World’s oldest dinosaur embryos discovery

This video is called Lufengosaurus: How do paleontologists know what dinosaurs ate?

From Biology News Net:

Researchers demonstrate oldest dinosaur embryos

April 11, 2013 02:04 PM

An international team of researchers, including a paleontologist from the University of Bonn, have proven dinosaur embryos to be the oldest ever found. The specimens of Lufengosaurus discovered in China lived during the lower Jurassic about 200 to 190 million years ago. Based on the bone tissue, Dr. Koen Stein was able to show that the fossils must have been in a very early stage of development. The rapid growth and high reproductive rate of these Chinese dinosaurs is astounding. The results are now being presented in the renowned scientific journal “Nature”.

Rice fields – as far as the eye can see. However, in recent years, construction projects have inflicted some scars upon the lush green area in the vicinity of Dawa in Southern China. Luckily for science: During excavation work, some tiny bones were unearthed in a layer of marl. “It was natural to suspect that they were the remains of dinosaur embryos”, says Dr. Koen Stein of the Steinmann Institute for Geology, Mineralogy, and Paleontology of the University of Bonn. Especially since the remains of adult Lufengosaurus had already been found in the area. The positioning of the little vertebrae and other bones – just a few millimeters long – indicated that these were nests of eggs of these dinosaurs.

Little research so far on Lufengosaurus

Lufengosaurus lived in the Lower Jurassic about 200 to 190 million years ago and is thus one of the oldest dinosaurs, which have been studied comparatively little. The animals had a long neck and a total body lentgh of about eight meters.

Lufengosaurus walked at least part of the time on two legs and had sharp teeth and claws – but nevertheless probably was a herbivore. An international, interdisciplinary team of scientists from Canada, Taiwan, Australia, and China, together with the paleontologist at the University of Bonn, have now studied whether the little bones found at Dawa are really Lufengosaurus embryos.

Cavities in vertebrae provide information on the state of development

Dr. Stein of the University of Bonn specializes in paelohistology, which studies the tissues of fossil organisms. Under the microscope, he examined thin sections of several vertebrae – just a few millimeters long – which came from about 20 embryos in different stages of development. The vertebrae are criss-crossed by channel-like cavities. Dr. Stein: “They held the blood vessels, which supplied the growing bone tissue with nutrients”. In young animals, which are growing rapidly, these cavities are particularly large. In more slowly growing older animals, these channels narrow, because it is no longer necessary to supply so many nutrients and more and more necessary to strengthen the bone. From the size of the cavities in the vertebrae, therefore, it is possible to extrapolate the animal’s stage of development.

An analysis of characteristics helped classify the fossils

The vertebrae examined by the paleontologist at the University of Bonn had particularly large cavities. “Based on this snapshot of their development, we were able to determine that the fossils must have been dinosaur embryos in an early stage of development”, reports Dr. Stein. This finding is supported by the remains of egg shells and by fossilized cartilage in the interior of the vertebrae. Lead author Dr. Robert R. Reisz, Professor at the University of Toronto Mississauga (Canada), compared the specific features of the embryo fossils to the characteristics of various dinosaurs. He came to the conclusion that the nests of eggs at Dawa come from a dinosaur group that also includes Lufengosaurus, which has been found there often. “We are opening a new window into the lives of dinosaurs”, says Prof. Reisz. “This is the first time we’ve been able to track the growth of embryonic dinosaurs as they developed. Our findings will have a major impact on our understanding of the biology of these animals”.

Rapid growth and frequent reproduction

“We have thus identified the oldest dinosaur embryos ever found”, says Dr. Stein. Furthermore, the researchers have been able to show that Lufengosaurus grew very rapidly and reproduced frequently. Taken together, these two things gave the dinosaurs an advantage in selection and explain why they apparently spread so far around the globe.

See also here. And here.

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Dinosaur age crocodile discovery

From the BBC:

28 January 2013 Last updated at 02:00 GMT

‘Blood-biting’ predator identified

Prehistoric remains discovered more than a century ago have been identified as a new species of marine super-predator.

