Researchers at the University of Kansas Natural History Museum have been studying the Sinornithosaurus, the "Chinese bird lizard," a diminutive relative of the raptor. Closer investigations of the skull reveal that the Sinornithosaurus had snake-like fangs and pockets in the skull that indicate the former presence of glands. Because of the shape of the teeth and the fact that these gland pockets are connected to the teeth through narrow ducts, paleontologists believe that the glands contained venom. The researchers believe that the bird-like dinosaur had a venomous bite, which it used to subdue its prey.

It's a significant discovery for a couple of reasons. For one thing, it offers more clues as to the origin of venom in snakes and lizards, which likely stems from a common ancestors these animals shared with Sinornithosaurus. It also opens up the possibility that other raptors also had venomous bites. The researchers plan to look more closely at other raptor skulls, especially its close relative, the glider Microraptor, to see if they possess similar features.

Dinosaur Packed Venom in Fangs [LiveScience]

National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Paul Sereno announced the discovery of fossils of five crocodile species in the Sahara. Three of the species were previously undiscovered; the other two had been recorded and named before, but were poorly understood. Unlike modern crocodiles, many of these ancient crocs had upright skeletal structures, allowing them to gallop on land even as their tails made them extremely strong swimmers.

The largest of the species is the so-called BoarCroc, a 20-foot long meat-eating machine. The BoarCroc, described as a "saber-toothed cat in armor," had three rows of fangs, ideal for chowing down on dinosaurs. The flat-bodied PancakeCroc was also 20-feet long and could wait for hours in the water for "something stupid" to come along. The other crocodiles pursued less fearsome prey. The three-foot RatCroc had buck teeth for digging at tubers and small rodents. The DuckCroc's bill-like snouted helped it snap up fish and frogs, and the long-legged, agile DogCroc (pictured above) likely preferred plants and grubs.

These five species join the already known SuperCroc, Sarcosuchus imperator, which, at 40 feet and a whopping eight tons, was the Sahara's largest crocodile.

5 "Oddball" Crocs Discovered, Including Dinosaur-Eater [National Geographic]
Image via Guardian.

In a paper published in the new issues of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the Autonomous University of Barcelona claim that Myotragus was actually similar to the crocodile in terms of its bone structure and growth. Unlike warm-blooded mammals, which generally have quick growth rates, fast movements, and fairly large brains, the mouse goat's bone structure indicates that it had a very low metabolism, slow growth rates, and smaller brains. Like crocodiles and other reptiles, the bones of the Myotragus have parallel growth lines, indicating that the creature's growth would start and stop cyclically. The bones of other mammals generally show uninterrupted growth.

The study authors believe this indicates that the Myotragus was slow-moving, like cold-blooded animals, and that it needed fewer resources to survive. This solves one of the key mysteries surrounding the goat: how it managed to thrive for 5.2 million years on Majorca, an island with extremely little food. It also helps explain why the goats died off so quickly when humans arrived on Majorca 3000 years ago. Because of its smaller, reptile-like brain, the Myotragus didn't have possess the senses many mammals posses to elude prey, making it an easy target for humans hungering for miniature goat meat.

Dwarf Goat More Reptile Than Mammal [Discovery]

The study, published in PLoS ONE, looks at whether dinosaurs were ectothermic (cold-blooded), like modern-day reptiles, or endothermic (warm-blooded) like birds and mammals. Endothermic animals are more athletic than ectotherms, and are better able to survive in colder climates. But the payoff is that endotherms must consume more food than ectotherms because of their higher metabolisms.

Thus, the study authors examined the physiology of dinosaurs to determine whether the energy they would have expended exceeded what an ectothermic system could supply. Herman Pontzer of Washington University in St Louis has studied the relationship between the cost of locomotion and the length of an animal's leg. He has found that length of leg predicts the cost of locomotion with 98 percent accuracy in various land mammals, and estimated the length of various dinosaur legs based on fossil records. He and his colleagues looked at anatomical models of 14 species of dinosaur and compared the estimated cost of locomotion with those of modern-day endotherms and ectotherms. They found that the cost of locomotion was similar to that endotherms experience, and that walking and running would have consumed too much energy for dinosaurs to be cold-blooded. The findings suggest that dinosaurs were, in fact, powerful athletes — and that they needed a constant supply of food to maintain their energy.

