Category: Paleontology

Velociraptor © Emily Willoughby Paleontology 

Velociraptor Needs Your Help

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By Emily Willoughby @eawilloughby Velociraptor! The name strikes excitement into the hearts of dinosaur enthusiasts far and wide, just as the coyote-sized predator’s fearsome visage would’ve excited its contemporaries. Oviraptor, Protoceratops, Pinacosaurus and many others lived alongside this dromaeosaur in the windswept deserts of Mongolia in the late Cretaceous period, about 71 to 75 million years ago. Its ecosystem occupied a region of today’s Gobi Desert known as the Flaming Cliffs, a veritable hotbed of fossils valuable to local markets and to science alike. Thanks to the little fellow’s charisma…

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Dinosaur Dromaeosaurus by David Alden Paleontology Science and Art 

Dromaeosaurus: Dinosaur Brought to Life in Colorful Sculpture

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By Shayna Keyles  @shaynakeyles David Alden is a sculptor who, in his latest project, combines his enthusiasm for paleontology and fine arts. Over the past two years he worked with a team to create a gorgeous life-sized sculpture of Dromaeosaurus albertensis, a dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous period in what became the western United States and Alberta, Canada. I spoke with Alden about his motivations for undertaking such a project, how to fact-check a sculpture, and what’s next on the horizon. GotScience: What first inspired you to do…

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Galapagos iguana. Frank Am Main Biology Book Reviews Paleontology Zoology 

Book Review: Galapagos: Preserving Darwin’s Legacy

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Title: Galapagos: Preserving Darwin’s legacy, Second Edition Author: Tui De Roy Publisher: Bloomsbury Natural History Best for: General science audience, age 12 and up Reviewed by Steven Spence Tui De Roy wrote the first edition of this book to commemorate the 50th anniversary in 2009 of the Charles Darwin Foundation’s establishment in the Galapagos Islands. The second edition updates multiple chapters with new photography and information on scientific developments. Content The book consists of a prologue by author Tui De Roy; a foreword by Sarah Darwin, descendant of the famous scientist…

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North American Monkeys: Cebus capucinus. Photo by Sean Mattson, STRI Paleontology Zoology 

North American Monkeys Older Than Previously Thought

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By Emily Rhode @riseandsci With the formation of the Isthmus of Panama, North and South America became connected by a thin but important strip of land that was at one time the location of a narrow seaway. As engineers recently worked to widen the Panama Canal that once again divides the two landmasses, a team of scientists acted quickly to dig through the rubble and collect newly unearthed fossils. What scientists from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, the University of Florida, and the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and…

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The Art of Scientific Illustration Paleontology 

Discovering Dakotaraptor Steini

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By Featured Guest David Blagic David is a young, amateur paleontologist and student of vertebrate paleontology. He lives in Mladenovac, Serbia. At 14 years old, he enjoys writing on the behavior, morphology, phylogeny, and evolution of dinosaurs, particularly Theropods such as Maniraptorans and Carnosaurs. Connect with him on Google Plus or YouTube. Dakotaraptor steini Dakotaraptor steini is a newly discovered species of dromaeosaurid dinosaur. First remains of this species were discovered in 2005, in the Hell Creek Formation, but it has officially been named only this year. Dakotaraptor steini was about 6…

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