Researchers said the 165-million-year-old creature was distantly related to modern-day crocodiles.

Parts of its skeleton were found near Peterborough in the early 1900s and are held at Glasgow’s Hunterian museum.

The species has been named as Tyrannoneustes lythrodectikos, meaning “blood-biting tyrant swimmer”.

Scientists found that the partial skeleton – including a jawbone and teeth – belonged to a group of crocodiles that were similar to dolphins.

The animal’s pointed, serrated teeth and large gaping jaw meant it would have been suited to feeding on large-bodied prey.

A team of experts led by the University of Edinburgh said it would help scientists better understand how marine reptiles were evolving about 165 million years ago.

‘Missing link’

The researchers believe the species represents a missing link between marine crocodiles that fed on small prey, and others that were similar to modern-day killer whales, which fed on larger prey.

Their findings have been published in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology.

Dr Mark Young of the University of Edinburgh’s School of GeoSciences, said: “It is satisfying to be able to classify a specimen that has been unexamined for more than 100 years, and doubly so to find that this discovery improves our understanding of the evolution of marine reptiles.”

Dr Neil Clark, palaeontology curator at the Hunterian, said little research had been done on the specimen since it was first listed in 1919.

He added: “It is comforting to know that new species can still be found in museums as new research is carried out on old collections.

“It is not just the new species that are important, but an increase in our understanding of how life evolved and the variety of life forms that existed 163 million years ago in the warm Jurassic seas around what is now Britain.”

Related articles

• Experts identify ancient crocodile (granthamjournal.co.uk)
• Scientists identify crocodile ancestor among fossils discovered a century ago (guardian.co.uk)
• New Species of Prehistoric Marine Super-Predator Identified (natureworldnews.com)
• Scottish News: Prehistoric bones linked to crocs (acadvertiser.co.uk)
• Sea monster bones revealed to be new species (morningstaronline.co.uk)
• Bad to the bone: The killer dino-dolphin revealed by skeleton that laid untouched for almost 100 years (dailymail.co.uk)
• Blood-Biting Tyrant: Previously Unknown Ancient Super Marine Predator Identified (sciencespacerobots.com)
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Flying fish fossil discovery

From the BBC:

31 October 2012 Last updated at 09:45

New flying fish fossils discovered in China

New flying fish fossils found in China provide the earliest evidence of vertebrate over-water gliding strategy.

Chinese researchers have tracked the “exceptionally well-preserved fossils” to the Middle Triassic of China (235-242 million years ago).

The Triassic period saw the re-establishment of ecosystems after the Permian mass extinction.

The fossils represent new evidence that marine ecosystems re-established more quickly than previously thought.

The Permian mass extinction had a bigger impact on the earth’s ecological systems than any other mass extinction, wiping out 90-95% of marine species.

Phenomenal flying fish

Previous studies have suggested that Triassic marine life developed more quickly than was once thought and that marine ecosystems were re-established more rapidly than terrestrial ecosystems.

The new research, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B journal, was carried out by scientists from Peking University, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Zhejiang Museum of Natural History.

The study shows that the new flying fish, named Potanichthys xingyiensis, was 153mm long and had the “unusual combination of morphological features” associated with gliding strategy in fishes.

The fossils show an asymmetrical, forked caudal (tail) fin and a “four-winged” body formation: a pair of enlarged pectoral fins forming “primary wings”, and a smaller pair of pelvic fins acting as “auxiliary wings”, according to the study.

The fossils were discovered in Guizhou Province in south-west China. They represent the first record of the extinct Thoracopteridae family of fishes to be found in Asia.

A reconstruction of what Potanichthys xingyiensis would have looked like

Previous Thoracopteridae fossils have been confined to the Upper Triassic of Austria and Italy, but the new discovery extends the group’s geographical distribution from the western to the eastern rim of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean (an ocean that closed during the Jurassic period).

The Triassic Thoracopteridae family belongs in the same Neopterygii group of animals as today’s flying fishes, of which there are around 50 species belonging to the Exocoetidae family.