Biomechanics of Running Indicates Endothermy in Bipedal Dinosaurs [PLoS ONE]

Many dinosaur species are experiencing a second extermination — death by reclassification. Thanks to new technologies that allow paleontologists to analyze the tissues in dinosaur fossils, many paleontologists are discovering that dinosaurs we once thought of as separate species are actually part of the same species, simply at different stages of their development. For example the Nanotyrannus, supposedly a diminutive cousin of the Tyrannosaurus Rex is probably just a juvenile version of the latter species. Similarly, the Torosaurus and the Dracorex hogwartsia have been stricken from the books, as they are likely members of previously discovered species.

In this week's issue of PLoS, Jack Horner of the Museum of the Rockies at Montana State University in Bozeman estimates that a third of dinosaur species currently listed are actually members of other speicies. So how were these creatures mislabeled for so long? As paleontologists are better able to determine the growth stage of dinosaur fossils, they are finding that many species retain their juvenile characteristics longer than previously believed, and as dinosaurs age, their characteristics undergo drastic changes.

So, Hogwarts may be losing its dinosaur, but its parent species, Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis, is gaining a child.

New Analyses Of Dinosaur Growth May Wipe Out One-third Of Species [Science Daily]

Charles Darwin, recognizing the similarities between humans and chimpanzees, postulated that we might someday find fossils of a "missing link," a creature that represented the evolutionary break between humans and chimps. The discovery of Ardi, however, suggests that when we do find that evolutionary break, the fossils we find will not be a blend of human and chimpanzee.

Researchers discovered Ar. ramidus near Aramis, Ethiopia, and have dated it as 4.4 million years old, considerably older than Lucy, who at 3.2 million years old was considered humanity's oldest relation. It's not clear whether humans are directly descended from this particular hominid, but it makes it clear that bipedal hominids are considerably older than previously thought.

The paleobiologists studying Ardi identify hers as an "intermediate" form, one that is bipedal, but at the same time capable of walking on all forms and traveling through trees. Still, although she represents a point past hominids' evolutionary break with gorillas and chimpanzees, she is very different from modern apes. For example, Ardi's had flat hands and feet and flexible wrists, and engaged in a form of locomotion called palmigrady, which is a trait of ancient apes and unlike gorillas and chimpanzees, which are stiff-wristed knuckle-walkers. This suggests that gorilla and chimp ancestors developed their knuckle-walking long after their evolutionary break with hominids.

In a paper in the upcoming issue of Science, which outlines the discovery, researchers will explain what Ardi's dissimilarity from modern apes means for our picture of human and chimp evolution:

Humans did not evolve from chimpanzees but rather through a series of progenitors starting from a distant common ancestor that once occupied the ancient forests of the African Micoene.

In a paper published yesterday on PLoS One, a group of international researchers described how they examined the fossils of several T-Rex specimens, and found ten separate individuals who showed signs of trichomonosis - a parasitic infection that eats through the jawbones of birds. The parasites cause lesions on the throat and lower jaw in birds, eventually eating into the bones. Birds of prey are particularly vulnerable to trichomonosis. But birds also possess a unique form of white blood cell called heterophil that isolates infections like trichomonosis to one region of the body and prevents them from spreading. So the birds don't actually die from the disease - instead, they starve to death because so much of their jaws and throats are eaten away that they can no longer swallow.

You can see the telltale lower jaw bone holes caused by trichomonosis in these T-Rex fossils. The researchers speculate that many dinosaurs died of the disease, and that T-Rex probably spread it during fights when they commonly bit each other on the head. Cannibalism is another possible way they spread the disease (birds today often get it from eating infected pigeons).

Paleontologist Ewan Wolff, who contributed to the paper, said:

The holes in tyrannosaur jaws occur in exactly the same place as in modern birds with trichomonosis. The shape of the holes and the way that they merge into the surrounding bone is very similar in both animals. The cause of these holes in tyrannosaurs has previously been attributed to tooth gouges from biting or bacterial infections, but we think a trichomonosis-type disease is much more likely given the position and nature of the holes.

