Possibly Oldest Dino Uncovered

Paleontologists have discovered the bones of a 240 million years old dino, little larger than a domestic dog.   This discovery pushes back the appearance of dinosaurs at least 10 million years.  

This discovery at the very least could change researchers’ views of how dinosaurs evolved.

The fossils first came to light in the 1930s   and studied for decades by the paleontologist Alan Charig, 

until he died in 1997.  He named the animal Nyasasaurus,  but never published his conclusions as to the true genus of the animal.  Many of the other specimens from the same strata at the Tanzania’s Manda Beds, were very close relatives of the dinosaurs.  So close in fact that  the "sister taxon" is closest it can be to a dinosaur without actually being one.

Examining Nyasasaurus closer uncovered traits of both dinosaurs as well as the sister group.   A  team of paleontologists at the University of Washington, Seattle,lead by Sterling Nesbitt, carried out a systematic comparison of the bones.  They found that Nyasasaurus, bones contained a number of characteristics that belong to true dinosaurs.  

For more, check out the Wired com article  or the Science Now article here

Dino Fleas!

Listener Dan pointed me towards this AP article concerning a parasitic life-form that plagued land dwelling animals 125 to 165 million years ago as they continue to do today. Fleas, a bane today as they were millions of years ago. Though fleas today are a far cry from the monsters that plagued early dinosaurs. The ancient pests were gigantic by today's reference - being almost and inch across - with females twice as large as males!

Paleontologists from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology in China say that the prehistoric fleas had:

• disproportionately long proboscis, or straw-like mouth, had sharp weapon-like serrated edges that helped them bite and feed from their super-sized hosts

One thing these monsters didn't have was well developed legs, so they didn't have the fantastic jumping ability that modern fleas do today.  Crawling was the order of the day

- full Huffington Post article -

Jack Horner Wants a Pet Dino?!

Here is paleontologist Jack Horner giving a presentation at TED. Horner suggest that they are close to reverse engineering dinosaurs using chickens. Hummm yes it would seem that we do indeed have a Jurassic Park moment in the making!

As far fetched as it sounds, the TED presentation is very engaging. As you can see I have embedded the video below. And here is the link to the IO9 article that gave me the heads up.