Gliding has evolved many times in animals, such as in frogs, lizards and mammals but has “evolved only twice among fishes”, according to the study: once in the Triassic Thoracopteridae fishes and again in the modern-day Exocoetidae family.

Scientists suggest both families of flying fishes evolved so that they could escape marine predators by “gliding” over-water to safety.

Dutch 16th century book on fish by Adriaen Coenen: here.

Related articles

• New flying fish fossils discovered in China (updatednews.ca)
• The world’s oldest flying fish took to the air 80million years before birds appeared in the skies (dailymail.co.uk)
• Flying fish evolved to escape prehistoric predators (mnn.com)
• Flying fish fossils hint at ancient evolution (newscientist.com)
• Flying Fish Evolved to Escape Prehistoric Predators (livescience.com)

Jurassic crocodiles and modern killer whales

From The Scotsman in Scotland:

Snap! Ancient crocodiles just like killer whales, Scottish scientists discover

By JULIA HORTON

Published on Wednesday 19 September 2012 00:00

SCOTTISH experts have found a link between killer whales and ancient crocodiles which suggests that today’s reptiles don’t deserve their “living fossil” ­reputation.

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh used fossilised ­remains from the Natural History Museum in London of two giant crocodylians, Dakosaurus maximus and Plesiosuchus manselii, to reconstruct their huge heads.

To their surprise, they found that the shape and size of the creatures’ teeth and skulls matched those of modern killer whales which now swim in the same British seas inhabited by the reptiles 150 million years ago.

The findings suggest that both species evolved the same hunting and feeding techniques, which challenges the widespread view that crocodiles have hardly changed since prehistoric times.

Dakosaurus had a bullet-shaped snout for suction-feeding and badly worn teeth, like some killer whales today, leading experts to conclude that it swallowed fish whole and also ate tough-skinned sharks.

Meanwhile, the teeth of the Plesiosuchus showed no wear and tear, suggesting that it had adapted like modern-day “type two” killer whales to be even more brutal, possibly devouring other marine reptiles of the time.

Dr Mark Young, lead researcher at the University of Edinburgh’s School of GeoSciences, said: “A lot of people refer to [modern] crocodiles as living fossils, but we have found that ancient marine crocodiles seem to have fed like killer whales do now, which means they were probably as evolved as mammals are today.”

The ancestors of today’s crocodiles were more than four metres long and both belonged to the Metriorhynchidae family. Their front limbs had modified into flippers to adapt to life in the oceans and they had a shark-like tail fin, giving them a very different appearance to crocodiles today.

At that time while dinosaurs like the diplodocus walked the plains of America, the seas were teeming with giant pliosaurs which dominated the marine food chains.

The findings from the study, published in the scientific journal PLoS ONE, also help to explain how so many ancient reptiles survived for so long – and could help to predict what the impact of global warming might be on killer whales in future.

Dr Young added: “We’ve never really understood how so many different species survived in such close proximity then – we would expect they would out-compete or even eat each other. This seems to show that they were able to survive ­because they evolved to feed in different ways.

“We are now looking at why they became extinct and whether there are links between what happened to the ancient crocodiles at that time and what could happen to killer whales today as a result of climate change.”

While different types of killer whale exist in other parts of the world, until recently only one type was known to live in the waters around the UK.

In 2010, Scottish scientists in Aberdeen reported finding a second type of the marine mammal in the North Atlantic which, unlike the first, suffered virtually no wear to its teeth even in the oldest adults. Dr Andy Foote from the University of Aberdeen, who carried out the study, concluded that while the first type of killer whale sustains massive damage to its teeth because it sucks up herring and mackerel, the new type has evolved to feed differently, in order to find a new ecological niche.

See also here. And here.

German pterosaur fossil discovery

From The Local in Germany:

Flying fish-eating dinosaur unveiled

Published: 24 Aug 12 15:22 CET

A new kind of flying, fish-eating dinosaur has left German palaeontologists waving their trowels in glee.