Added his fellow researcher Steven Salisbury:

It's ironic to think that an animal as mighty as [T-Rex fossil] ‘Sue' probably died as a result of a parasitic infection. I'll never look at a feral pigeon the same way again.

Read the scientific paper via PLoS One

Paleontologists and anthropologists face a fundamental challenge in their search for remains of the distant past. The substances and environments best suited to preserve fossils, such as rock or the tree resin amber, are often impossible to open up and look inside. The very toughness and durability that made such materials perfect for preserving fossils often make it impossible for scientists to access the desired remains without also destroying them. And if the rock is solid or the amber is dark, then whatever is inside must remaining tantalizingly out of reach.

CT scanning gets around this thorny problem by showering the artifacts with highly focused X-rays in quantities that would kill a human. The most cutting edge version of the technology uses synchrotron scanners that can produce beams a trillion times the brightness of normal X-ray machines. The resultant images are incredibly high resolution, and when mapped together can be used to create full 3D models of the encased specimen.

Another advantage of CT scanning over standard X-ray technology is its ability to detect different densities. The X-ray machines found in hospitals can differentiate between only four densities, CT scanners can discern over a hundred separate densities. This not only makes the task of peering through solid rock surprisingly easy, but also it helps scientists learn even more details about the fossil itself. Such precision has allowed researchers to study such highly focused topics as the inner ear canals of a 35 million-year-old primate, which in turn makes it possible for anthropologists to deduce how the animal would have moved.

Although CT scanning is hugely promising, it does have its limitations. It is still only possible to analyze fairly small samples, and there are only about fifty machines in the world that can perform the task. The hardware requirements are also enormous - a 100 million-year-old wasp was imaged using the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, a particle accelerator almost a fifth of a mile wide. Even so, the images thus far have been so promising that there remains much cause for optimism, as a whole world of previously invisible specimens wait to be digitally uncovered.

[Discover]

About the size of a big seagull, Anchiornis huxleyi is the oldest birdlike dinosaur ever discovered, which researcher Xing Xu and colleagues say makes this creature old enough to be a true precursor to birds. Other birdlike dinosaurs have come too late in the fossil record for scientists to be sure they were bird ancestors. As you can see from these sketches and images of the fossils themselves, Anchiornis huxleyi had long feathers on its arms and legs, suggesting that birds went through a phase of being four-winged before evolving into the current two-wing morphology.

According to a release about this discovery, which was published in Nature:

Anchiornis huxleyi was previously thought to be a primitive bird, but closer inspection reveals that it should be assigned to the Troodontidae - a group of dinosaurs closely related to birds. The authors date the fossil to the earliest Late Jurassic, meaning that it is the oldest bird-like dinosaur reported so far, and older than Archaeopteryx, the earliest known bird. They conclude that the presence of such a species at this time in the fossil record effectively disputes the argument that bird-like dinosaurs appeared too late to be the ancestors of birds.

via Nature [PDF]

Paleontologists recently found the remains of the Raptorex in a lake bed in Northern China. Like the Tyrannosaurus Rex, Raptorex sports an over-sized head, itty bitty forearms, strong jaws, and a runner's build — "jaws on legs" as Paul Sereno of the University of Chicago described it — but it was only one hundredth the mass of the T-Rex and stood a mere 3 meters in length.

It's the combination of its small stature and its classically T-Rex features that has paleontologists excited. Other smaller relatives of the Tyrannosaurus have lacked that dinosaur's tiny forearms and comparatively large head, which has long caused paleontologists to suspect those adaptations were due to the Tyrannosaurus's large size. But finding them on a smaller relation means they will have to rethink the T-Rex's evolutionary development.

Raptorex – a prototype T. rex [New Scientist]

Raptorex Rendering
Raptorex Skeleton

T. Rex vs. Raptorex
Skull Comparison

Phil Manning of the University of Manchester has been examining the biomechanics of raptors, with an especial focus on the dinosaurs' claws, which Manning previously found were sharp enough to puncture skin, but probably could not tear it open. Manning now believes that the claws were better suited to climbing trees than ripping open prey, with the Velociraptor waiting for prey to appear below them and then leaping down, hooking its claws into a hapless animal and delivering a killing blow with its powerful teeth.

