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Old 30-12-2014, 23:10
Keyser_Soze1
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Originally Posted by TelevisionUser;76222241[B
]Yes, it's Trilobitomorpha time with this picture here: http://tinypic.com/r/fq4hz/8
[/b]
The creature on the right is a late origin fossil trilobite from the early Carboniferous period and it was a surprise Christmas present for me. It's next to a 15cm/6ins ruler for scale with my best ammonite fossil on the other side.

More about the long lasting trilobites here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trilobite and there's an evolutionary diagram here http://www.trilobites.info/triloclass2009.png.
Excellent stuff thanks!
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Old 31-12-2014, 21:49
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Last post of 2014 - it's been an excellent twelve months.

A very nice article but Dreadnaughtus was not the largest sauropod dinosaur - not by a long shot despite all the hype.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/examvir...14-304497.html

https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.c...s-2014-awards/

http://blog.hmns.org/2014/12/its-ali...eletons-dance/

Happy New Year everyone.
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Old 05-01-2015, 01:20
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A few recent articles well worth a look.

http://phenomena.nationalgeographic....heir-feathers/

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/brin...e-through-art/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/1...n_6400466.html
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Old 05-01-2015, 01:33
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If anyone hasn't seen it, there's a really good two-part documentary with David Attenborough called 'First Life' about the very early forms of life on Earth. I found it fascinating when I watched it a few days ago:

Part 1:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1k...val_shortfilms


Part 2:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1k...est_shortfilms

It's well worth a watch
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Old 05-01-2015, 06:55
Keyser_Soze1
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If anyone hasn't seen it, there's a really good two-part documentary with David Attenborough called 'First Life' about the very early forms of life on Earth. I found it fascinating when I watched it a few days ago:

Part 1:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1k...val_shortfilms


Part 2:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1k...est_shortfilms

It's well worth a watch
Yes it was excellent and the graphics were top notch.

Highly recommended and of course it has the great man involved as well.

I am glad that you enjoyed it
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Old 05-01-2015, 23:50
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Tool using Troodon teaching it's chicks.

Such behaviour is highly speculative of course but members of this genus had relatively huge brains for their time (on the way to the avian range), stereoscopic vision and also an opposable finger.

Anyway the image is a very interesting and beautiful one in my opinion.

http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/i/20...us-d3cl0pj.jpg
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Old 08-01-2015, 05:22
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Some more nice articles with the latest on the Utahraptor deathtrap being very exciting indeed.

The more we find out about this monstrous Dromaeosaur ('raptor') the better. It was surely one of the most lethal killing machines that this planet has ever produced.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...15-01-06-00:01

https://gemmabenevento.wordpress.com...-chosen-by-me/

https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.c...new-palaeoart/
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Old 09-01-2015, 12:08
fiagomez
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i love dinsoaurs!!

havent got anything intelligent to contribute at the moment....

but i do love dinsoaurs!!
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Old 09-01-2015, 12:17
planets
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i've come to complain, in the other thread i have learnt that dinosaurs both didn't exist and existed a million years ago. why have you kept the knowledge of their Schrodingian Parodox nature secret ? are you the lizard overlord Richard Rawkins?
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Old 09-01-2015, 12:28
Keyser_Soze1
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i've come to complain, in the other thread i have learnt that dinosaurs both didn't exist and existed a million years ago. why have you kept the knowledge of their Schrodingian Parodox nature secret ? are you the lizard overlord Richard Rawkins?




That is for others to seek in their eternal quest for the final truth.
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Old 09-01-2015, 12:39
planets
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That is for others to seek in their eternal quest for the final truth.
hrrrmph...well i hope at the very least you will be posting some examples of the million year old figurines the dinosaurs which didn't exist made.....don't try and hide the truth in your alien bases guarded by Robbie Williams....we truth seekers will never give up, never surrender....by grabthor's hammer etc....
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Old 09-01-2015, 20:21
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hrrrmph...well i hope at the very least you will be posting some examples of the million year old figurines the dinosaurs which didn't exist made.....don't try and hide the truth in your alien bases guarded by Robbie Williams....we truth seekers will never give up, never surrender....by grabthor's hammer etc....


Beautiful new reconstruction of Daspletosaurus torosus I have found.

A slightly earlier and very close relative of T.rex - but at a mature length of around 9 metres and around 2.5 - 4 tons relatively 'small' compared to the Tyrant King. Although if you saw it thundering towards you I highly doubt that anyone would ever be in the mood to compare it with anything.

The plumage is some of the most realistic I have ever seen on a theropod illustration.

http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs70/i/20...an-d8cvktr.png

Wiki is always pretty accurate on dinosaur profiles as most are maintained by professional palaeontologists.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daspletosaurus
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Old 09-01-2015, 21:16
Regis Magnae
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Some more nice articles with the latest on the Utahraptor deathtrap being very exciting indeed.
I did wonder if the velociraptor pack hunting seen in Jurassic Park had any scientific basis but never actually read into it.

A quick look via Google tells me that the pack hunting by allosaurus in Walking with Dinosaurs was similarly speculative.
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Old 09-01-2015, 21:35
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I did wonder if the velociraptor pack hunting seen in Jurassic Park had any scientific basis but never actually read into it.

A quick look via Google tells me that the pack hunting by allosaurus in Walking with Dinosaurs was similarly speculative.
I expect theropods like any other large predatory group ranged from totally solitary to highly gregarious animals.

Pack hunting is also very likely in the relatively large-brained Tyrannosaurids.