No, this is a pterosaur. And pterosaurs were not dinosaurs, though living in the same age.

After a year of examining, dusting and head-scratching, they are putting the fossil on show this Saturday.

Thought to be around 155 million years old and with remnants of its last fish supper in its belly, scientists found the creature’s skeleton in Wattendorf, Bavaria last year. It is the only one of its kind ever found and the dinosaur world is excited about the still unnamed animal.

“It’s an extremely rare and wonderful specimen,” said pterosaur … expert Eberhard Frey from the Karlsruhe natural history museum.

“It had very long arms and very long legs, almost like stilts which were probably an advantage when wading through the water,” he added.

And despite being only around the height of a raven when standing, the pterosaur had a wingspan of around 1.20 metres, director of the Bamberg museum of natural history Matthias Mäuser told The Local.

To top off its oddly-proportioned shape, the creature had a long flamingo-like beak packed with 400 long, blunt teeth, which Mäuser explained were used to filter “fish, little crabs and other bits of food from shallow rock pools while standing.”

Scientists inspecting the fossil even found remains of its last meal in its stomach – bits of fish – solidifying the theory that it lived near water.

“It did have wings, but that does not mean it was a bird,” said Mäuser, adding that the new pterosaur did not have feathers, but instead was covered in wiry bristles and was a flying reptile.

Little is known about Germany’s new Jurassic age curio, but after a year of rigorous investigations and research, Mäuser said that it may have died from an injury to its jaw, which showed signs of damage.

The Wattendorf limestone where the skeleton was found is a renowned hotspot for fossils. Scientists have unearthed more than 5,000 fossils of sharks, turtles, fish, snails and crocodiles there since excavation begun in 2004.

“It is a treasure trove of fossils,” said Mäuser. The new pterosaur is the oldest to have been found in the area, and Helmut Tischlinger, one of the scientists working on the project believes that links can be seen between the animal and much later giant pterosaurs – which had a wingspan up to ten metres.

The new pterosaur will be on display from Saturday in a special exhibition at the Bamberg natural history museum.

Related articles

• Pterodactyl, Pteranodon & Other Flying ‘Dinosaurs’ (livescience.com)
• How Do They Move? (alreadyanswered.org)
• Second look at fossilized horn leads to new dinosaur discovery (ctvnews.ca)
• Excuse Me, Have You Seen a Pterosaur Pass This Way? (paleo-tourist.typepad.com)
• When Dinos Dawned, Mammals Got Munched, and Pterosaurs Took Flight (bataviapubliclibrary.typepad.com)
• Oldest Dutch dog fossil discovery (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Musing on the Pterosaurs from Deep Time (paleo-tourist.typepad.com)
• Giant pterosaur needed cliffs, downward-sloping runways to taxi, awkwardly take off into air (phys.org)
• Meet Xenoceratops: Canada’s newest horned dinosaur (esciencenews.com)

Tuatara conservation in New Zealand

This is a tuatara video.

From the New Zealand Herald:

Tuatara find safe haven on second gulf island

By Vaimoana Tapaleao

8:25 AM Monday Mar 26, 2012

Sixty tuatara have been relocated to pest-free Motuihe Island to help make sure more of the unique reptiles will be around for years to come.

The tuatara – from Lady Alice Island, one of the Hen and Chicken Islands off Northland – were flown to Motuihe yesterday and handed over during a special ceremony.

The release is part of a project led by the Motuihe Trust to establish a population of tuatara near Auckland and therefore more accessible. The Department of Conservation is also involved in the project.

There have been no mice, rats, rabbits or feral cats on the island for seven years. It is hoped that the move to the pest-free zone will ensure the population of tuatara thrives to be enjoyed for generations to come.

Trust chairman John Laurence said that with up to 350,000 native trees planted, Motuihe Island was the perfect home not only for tuatara but other wildlife living there including kakariki, little spotted kiwi, shore skink and kiwi.

DoC Auckland area manager Brett Butland said a lot of work had been done at the island to make sure endangered wildlife there would be safe.