If Manning is correct, this may demand a revision of Randall Munroe's famous Velociraptor problem:

Velociraptor's 'killing' claws were for climbing [New Scientist]
Raptor problem from xkcd.

Otocinclus batmani (Batman)

In 2007, ichthyologist Pablo Lehmann named a newly discovered species of catfish after the caped crusader. Why? Because, if you look closely at the tail, you can see the Bat Symbol. Now visitors flock to Loon Lake in Antioch, Illinois each summer to try to catch the fish.

Tarbosaurus efremovi (Ivan Yefremov)

Soviet writer Ivan Yefremov is most famous for his works of science fiction (most notably the communist utopian novel Andromeda Nebula), but he was also a paleontologist. Perhaps that's why a Russian paleontologist named this species of Tarbosaurus (a near cousin of the Tyrannosauri) after the author.

Arthurdactylus conandoylei (Arthur Conan Doyle)

Writing a book about dinosaurs is a good way to get a reptile named after you, even if Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had to wait 82 years after the publication of The Lost World for it to happen. In 1994, paleontologist Eberhard Frey and David Matrill named an entire genus of pterosaur after the author, who described a similar creature in his novel.

Irritator Challengeri (Professor Challenger)

A second dinosaur named for The Lost World, I. challengeri is named for Doyle's irritable dilettante Professor Challenger. Perhaps appropriately, I. challengeri could have eaten A. conandoylei for breakfast; a fossilized tooth from its genus was once discovered lodged in a pterosaur's neck.

Draculoides bramstokeri (Bram Stoker)

If you're going to name a critter after the author of Dracula, it had better be a bloodsucker. This Australian arachnid is known for its fang-like pedipalps, which it uses to grab and crush prey before sucking out their tasty juices. As an added bonus, this sucker lives in the darkness of caves.

Orsonwelles (Orson Welles)

Arachnologist Gusavo Hormiga named this genus of gigantic spider after writer and director Orson Welles simply because Welles was a giant of filmmaking (we're assured this is meant metaphorically). The individual species' names are subtle references to Welles' work, such as O. Bellum for War of the Worlds, O. Malas for Touch of Evil, and O. Toledus for Citizen Kane.

Serendipaceratops arthurcclarkei (Arthur C. Clarke)

2001 author Arthur C. Clarke has a slew of things named for him and his creations: the asteroid 4923 Clarke, the 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter, and, of course, the Clarke awards. Having a species of dinosaur named after him is just icing on the namesake cake.

Borogovia (Borogoves - The Jabberwocky)

Perhaps as an attempt to lend more meaning to Lewis Carroll's famous nonsense poem, the paleontologists who named these smaller, carnivorous dinosaurs named them after the borogoves in the opening verse:

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Dracorex Hogwartsia (Hogwarts School of Wizardry)

When a 66 million year-old dinosaur that looks like a dragon was discovered in South Dakota, paleontologists decided it would be at home in the Harry Potter universe, naming it "The Dragon King of Hogwarts" after the school of wizardry. J.K. Rowling agreed that the beast looked familiar, like "a slightly less pyromaniac Hungarian Horntail."

Leucothoe tolkieni (JRR Tolkien)

There is actually no shortage of critters named for Tolkien's creations, from a hairy-footed beetle named Pericompsus bilbo to the hexapod Gollumjapyx smeagol. But the tiny shrimp-like crustacean L. tokieni is named for the man himself.

Gojirasaurus (Gojira)

It's probably not surprising that someone would eventually name a dinosaur after Japan's giant reptilian monster. But you would think they would have chosen a larger creature; Gojirasaurus is a mere 6.5 meters tall, and would tower over a human, but not the city of Tokyo.

Godzilliidae (Gojira)

Of course, this family of blind crustaceans from the class Remipedia makes Gojirasaurus look like Godzilla. It also contains two Gojira-themed geni: Godzillius, the largest of the remipedes, and Godzilligonomus, the smallest.

Pleomothra (Mothra)

Evidentally, naming remipede crustaceans after Japanese monsters became something of a convention, as another genus in the Godzilliidae family was named after the flying menace Mothra.

Sinemys gamera (Gamera)

At least Gamera was named for a creature he might actually be related to. S. gamera is a turtle from the Cretaceous Period. Though the species may have existed in Japan, the S. gamera fossils were actually found in Inner Mongolia.

