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From the latest research to pop culture, Dinosaur Tracking covers everything dinosaur!
Brian Switek
129 posts
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- June 8, 2010
- 08:56 AM
- 721 views
New Study Suggests That Some Sauropods Reached High for Leaves
by Brian Switek in Dinosaur Tracking
How high did the sauropod dinosaurs hold their heads? It is a simple question, but for years it has been part of an ongoing controversy about the evolution and habits of these long-necked, large-bodied vegetarians. Depending on whom you ask, sauropods either kept their heads down to vacuum up low-lying vegetation from a wide area [...]... Read more »
Christian, A. (2010) Some sauropods raised their necks--evidence for high browsing in Euhelopus zdanskyi. Biology Letters. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2010.0359
- February 18, 2011
- 10:14 AM
- 703 views
Did Dinosaurs Die Out Because Males Couldn’t Find a Date?
by Brian Switek in Dinosaur Tracking
What caused the end-Cretaceous mass extinction is one of the greatest mysteries of all time. Paleontologists have racked up a long list of victims—including the non-avian dinosaurs—and geologists have confirmed that a massive asteroid that struck the earth near the modern-day Yucatan peninsula was probably the extinction trigger, but just how that impact translated into [...]... Read more »
Clark, J.M., Norell, M.A., . (1999) An oviraptorid skeleton from the Late Cretaceous of Ukhaa Tolgod, Mongolia, preserved in an avianlike brooding position over an oviraptorid nest. American Museum Novitates, 1-36. info:/
Miller, D. (2004) Environmental versus genetic sex determination: a possible factor in dinosaur extinction?. Fertility and Sterility, 81(4), 954-964. DOI: 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2003.09.051
Silber, S. (2011) Human male infertility, the Y chromosome, and dinosaur extinction. Middle East Fertility Society Journal. DOI: 10.1016/j.mefs.2011.01.001
Silber, S., Geisler, J., & Bolortsetseg, M. (2010) Unexpected resilience of species with temperature-dependent sex determination at the Cretaceous-Palaeogene boundary. Biology Letters. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2010.0882
- February 23, 2011
- 10:23 AM
- 679 views
Paleontologists Announce “Thunder Thighs”
by Brian Switek in Dinosaur Tracking
“Brontosaurus” was a great dinosaur name. The great “thunder reptile” of the Jurassic, there was no better moniker for the stoutly-built sauropod. Unfortunately, the name had to be tossed out in favor of Apatosaurus, but a different dinosaur just described by Michael Taylor, Mathew Wedel and Richard Cifelli has what I think is an equally [...]... Read more »
Taylor, M.; Wedel, M.; Cifelli, R. (2011) Brontomerus mcintoshi, a new sauropod dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous Cedar Mountain Formation, Utah, USA. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. DOI: 10.4202/app.2010.0073
- March 7, 2011
- 11:12 AM
- 679 views
Tyrannosaurus: Hyena of the Cretaceous
by Brian Switek in Dinosaur Tracking
Of all the organisms scientists have found in the fossil record, Tyrannosaurus rex is the most prominent ambassador for paleontology. No dinosaur hall is complete without at least some fragment of the tyrant dinosaur, and almost anything about the dinosaur is sure to get press coverage. We simply can’t get enough of old T. rex. [...]... Read more »
Cooper, S., Holekamp, K., & Smale, L. (1999) A seasonal feast: long-term analysis of feeding behaviour in the spotted hyaena (Crocuta crocuta). African Journal of Ecology, 37(2), 149-160. DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-2028.1999.00161.x
Hayward, M. (2006) Prey preferences of the spotted hyaena (Crocuta crocuta) and degree of dietary overlap with the lion (Panthera leo). Journal of Zoology, 270(4), 606-614. DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-7998.2006.00183.x
Horner, J., Goodwin, M., & Myhrvold, N. (2011) Dinosaur Census Reveals Abundant Tyrannosaurus and Rare Ontogenetic Stages in the Upper Cretaceous Hell Creek Formation (Maastrichtian), Montana, USA. PLoS ONE, 6(2). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0016574
LINGHAM-SOLIAR, T. (1998) Guess who's coming to dinner: A portrait of as a predator . Geology Today, 14(1), 16-20. DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-2451.1998.014001016.x
