Prehistoric News Thread

[Infinity Blade]

This is insane: a Myanmar piece of amber reveals a Mesozoic bird skull, suggesting an animal comparable in size to a bee hummingbird, the smallest bird in the world today (called Oculudentavis khaungraae)! Difference is, it was a toothy predator with enormous eyes.

www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/03/smallest-ever-fossil-dinosaur-found-trapped-in-amber/?cmpid=org=ngp::mc=crm-email::src=ngp::cmp=editorial::add=Science_20200311&rid=1B44BD17C5AF9A7759F48CC7D36223B3

[creature386]

To the surprise of absolutely no-one, days were shorter back in the Cretaceous, but at least we now have mollusk shells to provide us with more detail:
eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/03/10/dinosaur-days-days-were-half-hour-shorter-when-dinosaurs-roamed-earth/5010978002/

[dinosauria101]

Dinosaur tracks found on Skye:
www.sciencealert.com/new-dinosaur-tracks-discovered-on-a-scotland-island-make-it-a-true-jurassic-world

[theropod]

Adaptations for swimming in the tail of Spinosaurus:

Ibrahim, N., Maganuco, S., Sasso, C.D., Fabbri, M., Auditore, M., Bindellini, G., Martill, D.M., Zouhri, S., Mattarelli, D.A., Unwin, D.M., Wiemann, J., Bonadonna, D., Amane, A., Jakubczak, J., Joger, U., Lauder, G.V. and Pierce, S.E. 2020. Tail-propelled aquatic locomotion in a theropod dinosaur. Nature: 1–4.
www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2190-3

[Ceratodromeus]

The first Deinocheirid known in North America, Paraxenisaurus normalensis

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0895981120301231

[Infinity Blade]

New megaraptoran from Argentina.

www.siliconrepublic.com/innovation/megaraptor-species-argentina-discovery

[creature386]

Jurassic mimicry in stick insects:

Phasmatodea, commonly known as stick insects and leaf insects, are icons of crypsis and primary defense specialization, exhibiting a wide range of remarkable morphological and behavioral modifications associated with camouflage. Most of extant stick and leaf insects have the appearance of abdominal extensions, which has been one of the innovations contributing to their extraordinary crypsis. […] Yang et al. reported the earliest mimetic and defensive strategies of a stick insect from the Middle Jurassic of China, Aclistophasma echinulatum gen. et sp. nov., exquisitely preserving a combination of characters associated with both mimicry and defense, such as abdominal extensions, femoral spines, and large fore- and hind wings. The presence of these characters imply a remarkably early evolution of such specializations and their associated functions among some of the earliest Phasmatodea, suggesting that these defining and iconic aspects of stick insect evolution appeared early and are among taxa that are otherwise considered as stem groups to the more typical members (Timematodea + EuPhasmatodea) of the order today.

www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-05/scp-jsi051820.php?fbclid=IwAR0iVLUOlo_pD25y5GLUaElsv0SzyI8X-vH3o4IUU-q-uddMrfRONrz1bcs

[Infinity Blade]

A selfie stick photograph of an ichthyosaur skeleton from a museum was apparently analyzed and reveals an obscure ophthalmosaurid lineage with a wide distribution. Posting it here because production of the actual paper is still in progress.

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200519165838.htm

[Infinity Blade]

New press release on new Deinosuchus specimens.

clas.uiowa.edu/news/paleontologists-80-million-years-ago-monster-ate-dinosaurs

Some highlights:

• Deinosuchus is confirmed to have the head size and jaw strength to prey upon dinosaurs.
• Deinosuchus appears to have been an opportunistic predator that preyed upon just about everything in its environment (with bite marks on turtle carapaces and dinosaur bones, something already known).
• It had an inflated nose region not seen in any other living or extinct crocodylian; the reason for this feature is unknown.
• This study, when it comes out, will apparently describe a new species, D. schwimmeri.

I'll be anticipating the paper.

[Infinity Blade]

The Field Museum in Chicago has created a life model of Sue the T. rex for display. It will be on exhibit until August 18th.

blockclubchicago.org/2020/07/30/what-did-sue-the-t-rex-look-like-when-alive-new-field-model-shows-dino-with-skin-eyes/

The model does seem pretty solid, from what I can tell.

[Supercommunist]

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200806111849.htm

[Infinity Blade]

It turns out that volumetric-density methods and extant-scaling methods (e.g. limb scaling) for estimating dinosaur body mass usually agree with each other.

theconversation.com/how-do-you-weigh-a-dinosaur-there-are-two-ways-and-it-turns-out-theyre-both-right-144874?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=bylinetwitterbutton

[Infinity Blade]

Giant bird and mammal extinctions on Madagascar were caused by unusually dry climate and humans.

www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/10/double-whammy-doomed-madagascar-s-giant-birds-and-mammals

[smedz]

The Homotherium genome has been sequenced, revealing they were very distantly related to modern big cats.

www.newscientist.com/article/2257509-social-life-of-extinct-sabre-toothed-cat-revealed-by-ancient-dna/

[Ceratodromeus]

24 million-year-old nursery for baby megasharks discovered in South Carolina

www.livescience.com/ancient-megatooth-shark-nursery.html