Tag archives for Dinosaurs
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A 150-million-year-old clutch of fossilized dinosaur eggs is providing scientists with new evidence of how eggs evolved. The eggs were laid by a dinosaur belonging to a group of species called theropods. Tyrannosaurus rex, as well as today’s birds, belong to this group. Most of the time, scientists can’t tell what kind of dinosaur laid the eggs they find, but the fossil embryos inside the eggs were developed enough for scientists to tell which group of dinosaurs they were from.
Scientists discovered that the eggs had fewer layers than eggs from later dinosaurs and birds. They also know that the eggs were buried to incubate, because of the amount of pores in the eggshell.
Paleontologists in Nevada have discovered a Triassic-era sea monster that is the size of a bus! It lived about 244 million years ago during the Triassic era. The creature is called “lizard-eating sovereign of the seas,” or Thalattoarchon saurophagis. T. saurophagis was an early ichthyosaur, a giant reptile that lived in the oceans.
The fossil was partially excavated in 1998, and National Geographic explorer and T. saurophagis study co-author Nadia Fröbisch and her colleagues excavated the rest of the fossil in 2010. The complete fossil has a huge skull and big, sharp teeth that may have been used to eat prey the same size as T. saurophagis.
Learn more about Thalattoarchon saurophagis on National Geographic News.
National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Paul Sereno and his team have discovered a new dinosaur species! Pegomastax africanus was only about 2 feet long, and had fangs and was covered with quills like a porcupine’s. Even though it had fangs, this tiny dino ate plants. Because of its small size, Sereno says that “it would be a nice pet–if you could train it not to nip you.”
Would you like to have a dinosaur as a pet?
Read more about Pegomastax africanus on National Geographic News.
Read about more tiny dinos on National Geographic Kids.
Learn more about Paul Sereno and the rest of the National Geographic explorers.
Posted by Caitlin: Today the team went to Two Medicine Dinosaur Center. We had a tour with Timeline Adventures. Learning about identifying fossils, digging up fossils, and preserving them was probably the most enjoyable day, in my opinion. The fossils we uncovered were the lower leg bones of a Hadrosaurus, a T-rex tooth, and scattered Hadrosaurus bones. Getting to help dig up dinosaur bones was amazing. Carefully brushing and chipping off rock helped to expose more of the fossil. Once the fossil is all exposed, paper towels and water are “painted” on. The plaster is applied by hand and the fossil was pried out of the ground. It was a neat experience getting to preserve a real dinosaur fossil. I’ve been looking forward to this day ever since I won the expedition! I learned a lot about dinosaurs and fossils and the rest of the team did too.
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BOOK NAME:
Jake Ransom and the Skull King’s Shadow
AUTHOR:
James Rollins
Jake Ransom and the Skull King’s Shadow is about a boy named Jake and his sister. They go to a museum and they each have these coins on necklaces that they got from their parents who died. They died while they were discovering artifacts at this archaeological dig. At the museum Jake grabbed the two necklaces and held them together against this pyramid and they fit together and matched a symbol on the pyramid.
This caused them to travel to this weird place, where they immediately almost got eaten by a Tyranosaurus rex. They met two people who would become their best friends in the story. They are taken to the main town and everyone thinks that they were sent by the Skull King. But there are no signs of this so they’re allowed to stay.
The people of the town get attacked by the Skull King’s minions. Jake is made an assistant priest of the town because of his knowledge of sy-enz (science) which is like magic to the people in this land. You’ll have to read the book to find out how and if Jake and his sister can save the town and themselves.
I recommend this book to maybe 7-15 year olds. You will like it if you like adventure, action and awesome books. Me and my dad are going to read the second book of the series, which hasn’t even come out yet, but I got an early reader copy. It’s called Jake Ransom and the Howling Sphinx.
Interview With “Toy Story 3″ Actress
Kristen Schaal is an American comedienne and actress who is the voice
for animated characters such as Pumpkin Witch and Palace Witch in “Shrek
Forever After” and
the web-savvy dinosaur, Trixie the Triceratops, in “Toy Story 3″ (the
DVD goes on sale today!).
NG Kids: How did you get into acting and voice overs?
Schaal: Well, I started out doing stand-up and that led to all the jobs I have now.
NG Kids: Can you tell us how your voice becomes part of a movie or a TV show?
Schaal: It depends on the project. Usually you’re in a sound booth by yourself and say each individual line in different ways and the director can take which one he or she likes the best and that’s usually how the movies work. For the TV shows I’ve worked, we’re in the room together with the entire cast and we’ll riff and improvise with each other. It depends on whose project it is, but usually you’re just by yourself in a sound booth.
NG Kids: How long did it take for you to do the voice for “Toy Story 3?”