- March 1, 2011
- 10:28 AM
- 667 views
Debunking the “Dinosaurs” of Kachina Bridge
by Brian Switek in Dinosaur Tracking
About 65.5 million years ago, the last of the non-avian dinosaurs were wiped out in the fallout from one of the earth’s most catastrophic extinction events. They left only bones and traces in the rock behind. Yet there are people who claim that humans actually lived alongside dinosaurs. Young earth creationists have a habit of [...]... Read more »
Senter, P.; Cole, S.J. (2011) "Dinosaur" petroglyphs at Kachina Bridge site, Natural Bridges National Monument, southeastern Utah: not dinosaurs after all . Palaeontologia Electronica, 14(1), 1-5. info:/
- February 24, 2011
- 09:55 AM
- 663 views
Hadrosaurus Was Real, After All
by Brian Switek in Dinosaur Tracking
Described in 1858, the partial skeleton of Hadrosaurus foulkii was one of the most important dinosaur discoveries ever made. At that time, the few known dinosaurs were represented by a collection of scraps—paltry fragments that allowed paleontologists to reconstruct them first as giant lizards, and then as strange quadrupedal beasts. The elements of Hadrosaurus caused [...]... Read more »
Albert Prieto-Márquez. (2011) Revised diagnoses of Hadrosaurus foulkii Leidy, 1858 (the type genus and species of Hadrosauridae Cope, 1869) and Claosaurus agilis Marsh, 1872 (Dinosauria: Ornithopoda) from the Late Cretaceous of North America. Zootaxa, 61-68. info:/
- April 1, 2011
- 10:14 AM
- 657 views
A New Giant Tyrant, Zhuchengtyrannus
by Brian Switek in Dinosaur Tracking
“While 2010 was celebrated as the year of ceratopsians by many,” paleontologist Dave Hone wrote at Archosaur Musings yesterday, “it should not be overlooked the huge number of tyrannosaurs that have cropped up in the last year or so.” He’s right. For a long time Albertosaurus, Gorgosaurus, Daspletosaurus, Tarbosaurus and, of course, Tyrannosaurus made up [...]... Read more »
Hone, D.; Wang, K.; Sullivan, C.; Zhao, X.; Chen, S.; Li, D.; Ji, S.; Ji, Q.; Xing, X. (2011) A new tyrannosaurine theropod, Zhuchengtyrannus magnus is named based on a maxilla and dentary . Cretaceous Research. info:/10.1016/j.cretres.2011.03.005
- March 11, 2011
- 10:02 AM
- 650 views
Restoring Nedoceratops: Gored by a Horned Rival?
by Brian Switek in Dinosaur Tracking
What is Nedoceratops? That depends on who you ask. The single known skull could represent a transitional growth stage between Triceratops and Torosaurus head shapes in a single species of dinosaur, or it might be a unique species of horned dinosaur that lived alongside its better-known relatives. The suggestion that Nedoceratops was truly a Triceratops [...]... Read more »
Farke, A. (2011) Anatomy and Taxonomic Status of the Chasmosaurine Ceratopsid Nedoceratops hatcheri from the Upper Cretaceous Lance Formation of Wyoming, U.S.A. PLoS ONE, 6(1). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0016196
Lull, R.S. (1905) Restoration of the horned dinosaur Diceratops. American Journal of Science, 4(4), 420-422. info:/
- February 25, 2011
- 10:36 AM
- 640 views
Flowers, Pine Cones and Dinosaurs
by Brian Switek in Dinosaur Tracking
When we think about the Mesozoic world, dinosaurs often dominate our attention. They are the stars of countless museum displays and restorations, and everything else about their world just seems like window dressing. When visitors to Yale’s Peabody Museum look at Rudolph Zallinger’s beautiful (if outdated) “Age of Reptiles” mural, their attention is drawn to [...]... Read more »
Bakker, R. (1978) Dinosaur feeding behaviour and the origin of flowering plants. Nature, 274(5672), 661-663. DOI: 10.1038/274661a0
BARRETT, P., & WILLIS, K. (2001) Did dinosaurs invent flowers? Dinosaur–angiosperm coevolution revisited. Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, 76(3), 411-447. DOI: 10.1017/S1464793101005735
Hummel, J., Gee, C., Sudekum, K., Sander, P., Nogge, G., & Clauss, M. (2008) In vitro digestibility of fern and gymnosperm foliage: implications for sauropod feeding ecology and diet selection. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 275(1638), 1015-1021. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2007.1728
Leslie, A. (2011) Predation and protection in the macroevolutionary history of conifer cones. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2010.2648
- March 18, 2011
- 10:14 AM
- 637 views
Bite Marks Tell of Tussling Ichthyosaurs
by Brian Switek in Dinosaur Tracking
