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‘Tiny Titans’ exhibit includes live hatchings by ‘living dinosaurs’

By Guest PostJanuary 28, 2014Nature, ScienceArgentina, articulated dinosaur, babies, baby dinosaurs, baby louie, China, dinosaur eggs, duck-billed dinosaurs, early ceratopsian dinosaur, elephant bird aepyornis, embryos, exhibit, first dinosaur eggs, flaming cliffs, fossilized dinosaur eggs, gobi desert, hatchings, john ostrom, living dinosaurs, long necked dinosaurs, luis rey, meat eating dinosaurs, ornithopods, paleontology, patagonia, richard prum, sauropod nesting grounds, sauropods, theropods, tiny titans, titanosaurs, yale peabody museum, yale professor, young psittacosaurs

In 1923 the Flaming Cliffs of the Gobi Desert yielded one of the most-celebrated finds of paleontology. Entombed in sun-baked sandstone was a collection of oval-shaped oddities: the first dinosaur eggs known to science. This 75-million-year-old find would be followed by others, providing a glimpse into the lives of these ancient creatures that no skeleton could.

Since that discovery, fossilized dinosaur eggs and nests have been recovered from sites around the world, as have the bones of tiny hatchlings and even tinier embryos. These discoveries are allowing scientists to unlock the mysteries of dinosaur reproductive and social behavior, such as: Were dinosaurs social animals? Did they care for their young? What was life like for baby dinosaurs? (more…)

How the turtle got its shell

By Guest PostMay 31, 2013Nature, Scienceallison y hsiang, armadillos, China, eunotosaurus, eunotosaurus fossils, evolutionary origin, evolutionary pathway, fossil record, fossil reptile, gabe s bever, histological analysis, history of life, how, jacques a gauthier, modern turtle model, modern turtles, molecular divergence, most living turtles, placodonts, secret of shell, shell, smithsonian institution, South Africa, torsten m scheyer, turtle, turtle shell, tyler lyson, universitaet zuerich, various lizards, vertebrae, yale peabody museum, yale university

The turtle has been in no rush to give up the secret of its shell — but after two centuries of close study, scientists are filling in the story of a structure unique in the history of life.

New research led by Tyler Lyson of Yale University and the Smithsonian Institution pushes back the origins of the turtle shell by about 40 million years, linking it to Eunotosaurus, a 260-million-year-old fossil reptile from South Africa. The work strengthens the fossil record and bolsters an existing theory about shell development while providing new details about its precise evolutionary pathway. (more…)

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‘Tiny Titans’ exhibit includes live hatchings by ‘living dinosaurs’

How the turtle got its shell