Browsing the "Mesozoic" Category
The Mesozoic era, meaning “middle life”, is a division of earth’s history spanning from around 252 to 66 million years ago. It is subdivided into the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. The beginning of the Mesozoic is characterised by a long phase of recovery following the end Permian mass extinction. The end of the Mesozoic is marked by the Cretaceous/Paleogene extinction event which wiped out the dinosaurs among other groups.
Published on September 16th, 2016 | by David Marshall
We sat down in the Senckenberg Museum, Frankfurt, with Dr Jakob Vinther, University of Bristol, to examine the colour patterns of Psittacosaurus. This exquisite fossil has its skin preserved intact and so we’re able to make [&hellip... Read More →
Published on June 28th, 2016 | by Laura Soul
Mongolia is a vast country with fossils from almost every period in the history of life. Important specimens representing the origin of birds, the origin of mammals, many unique dinosaur species, and the first dinosaur eggs to [&hellip... Read More →
Published on June 3rd, 2016 | by David Marshall
“Saurian is a video game focused on providing the most captivating prehistoric experience ever developed for commercial gaming: living like a true dinosaur in a dynamic open world through intense, survival based gameplay. Players will have [&hellip... Read More →
Published on June 2nd, 2016 | by Caitlin Colleary
The Southeastern Association of Vertebrate Paleontology (SeAVP) conference took place on May 16 at the Virginia Museum of Natural History (VMNH) in Martinsville, VA. The conference included students and faculty from nearly a dozen institutions from [&hellip... Read More →
Published on May 29th, 2016 | by David Marshall
Around 250 million years ago, the largest biotic crisis the world has ever known occurred. The Permo-Triassic Mass Extinction (PTME) was an event that saw the loss of up to 95% of all species. The extinction [&hellip... Read More →
Published on April 21st, 2016 | by Liz Martin-Silverstone
The extinction of non-avian dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous has always been a discussion favourite amongst vertebrate palaeontologists. The traditional view has been that a meteor hit the earth near modern day Mexico (the [&hellip... Read More →
Published on March 16th, 2016 | by Caitlin Colleary
Dr. Larry Witmer’s lab at Ohio University studies the anatomy of modern animals to make interpretations regarding the functional morphology of extinct vertebrates. WitmerLab incorporates anatomical studies with cutting-edge technology, allowing for the reconstructions of soft-tissue [&hellip... Read More →
Published on March 15th, 2016 | by Liz Martin-Silverstone
Archosauriforms are some of the most well studied fossils in existence, including birds, crocodiles, dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and their ancestors, first originating in the early Triassic. While this group has always been well studied, our understanding of [&hellip... Read More →
Published on March 4th, 2016 | by Joe Keating
Diet is perhaps the most important aspect of ecology. As such, understanding the diet of extinct animals is crucial if we wish to reconstruct the ecosystems of the past. However, determining what was on the menu [&hellip... Read More →
Published on January 18th, 2016 | by Liz Martin-Silverstone
Juvenile dinosaurs are less common than adults, and typically not as well preserved due to the fact that their bones are often not fully formed (many of them are still cartilaginous) or fused (sutures are still [&hellip... Read More →