Hortipes terminator (Terminator)

The Hortipes are a genus of tiny spiders that live in the soil of sub-Saharan Africa. The H. terminator was reportedly so named because the males' appendages resemble a futuristic gun.

Balnibarbi (Balnibarbi - Gulliver's Travels

Another common source of scientific names is Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. Oddly enough, this genus of trilobites gets its name from Balnibarbi, a country where science is used for foolish ends.

Laputavis (Laputa - Gulliver's Travels)

The Laputavis seems a more apt name from Jonathan Swift. Not only does it make sense to name an extinct bird for the flying castle in Gulliver's Travels, it's also a bit of a pun, as the Laputavis are related to swifts.

Sadly, no image of Laputavis was available. This is its distant relative, an Alpine Swift.

Holorusia brobdingnagia (Brobdingnags - Gulliver's Travels)

Brobdingnag is the country of giants — giant people, giant rats, giant insects. The H. brobdingnagia crane fly isn't quite as large as similar creatures in Brogdingnag (which were said to be as large as cats), but they're still sizable and annoying pests.

Jurassosaurus Nedegoapeferima (Jurassic Park)

This ankylosaurus is named not just for the film Jurassic Park, but for the cast as well. The species name is made up of letters from the actors' surnames: Sam Neil, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Sir Richard Attenborough, Bob Peck, Martin Ferrero, Ariana Richards, and Joseph Mazzello. Ultimately, the genus name Jurassosaurus was dropped in favor of Tianchisaurus, but the movie-inspired species name stuck.

Conus tribblei (Tribbles - Star Trek)

You would think a species named after the fuzzy, procreation-happy pets from the original Star Trek series would be furry. Instead, we get predator sea snails. As it turns out, C. tribblei isn't named directly for the fictional pet, but for discoverer Jerry Walls actual pet, a cat named "Tribbles."

Bidenichthys beeblebroxi (Zaphod Beeblebrox - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)

Though you can't see it on this species of triplefin blenny (a close relation), B. bebblroxi has a false head pattern on its scales, earning it a moniker similar to that of Douglas Adams' funny two-headed alien.

Erechthias beeblebroxi (Zaphod Beeblebrox - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)

Once again not seen here on this related species, but the E. beeblebroxi moth's pattern create the illusion of a second head, adding it to Zaphod's two-headed naming pile.

Fiordichthys slartibartfasti (Slartibartfast - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)

Planet designer Slartibartfast has a particular affinity for making coastlines, especially the fjords of Norway. So this particular fishy, found only in the Fiordland of New Zealand was named in his honor.

Ninjemys (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

This horned turtle of Pleistocene epoch gets its radical name from the sewer-dwelling mutants of New York. Sadly, its existence predates the invention of the pepperoni pizza, so it was forced to live on a diet of plants.

Morlockia Garcia-Valdecasas (Morlocks - The Time Machine)

The subterranean Morlocks from H.G. Wells get their own troglodyte species named for them, a remipede crustacean found in the caves of the Bahamas.

Pimoa Cthulhu (The Call of Cthulhu)

You might have expected that a species named after Lovecraft's unspeakable horror would be a cephalopod of some kind, or at least something frighteningly monstrous. Instead, we get an ordinary American spider, one that isn't even poisonous to humans.

Han solo (Han Solo)

Giving this trilobite species the name Han solo was an excuse not only to name a creature after a character from Star Wars, but also to make a terrible pun. H. solo, is, after all, the sole member of the genus Han. Incidentally, Harrison Ford has two species named after him, the spieder Calponia harrisonfordi and the ant Pheidole harrisonfordi.

Agathidium vaderi (Darth Vader)

If there's one person that biologists can't resist naming critters after, it's Darth Vader. And entymologists Kelly Miller and Quentin Wheeler particularly love assigning beetles in the Agathidium genus unusual names. Other Agathidium species include A. bushi, A. cheneyi, and A. rumsfeldi. A. vaderi in particular gets its name from its shiny, helmet-like head.

Darthvaderum (Darth Vader)

Apparently, this genus of orbited mites got its name when the entomologist who discovered them took one look and thought of the Sith Lord.