The prehistoric world was intensely violent. So I believed when I was a kid, anyway. Almost every book I read or movie I saw about now-fossilized creatures showed them as ferocious monsters that were constantly biting and clawing at each other. I spent hours with plastic toys and mud puddles reenacting these scenes myself, never [...]... Read more »
Zammit, M. and Kear, B.J. (2011) Healed bite marks on a Cretaceous ichthyosaur. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. info:/10.4202/app.2010.0117
- March 25, 2011
- 10:58 AM
- 636 views
The Tyrannosaur Tooth Toolkit
by Brian Switek in Dinosaur Tracking
When I was in elementary school, I was told that mammals and reptiles could easily be told apart by their teeth. Mammals had a full, enamel-covered toolkit in their mouths—incisors, canines, premolars, and molars suited to different tasks—while reptiles had only one kind of tooth. The dental differences were presented as one of the ways [...]... Read more »
Reichel, M. (2010) The heterodonty of Albertosaurus sarcophagus and Tyrannosaurus rex: biomechanical implications inferred through 3-D models. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 47(9), 1253-1261. DOI: 10.1139/E10-063
SMITH, J. (2005) HETERODONTY IN TYRANNOSAURUS REX: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE TAXONOMIC AND SYSTEMATIC UTILITY OF THEROPOD DENTITIONS. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 25(4), 865-887. DOI: 10.1671/0272-4634(2005)025[0865:HITRIF]2.0.CO;2
- March 9, 2011
- 10:37 AM
- 631 views
Tyrannosaurus Scat
by Brian Switek in Dinosaur Tracking
Tyrannosaurus ate flesh. That much is obvious. The reinforced skull and huge, serrated teeth of the tyrant dinosaur and its kin were not adaptations for cropping grass or cracking coconuts. Both predators and scavengers, the tyrannosaurs must have consumed massive amounts of meat to fuel their large bodies, and paleontologists have been fortunate enough to [...]... Read more »
CHIN, K., EBERTH, D., SCHWEITZER, M., RANDO, T., SLOBODA, W., & HORNER, J. (2003) Remarkable Preservation of Undigested Muscle Tissue Within a Late Cretaceous Tyrannosaurid Coprolite from Alberta, Canada. PALAIOS, 18(3), 286-294. DOI: 10.1669/0883-1351(2003)0182.0.CO;2
Chin, K., Tokaryk, T., Erickson, G., & Calk, L. (1998) A king-sized theropod coprolite. Nature, 393(6686), 680-682. DOI: 10.1038/31461
Erickson, G., & Olson, K. (1996) Bite marks attributable to Tyrannosaurus rex: Preliminary description and implications. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 16(1), 175-178. DOI: 10.1080/02724634.1996.10011297
VARRICCHIO, D. (2001) GUT CONTENTS FROM A CRETACEOUS TYRANNOSAURID: IMPLICATIONS FOR THEROPOD DINOSAUR DIGESTIVE TRACTS. Journal of Paleontology, 75(2), 401-406. DOI: 10.1666/0022-3360(2001)0752.0.CO;2
- March 10, 2011
- 10:36 AM
- 630 views
Tapeworms, Trematodes and Other Dinosaur Pests
by Brian Switek in Dinosaur Tracking
In one short section of his book Parasite Rex, science writer Carl Zimmer asked a simple question: “Did tapeworms live in dinosaurs?” There is no reason to think they didn’t. Both the living descendants of dinosaurs (birds) and their crocodylian cousins harbor tapeworms, Zimmer pointed out, and so it isn’t unreasonable to imagine monstrous, prehistoric [...]... Read more »
POINAR, G., & BOUCOT, A. (2006) Evidence of intestinal parasites of dinosaurs. Parasitology, 133(02), 245. DOI: 10.1017/S0031182006000138
Wolff, E., Salisbury, S., Horner, J., & Varricchio, D. (2009) Common Avian Infection Plagued the Tyrant Dinosaurs. PLoS ONE, 4(9). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0007288
- March 21, 2011
- 10:47 AM
- 628 views
Oxalaia: Brazil’s New, Giant Spinosaur
by Brian Switek in Dinosaur Tracking
Paleontologists have not found much of Oxalaia quilombensis. A fragment of the snout and a portion of the upper jaw are all that is known of this dinosaur. Even so, those two parts are enough to know that Oxalaia was one of the peculiar predatory dinosaurs known as spinosaurs, and a giant one at that. [...]... Read more »
KELLNER, A.; AZEVEDO, S.; MACHADO, A.; DE CARVALHO, L.; HENRIQUES, D. (2011) A new dinosaur (Theropoda, Spinosauridae) from the Cretaceous (Cenomanian) Alcântara Formation, Cajual Island, Brazil. Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências, 83(1), 99-108. info:/
- February 22, 2011
- 10:38 AM
- 619 views
What Do We Really Know About Utahraptor?
