Not Much To Write Home About
The first hatchling dinosaur reported in the Eastern US has had a lot of press coverage in its very short known existence. Press coverage is not scientific scrutiny, however. Thus far only one study...
View ArticleThe Tiniest Fossil
At 13 centimeters long Propanoplosaurus' type specimen vies for the distinction of world's smallest vertebrate fossil (it has no chance against invertebrates), though it does not win; at the moment the...
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Popular Propanoplosaurus
Propanoplosaurus has basically become popular by being discovered. It has not really gotten into the level of popularity needed to have children's books, toys, games, or anything else of that sort take...
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Titanic Tyrants
First, I know that should say "A new group" or something, but "A new kingdom" sounds flashier, so that's why I went with that.Today, and this week, we will look at an animal from the Chubut province of...
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Clash of the Titan
©Alexander LovegroveTyrannotitan, with its small arms and a tall tail (ventral to dorsal), would be an interesting theropod to view in the wild. Much of its body would have been geared toward the...
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Titanic Children's Resources
Not really a titanic day for kid's resources; it is another day where I borrow a little info, reorganize some of it, and make my own fact page actually. Nothing wrong with that, but let us get it...
View ArticleDinosaurs Out of Motion
It is always somewhat sad when there is not any kind of video related to the dinosaur for the week. I even like seeing simple interviews with the people that described or discovered the skeleton; even...
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Tyrannotitan In Print
The description of the remaains of Tyrannotitan were concisely written and published in the May 2005 edition of Naturwssenschaften. The article is not available for free (or through my school's JSTOR)...
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Measuring Those Arms
The holotype and paratype of Tyrannotitan were found 1 km apart. The paratype indicated an individual 7% (a somewhat random seeming number) larger than the indicated size of the holotype specimen. The...
View ArticleMaking Popularity Work
Sometimes we just have to hope a dinosaur will gain more popularity and, therefore, be more in the public eye making it even more popular. Such is the pursuit of some scientists such as Dave Hone, and...
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Starry Teeth
Big bad East Coast dinosaurs. We took a small trip to South America last week, but we are back in North America and back along the Eastern Seaboard of the United States this week; a perfect jumping off...
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Teeth, Babies, and Borrowed Poses
Joseph Leidy, when describing the teeth of Astrodon johnstoni, described them with a number of other teeth. The other teeth belonged mainly to hadrosaurs; however, the teeth of Astrodon almost do not...
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Starry Teeth For The Kids
Again with the general lack of child related information. I honestly did not expect that in relation to such a well known and interesting sauropod, but I suppose that happens to even the neater...
View ArticleA Little Overestimate
Discovery's Prehistoric Washington DC episode of the Prehistoric City series discussed Astrodon, as we would expect given that it was the first dinosaur discovered in Maryland and one of the first in...
View ArticleLeidy and Astrodon (Plus A Stegosaur?)
Leidy's "Cretaceous Reptiles of the United States" is a Smithsonian endorsed paper, basically a small book, that has no copyright restrictions, due to age, and is therefore available for download...
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Naming Confusions About Astrodon
Astrodon, as has been discussed, was named after a description of a couple of teeth, then renamed Astrodon johnstoni after Leidy inspected a single tooth, then bones named and described as Pleurocoelus...
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Popularity Issues
Astrodon has been the subject of some issues, as we have seen, regarding its name. In Texas as well as in Maryland most of the popularity of this dinosaur comes from the fact that both states were...
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Your Head Is On Backwards
Starting this set of months off correctly. As a background for those of you who do not know what I am doing these days, I am in graduate school, changing careers a bit, and working on getting a...
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Drawing Necks
One of the greatest tasks for marine reptile paleontologists since 1868 has been deducing the use of a neck like the lengthy one we find attached to the body of Elasmosaurus. Just like with sauropods,...
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Swim With Elasmosaurus
If only we could swim with Elasmosaurus (without getting bitten I should add). Elasmosaurus has been a popular creature since it was first made known to the public (even before the corrected reprint)...
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