Wed
Nov
11
OMFG!!!!! Scientists have discovered THE MISSING LINK (of sauropods)!!!
It’s easy to get caught up in the gigantism of sauropodomorphs, to get embroiled in the keeping up with the titanosaurs, race-to-the-top that seems endemic to amateur sauropod-lovers. But step back from the obsession for a moment and ask yourself. WHY? The fundamental morpholology of the dinosaur is birdlike, ain’t it? How did some of them get so big and bulky, with those long, long necks, and tiny, hilarious heads?
We are one bulky, entaxony-prone step closer to the answer. AP sez:
A newly discovered dinosaur species that roamed the Earth about 200 million years ago may help explain how the creatures evolved into the largest animals on land, scientists in South Africa said Wednesday.
The Aardonyx celestae was a small-headed herbivore with huge barrel of a chest, and the scientists said it could prove to be a missing evolutionary link.
“This is definitely without a shadow of a doubt a brand new type of dinosaur — one that no one has seen before and one that has a very significant position in the family tree of dinosaurs,” said Australian paleontologist Adam Yates.
This is super exciting! But some paleontologists just can’t work up the proper enthusiasm:
“This is a very interesting animal,” says Paul Upchurch, a vertebrate paleontologist at University College London.
Tue
Nov
10
New Zealand, the island country formerly known for its flightless birds and Rogernomics, was apparently CHOCK FULL OF SWEET SWEET SAUROPODS. Its true. See if you can decipher this New Zealand jargon:
“A scientist who went exploring in the South Island for oil and gas came back with a much rarer find.
Dr Greg Browne accidentally discovered the first ever dinosaur footprints in the country.
To the untrained eye it looks like a puddle in the rock, but the footprint is rarer than a Welsh win over the All Blacks .
“This is incredibly exciting,” says Dr Hamish Campbell, palaeontologist. “This is the first evidence of dinosaurs that we know of for certain from the South Island.”
They are also the first dinosaur footprints found anywhere in the country.”
Thanks Hamish! But wait? What is the South Island? Who are the All Blacks? Hamish?
K. Here it is.
Some initial thoughts: (a) That must be a really big jetpack. (b) It’s an apatosaurus, not a brontosaurus. (c) Does this sauropod not need oxygen? (d) How much is that dippy helmet* going to help if this space-sauropod crashes into something? (e) Given the mass of a sauropod, could a space sail be effective?
Most importantly, will someone please play this flashgame and report back? Our sources say it’s like Starfox, but with a jetpack brontosaurus.
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* LATFS supports helmet safety for humans!
Yep. Song of Songs: A New Translation. That’s what a “Sauropod” reads.
In addition, this “Sauropod” thinks the HP Deskjet 5440 is “junk,” and has an “Interesting Friend” named “Newt Gingrich.”
Wed
Nov
4
Have you ever heard Dinosaur Rock? No? Well, you have no excuses because it won a PARENT’S CHOICE GOLD AWARD in 1994!!!! Big time hits like The Hadrasaur from Hackensack are very much included. My parents used to play it for me on long car trips. Wait. Maybe that’s why I am now blogging about Sauropods.
BUY IT FOR YOUR CHILDREN. AND YOUR CHILDREN’S CHILDREN.
It’s just “a new species of dinosaur bone.” At least, that’s the scoop according to the disturbingly incorrect prose that passes for dinojournalism at the Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard.
Nah but really. It’s a dinosaur. Specifically it’s a Cetiosauriscus, a diplodocoid which proudly owned the 8 foot ham-hock pictured on the left.
In true small town fashion, the plucky villagers of Wilts and Gloucestershire are now charging a modest fee to see the sauro-drumstick, whose arrival conveniently coincided with “Fossil Fest.”
Didn’t this kind-of happen in an episode of the Simpsons?