Schaal: I probably went in two or three times and each time, only under and hour. Trixie’s only a very short scene.
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BOOK NAME: Stone Rabbit series
AUTHOR: Erik Craddock
I’m going to write about three books in the Stone Rabbit series. The first one is called BC Mambo. The second one is Pirate Palooza. The third one is called Deep Space Disco. There’s only five books out, but I’m only going to write about three, because I only have three. I want to get the other ones because those look cool.
These books are action kids’ books. Each is like a comic book, with a lot of words like “poof”, “pow” and that kind of stuff.
BC Mambo is about Stone Rabbit finding a giant hole in his bathroom and falls through it and lands in dinosaur eggs. Stone Rabbit runs into a lot of dinosaurs until he finally gets out of that world.
In Pirate Palooza, Stone Rabbit finds a leg for a table that he broke, but he doesn’t know it’s a pirate’s wooden leg. He has to fight a lot of pirates and he eventually saves the pirates from getting attacked by this other ship.
In Deep Space Disco, he goes into this restaurant and gets sucked into a spaceship, so then he’s an astronaut. He and his friend save the world.
I like these books because there’s a lot of action and they’re funny. I
think these books are good for kids in first and second grade.
Have you ever wondered what color dinosaurs were when they walked the earth? Now we know–at least for one species, Anchiornis huxleyi. This dino was about the size of a chicken, and was mostly black and white, except for a rust-colored crest on its head (similar to today’s woodpecker).
How do scientists know that Anchiornis huxleyi looked like this? They examined fossils of the dinosaur’s feathers and were able to determine their colors based on melanosomes. Melanosomes are parts of cells that produce melanin (that’s the stuff that pigments your skin). They were able to figure out the dino’s colors by comparing their fossilized melansonomes with the melanosomes found in modern birds.
Get the whole story on National Geographic News.
Test your knowledge of dino trivia on National Geographic Kids.
Illustration by National Geographic
llustration by Todd Marshall via Science
Meet Raptorex kriegsteini, a new dinosaur species described this week in the journal Science. This “tiny” Tyrannosaurus rex ancestor would still look big to us at nine feet (three meters) tall., but quite small compared to its descendent T. rex. Other than the size difference, the two dinosaurs look remarkably alike, according to Paul Sereno of the University of Chicago and a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence.
This new dino changes the way scientists think about the evolution of T. rex‘s short arms. Raptorex kriegsteini also had short arms, meaning that T. rex‘s short arms evolved later than previously believed, according to Thomas Holtz of the University of Maryland (who is not associated with the study).
Learn more about this find on National Geographic News.
Get the facts on Tyrannosaurus rex on National Geographic Kids.
Search for T. rex bones in Zipper’s Cave Maze.
Learn
more about paleontologist and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence
Paul Sereno on National Geographic.
BOOK NAME: Dinosaur Combat
AUTHOR: Rupert Matthews
Hi, I’m Braden and I’m going to tell you about a book about dinosaurs. It’s about how they protect themselves, what’s inside their bodies, and stuff like that.
Some dinosaurs are really really big like Brachiosaurus and some are smaller like Ceratosuarus. But Ceratosaurus likes to eat Brachiosaurus, so they grab the baby ones so they can eat them. Their teeth are curved backwards, so when the baby Brachiosaurus tries to get away, the teeth dig deeper into their skin. Brachiosaurus has a big bump on its head which is really its nose. These two dinosaurs lived in Wyoming in North America and they lived about 150 million years ago.
The Pinacosaurus has plates on its back to protect itself and a huge like-a-bowling ball on its tale to attack dinosaurs like Tarbosaurus. The plates will protect its back in case a dinosaur tries to eat it. These dinosaurs lived in Asia about 80 million years ago.
Tyrannosaurs Rex’s like to eat Triceratops. So Triceratops has really sharp horns near their nose. So when the Tyrannosaurs tried to attack, he would try to attack Triceratops’ back with its teeth. But Triceratops would try to get his sharp horns in the Tyrannosaurs’ neck or belly. So then if the Tyrannosaurus would start bleeding, the Triceratops would have time to get away.
I like this book because it’s about dinosaurs and I’m going to be a Paleontologist when I grow up. It also has a lot of fighting and cool pictures and drawings.
Image courtesy Travis R. Tischler, Australian Age of Dinosaurs
“Banjo” is the nickname for the newly-named dinosaur Australovenator wintonensis, a meat-eating, raptor-like dino recently found in Australia. The fossilized remains are one of three new dinosaur species discovered in Winton, a town in the Australian outback.
Learn more about the dig and meet new discoveries “Matilda” and “Clancy” on National Geographic News.
Test your knowledge of dinosaurs in this National Geographic Kids Brainteaser.
