dinosaur (Page 4)

Newswise – How did vicious, meat-eating dinosaurs evolve into friendly,vegetarian dinos?some of which could even fly? A new kind ofdinosaur discovered in Utah may provide some clues. As anadult, this dinosaur walked on two legs, was about 13 feetlong and around 4? feet tall. It had sharp, curved,4-inch-long claws.

The dinosaur, named Falcarius, belongs to a group ofdinosaurs known as therizinosaurs. Birds evolved fromdifferent dinosaurs, called maniraptorans?a group thatincludes the dinosaur that chased the children through thekitchen in the film “Jurassic Park.”
read more

Newswise – Paleontologists have been stunned by the discovery of softtissue from dinosaurs. The tissue is 68 to 80 million yearsold, and some of it remains pliant. The tissue from aTyrannosaurus Rex tissue is virtually identical to a modernostrich. The tissue probably contains genetic material.Perviously, it had been thought that organic tissue couldnot survive beyond a hundred thousand years.

This means that the world’s very archaic fossils may containa wealth of genetic material that will open a completely newwindow for us onto life in the distant past.
read more

Tyrannosaurus rex, the killer dinosaur that lived about 85 million years ago, was not the swift hunter depicted in Hollywood movies. Instead of chasing its prey at speeds of up to 45 mph, as some studies have suggested, these dinosaurs may not have been able to run at all.

?These animals were no speed demons,? says John Hutchinson of Stanford University. He specializes in the evolution of movement and says the science of how animals move shows that big creatures do not move quickly. At about 40 feet long, up to 20 feet tall and weighing about 13,000 pounds, Tyrannosaurus rex was very big.
read more

Science has now accepted the fact that the dinosaurs were killed 65 million years ago due to an impact from outer space. Could that type of extinction be in our future? Understanding what caused this impact could help to answer that question.

A new computer simulation shows that the ultimate cause was the fact that Mercury?s orbit wobbled during that period. This could have pushed an asteroid towards our planet, wiping out most of the living things on it.

?Our best calculations show that the dynamical state of the Solar System changed abruptly about 65 million years ago,? says Bruce Runnegar of the UCLA Center for Astrobiology.
read more