawn.
The salmon's spiky teeth also may have been used to display a sign of dominance, the researchers said.

"These giant, spike-toothed salmon were amazing fish," Sankey said. "You can picture them getting scooped out of the Proto-Tuolumne River [near Modesto, California] by large bears 5 million years ago."

Sankey and her colleagues presented their research Oct. 27 at the annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in Salt Lake City.

By Kacey Deamer

With many thanks to Live Science

More on Dinosaurs and Prehistoric creatures:

Prehistoric Marsupial Lion Was The Size Of A Squirrel

Jurassic ‘Sea Monster’ From Scottish Loch

Psittacosaurus: Chinese Parrot Lizard Dinosaur First Found To Use Camouflage

Scientists Discover A Mysterious Prehistoric Shark

'Beardog' Discovery Offers Clues As To How Canines Evolved

Austroposeidon Magnificus: Brazil’s Biggest Dinosaur Has Been Rediscovered

Savannasaurus Elliottorum: Wide-Hipped Dinosaur the Size of a Bus Once Trod Across Australia

Newfound Ancient 'Sea Monster' Is Largest Yet from Antarctica

Dinosaur Tail Found Encased In Amber