What's New

  • 15 Jul 2014

    End of an Era

    An asteroid impact unleashed a series of cataclysmic events, ending the reign of dinosaurs.

    Some 66 million years ago, an asteroid, estimated to have been 10 kilometres across, smashed into what is now a coastal area of Mexico. The impact generated an enormous shock wave and tidal waves reached far inland. Glowing debris from the impact was catapulted back into space only to be pulled back by the Earth’s gravity. The returning debris generated an intense heat pulse as it rained down which may have been strong enough to cause global fire storms.

    Read more

    Article
    Danny Murphy

  • At 9 metres long, a close relative of Tyrannosaurus and had simple, filament-like feathers that would have looked much like fur from a distance

    15 Jul 2014

    Birds Are Dinosaurs Too

    When evidence mounted that some dinosaurs had feathers and other features once thought to be unique to birds — birds were reclassified as dinosaurs.

    In the 1990s spectacular fossils of feathered dinosaurs were found in China. Fossils of extinct dinosaurs belonging to the group called maniraptors have features that are found in modern birds such as long forearms with modified wrist bones, wishbones and breastbones. Birds are now classified as maniraptoran dinosaurs. Some modern dinosaurs such as ostriches, have sharp claws on their fingers just like their ancestors.

    Read more

    Article
    Danny Murphy

  • 15 Jul 2014

    Amargasaurus

    

    Amargasaurus Image Peter Schouten

    Read more

    Article
    Danny Murphy

  • 15 Jul 2014

    Cretaceous Amphibians

    Giant frogs from Madagascar along with other large amphibians living in the Cretaceous may have eaten small dinosaurs. Predatory frogs

    Beelzebufo ampinga, nicknamed the ‘devil frog’, is known from fossils recently discovered in 72–66 million-year-old rocks from Madagascar. This frog is closely related to modern South American horned frogs (Ceratophrys) which are voracious and fearless ambush predators that feed on frogs, mice, lizards, snakes, birds and larger insects.

    Read more

    Article
    Danny Murphy

  • 15 Jul 2014

    Burrowing Dinosaurs

    In 2007, scientists found the first evidence of a burrowing dinosaur.

    They found the bones of an adult and two juveniles called Oryctodromeus cubicularis, a small ornithopod dinosaur. These bones were in the chamber of a filled burrow, preserved in 95-million-year-old rocks in Montana, USA. Several features of the adult skeleton are consistent with habitual burrowing.

    Read more

    Article
    Danny Murphy

  • 15 Jul 2014

    How Big Could They Grow

    The largest theropod dinosaurs are estimated to have a maximum body size of around 12–13 metres.

    Almost all fossil dinosaur skeletons are incomplete so their size is estimated by extrapolating from the bones that are found. Torvosaurus is arguably one of the largest Jurassic theropods. Its skull was estimated to be over 1.5 metres long based on a very large jaw bone found in 150-million-year-old rocks from Portugal. This skull is similar in size to the largest carcharodontosaur skull from the mid-Cretaceous and the largest tyrannosaur skull from the Late Cretaceous.

    Read more

    Article
    Danny Murphy

  • 15 Jul 2014

    Bite Marks

    Fossil bones of Cretaceous dinosaurs sometimes have bite marks inflicted by theropods which can tell us about how these predators fed.

    Most of these bite marks are the result of kills or scavenging. In rare cases, the attacked dinosaur survived long enough for new bone growth to occur. Bite marks are not only found on the bones of herbivorous species but also on theropod bones. For example, skulls of tyrannosaurs are often found with bite marks inflicted by other tyrannosaurs.

    Read more

    Article
    Danny Murphy

  • 15 Jul 2014

    Dinosaur Look-a-likes

    There is often confusion about what a dinosaur really is.

    The frequent mention in newspapers of plesiosaurs as ‘aquatic dinosaurs’ and pterosaurs as ‘flying dinosaurs’ highlights this confusion. Although they are both prehistoric reptiles they are only distantly related to dinosaurs. Some even say crocodiles are dinosaurs but these living reptiles are only distant relations as well.

    Read more

    Article
    Danny Murphy

  • 15 Jul 2014

    From Dinosaur to Fossil

    Bacteria are part of the fossilisation process, turning dinosaur bones into stone.

    Cretaceous dinosaur fossils are mainly found in areas that were flood plains during this time. Dinosaurs often drowned and were buried under the sand and mud (sediment) that spread over the flat landscape during flooding. Once buried, bacteria feeding on the decaying bones changed the chemistry in the surrounding sediment. This caused minerals in the ground water to form crystals within the bones, slowly turning them to stone.

    Read more

    Article
    Danny Murphy

  • 15 Jul 2014

    Stomach Stones

    Fossilised dinosaur skeletons have been found with stones (gastroliths) in their stomach region.

    Birds swallow sharp, rough stones that help grind up food in their muscular second stomach, called a gizzard. This ensures they extract as much nutrition from their food as possible. Crocodiles also swallow stones, as did extinct long-necked plesiosaurs, but the function of these stones is unclear. The stones may help with controlling buoyancy but the total weight of stones in these animals is very small relative to the whole weight of the animal.

    Read more

    Article
    Danny Murphy

  • 15 Jul 2014

    Cretaceous Insects

    The Cretaceous period was a significant time for the evolution of insects.

    Although many familiar insects such as beetles, flies and cockroaches already existed, the Cretaceous saw the appearance of several new groups that play important roles in the ecology of the world today.

    Read more

    Article
    Danny Murphy

  • 14 Jul 2014

    Late Bloomers

    Flowering plants, which are so familiar to us today, evolved in the Cretaceous — blooming relatively late in the history of life.

    The first fossil evidence of flowering plants, called angiosperms, is from the early Cretaceous about 130 million years ago. By the end of the Cretaceous flowering plants had diversified in an explosion of varieties. They ended the reign of the ancient conifers, cycads and ferns in dominating the landscape. This dramatic change in vegetation was one of the most significant moments in the history of life.

    Read more

    Article
    Danny Murphy

  • The 100,000th visitors to Dinosaur Discovery

    14 Jul 2014

    100,000 visitors to WA Museum’s Dinosaur Discovery exhibition

    More than 100,000 people have visited the Dinosaur Discovery: Lost Creatures of the Cretaceous exhibition at the Western Australian Museum, with the Wallbank family from Subiaco marking this milestone when they arrived at the Museum this morning.

    Dinosaur Discovery: Lost Creatures of the Cretaceous opened in Perth on April 11, 2014 with the dinosaurs inhabiting specially created Cretaceous era environments at the Museum.

    Read more

    News
    Jane Rosevear

  • 14 Jul 2014

    Eggs, Nest and Embryos

    Extinct non-avian dinosaurs laid eggs like modern birds (avian dinosaurs) do.

    Large dinosaurs like sauropods (long-necked dinosaurs), hadrosaurs (duck-billed dinosaurs) and therizinosaurs laid spherical eggs, whereas smaller theropods laid elongated ones.

    Read more

    Article
    Danny Murphy

X