I posted this article somewhere on here last year.

http://phenomena.nationalgeographic....ant-dinosaurs/

A lot of Palaeontology is informed speculation - which is then backed by hard evidence later on as new discoveries are made.

You have to remember that film and WWD were made many years ago now.
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Old 09-01-2015, 21:54
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If anyone hasn't seen it, there's a really good two-part documentary with David Attenborough called 'First Life' about the very early forms of life on Earth. I found it fascinating when I watched it a few days ago:

Part 1:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1k...val_shortfilms


Part 2:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1k...est_shortfilms

It's well worth a watch
I didn't realise David Attenborough had made these. I'm watching it now (link is playing up so I'm using YT). You've probably seen his 'Lost worlds, vanished lives' series. But on the off chance you haven't, they're essential viewing.
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Old 09-01-2015, 22:02
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I didn't realise David Attenborough had made these. I'm watching it now (link is playing up so I'm using YT). You've probably seen his 'Lost worlds, vanished lives' series. But on the off chance you haven't, they're essential viewing.
Decades old and dated now - but very good for it's time.

Enjoy the series that you are watching - it's excellent.

And the world's first super-predator makes an appearance as an added bonus - the awesome 'Shrimp from Hell' - Anomalocaris.
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Old 12-01-2015, 11:23
fiagomez
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this looks cool....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotlan...lands-30741402
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Old 12-01-2015, 14:32
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Yes it is an interesting discovery thank you for posting that fiagomez.

Wiki is pretty good on Ichthyosaurs with plenty of links to the more interesting species.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichthyosaur

Here is a very nice size comparison of the various North American Dromaeosaur species (note that an adult Utahraptor was probably more heavily built than shown here - but the paper is not out yet).

http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/i/20...ra-d6q0can.jpg
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Old 14-01-2015, 03:24
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A few recent links that are worth a look.

An excellent and thought provoking article on the evolution of complex multicellular life and it's possible relationship to 'Snowball Earth'.

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150...h-make-animals

The evolution of the eye.

http://www.sciencealert.com/watch-he...lion-years-ago

A brief video on Tyrannosaurs rex skull musculature.

http://vimeo.com/18749218

More on the Scottish Ichthyosaur.

http://www.earthtouchnews.com/discov...onster-in-town

Finally a very interesting little piece on the primitive fish Janusiscus (there are many more articles on the web about this discovery - just type in the name).

http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2015-01-12-...-werent-shark#
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Old 15-01-2015, 02:40
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A very nice size comparison chart of various Tyrannosaurus rex specimens (click on it to enlarge the image).

The extrapolation from fragmentary remains of animals larger than Sue are of course speculative but it does seem like pretty good effort I think.

http://static2.wikia.nocookie.net/ar...pecimens_2.png
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Old 15-01-2015, 08:24
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Neanderthal tool find indicates that they were smarter than popularly thought:

http://www.nouvelles.umontreal.ca/ud...nderthals.html
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Old 18-01-2015, 04:19
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Just to keep things ticking over.

https://luisvrey.wordpress.com/2015/...ists-for-2015/

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141...first-predator

http://www.livescience.com/49485-rep...ntal-care.html
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Old 23-01-2015, 00:48
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On another forum I read an interesting little discussion that revealed that the plesiosaur expert Richard Forrest has replied to someone that in the collection of the British Museum is a gigantic pliosaur tooth that may have come from a specimen of around 20 metres in length.

Other fragmentary remains here and there have also suggested the existence of mega-pliosaurs

As a 13 metre pliosaur weighed around 20 tons we are talking about an animal that could have a body mass of over 70 putting it in the same league as the largest Megalodons and a contender for the largest macro-predator that has ever lived.

It would be very nice to know more about this enigmatic tooth and just how large it really is.

A rather nice 'cartoonish' giant pliosaurus that is a plesiosaur's worst nightmare.

http://th05.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/..._p-d7q8nw1.jpg
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Old 23-01-2015, 00:58
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There's an article in the Guardian about a potential new visitor centre in Dorset that will showcase sea creatures from the Jurassic:

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddes...museum-culture

More about the proposed idea can be read here:

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-dorset-28290760

I used to live near Charmouth and loved going to the beach looking for fossils (although where I am at the moment, in France, is very rich in ammonites. The geology is limestone and I've found quite a few while out walking, just sitting on top of the soil where a plough has broken open the matrix. They range from an inch or so across to fragments of ones that must've been well over 12 inches when alive).
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Old 23-01-2015, 01:12
Keyser_Soze1
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There's an article in the Guardian about a potential new visitor centre in Dorset that will showcase sea creatures from the Jurassic:

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddes...museum-culture

More about the proposed idea can be read here:

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-dorset-28290760

I used to live near Charmouth and loved going to the beach looking for fossils (although where I am at the moment, in France, is very rich in ammonites. The geology is limestone and I've found quite a few while out walking, just sitting on top of the soil where a plough has broken open the matrix. They range from an inch or so across to fragments of ones that must've been well over 12 inches when alive).
Very interesting thanks.

Just before I log off are a few links to keep this thread ticking over - Mark Witton is now one of my favourite illustrators as well as being one of the world's foremost pterosaur experts.

http://markwitton-com.blogspot.co.uk...en-before.html

http://news.yale.edu/2015/01/19/foss...es-lived-trees

http://www.theguardian.com/science/l...ition-skeleton

http://www.eventmagazine.co.uk/pictu...rticle/1329729
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