Polemistus chewbacca, P. vaderi, and P. yoda (Chewbacca, Darth Vader, and Yoda)

It's not entirely clear why entomologists Arnold Menke and David Vincent decided to name their newly-discovered wasp species after characters from Star Wars. Apparently, they're just big fans.

The team responsible for studying the specimen is led by Salvador Moyà-Solà, director of the Institut Català de Paleontologia (ICP) at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. He and his colleagues have spent five years examining the fossilized cranium since its discovery in 2004. The fragile remains, which preserve most of the face and mandible, were found in the Abocador de Can Mata area in L'Anoia, Barcelona, a locale known for its fossil-rich terrain.

The specimen has been classified Anoiapithecus brevirostris. The Anoiapithecus genus refers to its L'Anoia origins, while brevirostris is in reference to its unusually modern features. The fossil has been nicknamed "Lluc", probably in homage to the most famous hominid specimen, the Australopithecus afarensis skeleton known as Lucy.

It's the specimen's facial morphology that has really attracted interest. While most of the primates in the Hominidae family are prognathic, or marked by a protruding jaw, Anoiapithecus brevirostris has a remarkably flat face. Its facial features are comparable only to the Homo genus, of which we're the only living representative and which didn't even exist for nearly ten million years after Anoiapithecus brevirostris.

That's not to say Lluc is some sort of time-displaced missing link between modern humans and ancient apes. Instead, the researchers speculate this may be an example of evolutionary convergence, where similar environmental conditions produce similar adaptations. If nothing else, this discovery may help researchers better understand the occurrence of reduced prognathism in certain strands of the Hominidae family.

Anoiapithecus brevirostris may also help illuminate where hominids originated. Some paleontologists have pointed to the kenyapithecines as the most primitive hominoids, suggesting they are the ancestors of all other hominids. These primates, which have been found in Africa and Eurasia, date back to the Middle Miocene era, roughly the same time period as Anoiapithecus brevirostris. However, Lluc's features are a peculiar mix of those resembling modern hominids, Eurasian kenyapithecines, and afropithecids, another group of primitive hominoids found in Africa.

In trying to make sense of this muddled evolutionary genealogy, Moyà-Solà and his team have turned to the controversial "into Africa" theory. This essentially holds that kenyapithecines initially left Africa for Eurasia around 15 million years ago, at which time a number of hominid species radiated out into several regions. Anoiapithecus brevirostris, which settled in Spain, would have been one of this initial wave of hominids. Later, the ancestors of humans, gorillas, and chimpanzees returned to Africa. It's also possible the ancestors of the great apes and humans never left Africa, but the forebears of the pongines, which includes modern orangutans, did leave for Eurasia.

As always, there's only so much one can conclude from a single cranium, no matter how extraordinary it might be. Anoiapithecus brevistros complicates an evolutionary picture that was already plenty muddled, but one can only hope the continued accumulation of data will someday make the millions of years of our evolutionary history a bit clearer.

[Science Daily]

Says National Geographic:

Fassett, who supports the asteroid-strike theory, said he can't explain why dinosaurs may have survived longer in some areas but not others.

"One guess is that the survivors lived in the northernmost parts of North America, at the greatest distance from the impact site, and then migrated south," he said.

"But that doesn't explain why [dinosaurs that lived later] haven't been found elsewhere. We don't have an answer for that."

Despite his caution, the Smithsonian's Hans-Dieter Sues said that the idea of Paleocene dinosaurs can't yet be dismissed.

"There is no a priori reason that dinosaurs could not have survived in some places," he wrote in an email to National Geographic News.

"Indeed, other than in the [U.S.] western interior and in Europe, we have as yet no concrete evidence when dinosaurs vanished."

Read more about this extraordinary find in National Geographic.

A team of researchers from the University of Toronto at Mississauga found the creature's remains in Colombia. This is quite near where its closest living relative, the anaconda, still lives - the mega-snake you see here was found on the border between Colombia and Brazil. Dubbed the Titanoboa, the ancient giant snake would have been the length of a city bus, and would have been so hefty that its body would have "reached a person's hips," according to BBC News.

