Researchers claim to have finally identified a small-bodied dinosaur that fueled decades of paleontological contention, with significant consequences for everyone’s favorite extinct carnivore—the Tyrannosaurus rex. Scientists have long debated whether a skull unearthed in 1946 in Montana’s approximately 65.5-million-year-old Hell Creek Formation was a young T. rex or a newly discovered species, which researchers named […]
Rare Dinosaur ‘Mummies’ Show Their Features as We’ve Never Seen Them Before
In the badlands of Wyoming lies the “mummy zone.” This section of rocks dating back to the Cretaceous Period has produced several strikingly well-preserved dinosaur specimens over the last century, and now, scientists have used two of them to definitively determine what one long-lost species looked like. In the early 2000s, researchers found two specimens […]
New Jersey Theme Park Puts Animatronic Dinosaurs on Facebook Marketplace as It Shuts Down
Have you ever wanted to own gigantic, realistic-looking dinosaurs for your backyard? Now might be your chance to scoop some up. Provided you have a few thousand dollars lying around. The New Jersey theme park Field Station: Dinosaurs is closing Nov. 9, and they’re listing all their dinos on Facebook Marketplace. There are plenty to […]
When Non-Avian Dinosaurs Went Extinct, the Earth Changed—Literally. Scientists Think They Finally Know Why
Rocks formed immediately before and after non-avian dinosaurs went extinct are strikingly different, and now, tens of millions of years later, scientists think they’ve identified the culprit—and it wasn’t the Chicxulub asteroid impact. In a study published Monday in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, researchers argue that dinosaurs physically influenced their surroundings so dramatically […]
Dinosaurs Weren’t Fading Before the Asteroid—We Just Suck at Finding Their Fossils
Diversity is central to one of the biggest questions paleontologists have about dinosaurs. Namely, were these ancient creatures already on the decline when that fateful asteroid came crashing out of the sky? A group of Earth scientists believes they probably were not. While it’s true that fossils from the final dinosaur era are comparatively rare […]
Yep, That’s 66-Million-Year-Old Vomit
Paleontologists in Denmark found a once-gloopy, now-hardened mess that they believe was spat up by a Cretaceous-era fish. Humans aren’t the only animals that lose their lunch. Just look at your family dog or cat—or, for that matter, the ancient upchuck recently found by a fossil hunter in Denmark. Scientifically speaking, the find is regurgitalite—or […]
Paleontologists Claim to Have Discovered Terrifying New Dinosaur Species in Pre-WWII Photographs
Paleontologists might have discovered a new dinosaur species—even though its fossil doesn’t exist anymore. Researchers in Munich, Germany, claim to have identified a new species of large predatory dinosaur from modern day Egypt in a surprising way. As detailed in a January 14 study published in the journal PLOS one, the researchers studied the 95-million-year-old […]