by Brian Switek in Dinosaur Tracking
When it was released in 1993, Jurassic Park turned Velociraptor into a household name. Agile and cunning, it was a type of predatory dinosaur theater audiences hadn’t seen before. But paleontologists knew the movie’s raptors were drawn with a bit of artistic license. For one thing, the dinosaurs had actually been based on the sickle-clawed [...]... Read more »
Britt, B.; Chure, D.; Stadtman, K.; Madsen, J.; Scheetz, R.; Burge, D. (2001) New osteological data and the affinities of Utahraptor from the Cedar Mountain Fm. (Early Cretaceous) of Utah. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 1-117. DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2001.10010852
Kirkland, J.I.; Gaston, R.; Burge, D. (1993) A large dromaeosaur [Theropoda] from the Lower Cretaceous of Uta. Hunteria, 1-16. info:/
- April 12, 2011
- 01:32 PM
- 613 views
The Deep History of Dinosaur Lice
by Brian Switek in Dinosaur Tracking
Hunting dinosaurs is a dangerous business. Scores of fictional, time-traveling hunters have learned this lesson the hard way, but arguably the most unfortunate was the protagonist of Brian Aldiss’ short story “Poor Little Warrior.” All Claude Ford wanted to do was get away from his disappointing life and unhappy marriage by gunning down prehistoric monsters. [...]... Read more »
DALGLEISH, R., PALMA, R., PRICE, R., & SMITH, V. (2006) Fossil lice (Insecta: Phthiraptera) reconsidered. Systematic Entomology, 31(4), 648-651. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-3113.2006.00342.x
Smith, V., Ford, T., Johnson, K., Johnson, P., Yoshizawa, K., & Light, J. (2011) Multiple lineages of lice pass through the K-Pg boundary. Biology Letters. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2011.0105
Wappler, T., Smith, V., & Dalgleish, R. (2004) Scratching an ancient itch: an Eocene bird louse fossil. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 271(Suppl_5). DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2003.0158
- April 11, 2011
- 11:02 AM
- 595 views
How to Build a Dinosaur Den
by Brian Switek in Dinosaur Tracking
Oryctodromeus isn’t exactly a household name. A small, herbivorous ornithopod found in the Late Cretaceous rock of western North America, it was the sort of dinosaur most often depicted as being prey for charismatic carnivores. But there was at least one aspect of Oryctodromeus that made it particularly interesting—this dinosaur may have lived in burrows. [...]... Read more »
WOODRUFF, D., & VARRICCHIO, D. (2011) EXPERIMENTAL MODELING OF A POSSIBLE ORYCTODROMEUS CUBICULARIS (DINOSAURIA) BURROW. PALAIOS, 26(3), 140-151. DOI: 10.2110/palo.2010.p10-001r
- March 30, 2011
- 11:09 AM
- 591 views
Watch Out For That Thagomizer!
by Brian Switek in Dinosaur Tracking
Stegosaurus had a formidable tail. Studded with four long spikes, this dinosaur’s business end would have given Allosaurus and other Jurassic predators plenty of incentive to keep moving. But do we have any evidence that Stegosaurus really used its tail this way? Among paleontologists, the four-spiked tail of Stegosaurus is called a “thagomizer.” It is [...]... Read more »
Carpenter, Kenneth; Sanders, Frank; McWhinney, Lorrie A.; and Wood, Lowell. (2005) Evidence for predator-prey relationships: Examples for Allosaurus and Stegosaurus. The Carnivorous Dinosaurs, 325-350. info:/
- April 14, 2011
- 11:01 AM
- 589 views
Birds Inherited Strong Sense of Smell From Dinosaurs
by Brian Switek in Dinosaur Tracking
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22Qup626DTc Feathers, air sacs, nesting behavior—the earliest birds owed a lot to their dinosaurian ancestors. The first birds also inherited a strong sense of smell. Modern birds have not been thought of as excellent scent-detectors, save for some super-smellers such as turkey vultures, which detect the scent of rotting carcasses. We typically think of avians [...]... Read more »
Zelenitsky, D., Therrien, F., Ridgely, R., McGee, A., & Witmer, L. (2011) Evolution of olfaction in non-avian theropod dinosaurs and birds. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2011.0238
- July 8, 2011
- 10:37 AM
- 584 views
Kentrosaurus Had a Formidable Swing
by Brian Switek in Dinosaur Tracking
In one of my favorite bits of fossil terminology, the spiked tails of stegosaurs are known as "thagomizers." Get hit with a tail like that and you'd be turned into an instant shish kebab... Read more »
Mallison, H. (2011) Defense capabilities of Kentrosaurus aethiopicus Hennig, 1915 . Palaeontogia Electronica. info:/
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