The researchers' findings are published this week in the journal Nature. Their discovery also sheds light on Earth's temperatures 60 million years ago, because reptiles can only grow to such enormous sizes in very warm temperatures. This is because, as cold-blooded creatures, they depend on local temperatures for warmth. For the metabolism to function in a snake this big, researchers estimate the average temperatures in Columbia would have been about 30 C on a typical day. That's two degrees higher than the average temperature today.

Like its anaconda descendants, it's likely the Titanoboa spent most of its time in the water. P David Polly, a co-author of the Nature article on Titanoboa, says the creatures probably ate fish and alligators. He adds that as temperatures warm up on Earth today, we are likely to see snakes evolving to be much larger again. Currently, the biggest snakes on Earth are boa constrictors, but even the biggest of these is still 10 feet smaller than the Titanoboa fossil.

Several researchers have questioned Polly's claims about temperature changes, and many caution that more research needs to be done before we start worrying about climate change producing mega-snakes.

SOURCES:

BBC News

Nature

AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills

And yet the possibility of a Stonehenge-esque worship site wouldn't be out of place at the bottom of Lake Michigan. The region already has its share of petroglyphs from ancient tribes and other standing stone sites. These submerged stones could have been raised by local populations at a time when part of the lake bed was dry, in the late Ice Age. More research is needed to determine whether these stones were arranged by humans, or merely look that way.

SOURCES:

Mastodon? Rock Brings History to Surface [via Associated Press]

Stonehenge Beneath Lake Michigan? via BLDG BLOG (with sonar pics!)

Here's one of Hawkins sculptures, displayed at the greatest dinner party we've ever not been invited to.

Hawkins' love of dinosaurs even got him worked over by some thugs from the U.S. Democratic Party. After coming to America in 1868, Hawkins established a studio on the site of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, and went to work on some phenomenal dinosaur sculptures that Cabinet Magazine says attracted the glare of the only Boss that mattered:

Work on the paleozoic museum caught the attention of William "Boss" Tweed, the notorious figurehead of the city's corrupt Democratic political machine, who denounced the project (there was no apparent graft that could be had from an institution built around collecting fossils). Hawkins, a Londoner raised to believe in the virtue of making public declarations at Hyde Park Corner, held a demonstration in support of the museum during which he openly denounced Tweed. That evening, Tweed's henchmen entered Hawkins's studio and destroyed the dinosaur sculptures. Some believe that they buried the shattered fragments in Central Park. To this day, the skeletal remains of Hawkins's American dinosaurs have never been recovered, their iron and brick bones undisturbed for more than a century and a half.

Their problem in part was that Hawkins lacked a complete dinosaur skeleton. Perhaps partial skeletons could give rise to false notions? Even Hawkins himself described dinosaurs as dragons. The Democrats couldn't have people running around thinking there were dragons in Central Park. Misinformation was easy to come by back then. It was a good forty years after the word paleontology was invented that Darwin published The Origin of Species.

Things have come a long way since then, but it was a messy process. Henry A. Ward's 1866 book, Catalogue of Casts of Fossils looks more like The Far Side than a textbook of purported fact.

Successors improved upon the recipe, and include James Gurney, Douglas Henderson, Raul Martin, Luis V. Reys and legendary Czech illustrator Zdenek Burian. Artists like John Conway, Mauricio Antón and Dan Warner even make authenticity a selling point.

A Buried History of Paleontology [Cabinet]

This insight came after researchers used CT scans to look at the structure of the crests on top of lambeosaurus' head. It turns out these crests are connected to the nasal cavities, and that the crests might have emitted what researchers describe as "eerie bellowing calls." CT scans of the brain cavity in the skull suggest that the dinosaurs' brains were highly developed, and their inner ear structure was perfect for picking up the low frequencies produced by the crest.

Paleontologist Lawrence Witmer, a member of the research team, said:

We were surprised to see just how large the centers of the brain associated with higher cognitive functions were. We suspected that the crested duck-billed dinosaurs used both vocal and visual displays, but now we see that they had the brain power and hearing to pull off these behaviors.

Nobody is saying that lambeosaurus had language. And yet their sophisticated brains, coupled with a highly-specialized organ for communication, does suggest a potential for speech. So humans might not be the first chatty species on the planet, after all.

Brain structure provides key to unraveling function of bizarre dinosaur crests [via Witmer's Lab and Ohio University]