He stressed that people travelling to such islands must check their vessels for pests.

Yesterday’s release means there are now three pest-free islands with tuatara in the Hauraki Gulf – the others being Tiritiri Matangi and Little Barrier Island.

See also here.

Tuatara reptile slices food with ‘steak-knife teeth’: here.

A New Rhynchocephalian from the Late Jurassic of Germany with a Dentition That Is Unique amongst Tetrapods: here.

Jurassic turtle discovery in England

This video from England says about itself:

Pliosaur discovery on the Jurassic Coast in Dorset

The unveiling of possibly the largest fossil of a pliosaur ever found. The pliosaur is a huge marine reptile from the Jurassic period.

From the Dorset Echo in Britain:

Turtle fossil found at a Portland quarry

4:00pm Thursday 9th June 2011

A PREHISTORIC beast which emerged from a Portland quarry is now on display at the island’s museum.

Albion Stone was amazed when they discovered the fossil of a turtle, thought to be 145 million years old dating from the Jurassic period.

The rare find excited geologists who said the only other near complete shell of a turtle was found on Portland in the 19th century.

The fossil can now be seen by locals as it has taken pride of place in its new home of Portland Museum.

The museum, in Wakeham, has a geology exhibition and this has been given a revamp thanks to cash from the Heritage Lottery Fund and Dorset County Council.

Portland Museum Trust director Roy Pepperell, who oversees the Stone Room where the turtle is on display, said: “As a particularly valued addition to the museum’s exhibits, the fossil will provide visitors with an opportunity to experience a rare and unique example of our local palaeontology.”

The 35cm-long fossil was found split in half within two massive blocks of Portland Whit Bed stone in Albion Stone’s Jordan’s Quarry last summer. The find was made by Diane Godden, wife of quarry manager Mark.

Experts say that as a primitive turtle, this specimen (hylaeochelys) could help provide new information about the species.

Albion Stone managing director Michael Poultney said. “This was a surprise discovery but we are pleased that this rare and interesting turtle fossil has been found in Jordan’s Quarry.

Earth science manager from Dorset County Council’s Jurassic Coast team Richard Edmonds said: “This is an amazing find and the guys on the ground have done a great job in recognising and recovering the fossil.”

• The museum is open from Fridays to Mondays 11am-4.30pm.

See also here.

ScienceDaily (Oct. 29, 2012) — “Bones upon bones, we couldn’t believe our eyes,” says Oliver Wings, paleontologist and guest researcher at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin. He was describing the spectacular find of some 1800 fossilized mesa chelonia turtles from the Jurassic era in China’s northwest province of Xinjiang. Wings and the University of Tübingen’s fossil turtle specialist, Dr. Walter Joyce, were working with Chinese paleontologists there in 2008: here.

Related articles

• Jurassic turtle graveyard found in China (msnbc.msn.com)
• Paleontologists Discover Huge Site with Jurassic Turtle Remains (sci-news.com)
• Jurassic turtle graveyard found in China (cbsnews.com)
• Jurassic Turtle Graveyard Found in China (livescience.com)
• Oldest Dutch dog fossil discovery (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Cetiosaurus, Jurassic sauropod dinosaur (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Image Gallery: Pile of Turtle Fossils Unearthed (livescience.com)
• Arthritisaurus: Did Elderly Dinos Get Inflamed Joints? (history.com)
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Giant filter-feeding fish of the dinosaur age

This video is called Walking with…Sharks (including about Leedsichthys).

By Jennifer Viegas:

SUV-Sized Fish Were Earliest Filter-Feeders

Giant whales are known for their open-mouthed filter feeding, but the technique was likely devised by humongous fish that lived during the Mesozoic.

Thu Feb 18, 2010 02:00 PM ET

THE GIST:

* Gigantic filter-feeding fishes lived during the Mesozoic Era.
* Filter feeding didn’t first emerge in whales, as had been previously suspected, but instead began with the now-extinct fishes.
* After the filter-feeding fishes died out with the dinosaurs, whales and other cetaceans filled the ecological niche.

Whales include the world’s largest animals, but newly identified fossils reveal they were preceded by SUV-sized filter-feeding fishes that emerged during the Jurassic Period, 170 million years ago, and lived until the extinction event that wiped out dinosaurs and numerous other species.

Although the now-extinct fishes, called pachycormiforms, were not closely related to whales, their demise left an ecological niche void that whales, sharks and rays filled starting around 56 million years ago, helping to explain the top portion of today’s marine food chain.

The fish fossils, described in the latest issue of Science, also prove that filter feeding emerged long before the first whales. For this method of eating, the diner suspends itself in the water, mouth agape. Water escapes through gill slits, leaving behind the filtered food.

It can help to have a big mouth, which many of these enormous fishes must have had.

Co-author Kenshu Shimada, a research associate in paleontology at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History, told Discovery News that one of the fish he and his colleagues identified, Bonnerichthys, grew to around 20 feet in length and swam through a seaway covering what is today the state of Kansas.

“A previously described species, Leedsichthys, from the Jurassic of Europe that belongs to the same lineage that includes Bonnerichthys was even larger, likely reaching up to about 30 feet, which is the most massive bony fish of all time,” added Shimada, who is also an associate professor in the Environmental Science Program and Department of Biological Sciences at DePaul University.

For the study, led by University of Oxford scientist Matt Friedman, the researchers analyzed both old and new fish fossils found in England, the U.S. and Japan. The Kansas fish was previously thought to have been like a gigantic swordfish, bearing fang-like teeth on its jawbones.

“However, our close examination of the specimen showed that such a long snout and fang-like teeth were not present in the fish,” Shimada said. “Rather, with a blunt massive head, the fish had long toothless jawbones and long gill-supporting bones that are characteristic of plankton-feeding fishes.”

While this fish, and the other Dinosaur-Era filter feeders, enjoyed a long existence on the planet, they were no match for the K-T extinction event that killed off 70 percent of all species then living on Earth.

“The filter-feeding pachycormiforms, relying for food on small organisms low in the trophic chain, had the perfect profile of a victim and became extinct,” wrote Lionel Cavin in a commentary that also appears in Science. Cavin is a curator in the Department of Geology and Paleontology at the Natural History Museum in Geneva.

Cavin added, “The tropical niche was later refilled, first with sharks and rays from around 56 million years ago and then with modern cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) from 34 million years ago.”

Yet another paper in the latest Science, authored by the University of Otago’s Felix Marx and George Mason University‘s Mark Uhen, found that diatoms, a common type of phytoplankton, along with climatic events, influenced the evolution of cetaceans once they headed into the water.

Marx and Uhen believe that “a great increase in diatom-based productivity, possibly by increasing the bioavailability of silica and other nutrients in the Southern Ocean and coastal upwelling zones around the world through deep-mixing occurring around Antarctica” drove the evolution of baleen whales, in particular.

The research sheds light on why marine mammals that can weigh over 190 short tons and grow to 108 feet in length may subsist on minuscule diatoms and other tiny, yet prevalent, water dwellers, such as krill.

See also here. And here.

New marine plant identification guide for Panama’s Eastern Pacific: here.

Related articles

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• Arthritisaurus: Did Elderly Dinos Get Inflamed Joints? (history.com)
• Prehistoric Monsters of the Deep: Slideshow (history.com)
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Pterosaur landing tracks discovered

This video is called Tribute to Quetzalcoatlus (see also here).

From LiveScience:

Prehistoric ‘Runway’ Used by Flying Reptile

By Charles Q. Choi, Special to LiveScience

posted: 18 August 2009 07:46 pm ET

A prehistoric runway for flying pterosaurs has been discovered for the first time.

Scientists uncovered the first known landing tracks of one of these extinct flying reptiles at a site dubbed “Pterosaur Beach,” in the fine-grained limestone deposits of an ancient lagoon in southwestern France dating back some 140 million years ago to the Late Jurassic.

The footprints suggest the pterosaur — a “pterodactyloid” with a wingspan roughly three feet wide (one meter) — flapped to stall its flight during landing, and then planted both its two-inch-long feet (five cm) simultaneously at a high angle.

The reptile next dragged its toes briefly, took a short “stutter step” — perhaps a hop with both feet — and landed, settling its hands. It finally adjusted its posture and ambled off normally on all fours.

“No other trackways ascribed to pterosaurs in the world have shown either landings or takeoffs,” said researcher Kevin Padian, a paleontologist at the University of California at Berkeley.

Pterosaurs, like birds, “were very light animals, and didn’t tend to leave as many tracks when compared to, say, a 50-ton sauropod,” the largest dinosaurs to ever stride the earth, explained paleontologist David Hone at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of China in Beijing, who did not participate in this study.

“If tracks from pterosaurs are going to get preserved, it’s likely to be in the softest muds or finest sands, and it’s unlikely even then, so to get traces of a pterosaur landing like this is very exciting,” Hone noted. He added the case the researchers make for the way the pterosaurs landed “is very strong and convincing.”

The fact this pterosaur had the capability to stall during flight implies sophisticated flapping control of the wings, Padian said. Future research will hopefully uncover tracks made during takeoff, shedding further light on how these extinct creatures once flew.

“There are hundreds of trackways in this big quarry,” Padian said.

See also here. And here.

ScienceDaily (Nov. 7, 2012) — It weighed about 155 pounds and had a 34-foot wingspan, close to the size of an F-16 fighter jet. A five-foot-long skull looked down from a standing height similar to that of a modern giraffe. By all measures, the ancient pterosaur Quetzalcoatlus was a Texas-sized giant of the air and created a frightening shadow as it soared across the sky: here.

Swiss dinosaur footprints: here.

Angola is best known for oil and diamonds, but dinosaur hunters say the country holds a “museum in the ground” of rare fossils — some actually jutting from the earth — waiting to be discovered: here.

Australian sauropod: here.

Epachthosaurus: here.

Related articles

• How Do They Move? (alreadyanswered.org)
• Pterodactyl, Pteranodon & Other Flying ‘Dinosaurs’ (livescience.com)
• Excuse Me, Have You Seen a Pterosaur Pass This Way? (paleo-tourist.typepad.com)
• When Dinos Dawned, Mammals Got Munched, and Pterosaurs Took Flight (bataviapubliclibrary.typepad.com)
• Sexual selection in the fossil record (blogs.scientificamerican.com)
• Why I’m Still Working on Ankylosaur Attack a Year After Publication (skepticblog.org)
• Musing on the Pterosaurs from Deep Time (paleo-tourist.typepad.com)
• Cetiosaurus, Jurassic sauropod dinosaur (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)

Jurassic turtle discovered in Thailand

From The Independent in South Africa:

New dinosaur-era turtle species

June 23 2009 at 08:01AM

Bangkok – Two 150-million-year-old turtle fossils recently found in north-east Thailand have been classified as a new Jurassic-era species, clinching the kingdom’s claim to land-turtle ancestry in South-East Asia, media reports said Tuesday.

The two fossils, believed to date back to the Jurassic era more than 150 million years ago when dinosaurs roamed the earth, were found in 2005 by the government’s Mineral Resource Department in Mukdahan province, 450 kilometres north-east of Bangkok.

The official discovery of the new species was published in the London-based Geological Society journal earlier this year under the name Basilochelyes macro bios [sic. Basilochelys macrobios], the Bangkok Post newspaper reported.

The world’s oldest turtle fossil, the 200-million-year-old Progonochelyes [sic. Proganochelys], was found in nearby Khon Kaen province.

Henodus, Triassic turtle-like reptile: here.

Hypsognathus was a small reptile lived during the late Triassic (215-200 million years ago) in the wetlands of eastern North America; here, its fossils were found in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut, in US, and in Nova Scotia, in Canada. It was an anapsid reptile, i.e., featured by a compact and massive skull with only two lateral openings for the eyes and two for the nostrils: here.